Lemon Curd recipe

I had 72 eggs in my refrigerator the other day.  You'd think my father's chickens would slow down a little with the snow and freezing temps, but they're laying those eggs like gangbusters.  With 6 dozen eggs in my fridge, there was little room for anything else!  I quickly solicited the help of my Facebook friends.  Within a few minutes, I had all kinds of ideas that required many eggs such as: quiche, flan, chocolate mousse, cheesecake, Lyonnaise salad, fritatta, creme brulee, pavlova, souffle, okonomiyaki, pound cake, eggnog, crepes, tortilla Espanola, and a couple of suggestions for egging Justin Beiber.  Yes, to all of the above suggestions.  But one recurring suggestion stood out - lemon curd, lemon curd, lemon curd.  With anticipated snow and a probable day off of work, I had all the time in the world to make this easy recipe while canning enough to give away.  I found a few recipes that sounded good, tripled it, and added a couple extra egg yolks in the end because the curd was not thickening as much as I'd liked.  

Lemon Curd -  makes about 3 pints

20 egg yolks
3 cups sugar
about 8 lemons (Meyer lemons preferably) totalling about 1 1/2 cups of juice
3 sticks butter, cut into chunks
zest of all the lemons, finely chopped

In a heavy pot over medium heat, whisk yolks and sugar.  Add lemon juice and stir gently and constantly with a wooden spoon.  Do not boil.  Reduce heat to low to prevent curd from boiling.  Continue to heat and stir for about 15 minutes or until thickened and curd coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat.  Add chunks of butter and stir gently until melted.  Pour curd through sieve into large bowl.  Gently stir curd in sieve to work curd through and catch any solids.  Stir in zest.

Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.  Remove lid and let sit for another 5 minutes.  Remove from canner and do not disturb while cooling.  Lemon curd is shelf stable for only about 2-3 months after processing in a boiling water canner.

Amazing on some blueberry scones for breakfast!

These are gluten free and dairy free - made of an egg, almond meal, coconut flour, coconut milk, honey, and blueberries. 

With this easy recipe and all the other suggestions on my list, these chickens can go crazy with it!

Heritage Sally Lunn Recipe

I just love heritage cooking, which is why I was so excited to find this "very old" recipe in a cookbook I spotted at the little Sandy Spring Museum. Sandy Spring, Maryland was an early Quaker settlement.  Though it was a short and simple recipe, I did have to figure some things out first.

I rarely bake anything requiring yeast, so I had to figure out how to convert a yeast cake to the powdered yeast I found at the supermarket (thank goodness for the Internet - I found out 1/2 cake is just about 1 packet of yeast).  Then I had to figure out what Martin's Milk was.  I figure it was just regular milk, but wanted to be sure.  I found a lot of artifacts from MANY different dairy and milk companies with Martin as a family name (who knew?), so I concluded the recipe was calling for regular milk.  Then I had to figure out what a "moderate oven" was.  I would have defaulted to 350 degrees, which would have been a good move since apparently, many people have also used the search terms "what does bake in a moderate oven mean", again, hurrah for the Internet.

In the end, the bread was...decent.  Far from the best bread I've had but it came out of my moderate oven, and even mediocre bread is quite amazing hot and fresh-baked from home.

More pies and pineapple upside-down cake

It's a good thing pie season is coming to a close for us.  You'd think the 15 indicates the number of pounds put on this spring/summer, but it's the age of my oldest.  The age when I started dating her dad.  Ack!  This is her birthday pie.  Not so purty, but I can assure you this apple and mixed berry pie tasted good!

One thing this kid enjoys as much as eating baked goods - making baked goods.  This is the pineapple upside-down cake she made for her dad's birthday.  It was delicious!!!  I think we need a revival of the pineapple upside-down cake.  Is there a more decadent, moist, sweet, and attractive treat?  

Mulberry picking and the treats that followed

We were really sad because a few years ago, someone from the city came around with a gigantic commercial vertical lawnmower and destroyed our secret spot that was full of mulberry trees.  A little while back, I was running and happened to encounter a spot where hundreds of perfectly sweet and ripe mulberries had rained down.  I ran home and came back with the reinforcements.  The rest of the day went to making delicious treats...

First I made a mulberry apple pie.  That was gobbled up.  

Next, I made a streusel topping... 

Then I made a mulberry syrup...

Then I made a cooked custard ice cream and folded the streusel and syrup in.  Oh my freaking yum.  So good.  But so labor intensive.  That might have been a one time deal.  

I also made a mulberry cobbler for the next morning's breakfast.  

 Finally, I made myself a little concoction of mulberry syrup, sparkling water, Tanqueray, and lime. Twas a fine day.