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MARTHA'S LEMON BARS VERSUS AUNT GAIL'S LEMON BARS

I love homemade lemon bars--who doesn't?  Traditionally in my family, we  have always used a tried and true recipe from my Aunt Gail.  Recently, Carol challenged this tradition by using Martha Stewart's lemon bar recipe.  She felt is was better.  After much debate about the attributes of each recipe, we decided to have a lemon bar throw down--Martha vs. Aunt Gail.  

 

Aunt Gail's lemon bar.  (my pan was a little large, so they should be a bit thicker)

Marthas.  

We had several  expert tasters on hand to try the end result.  (mostly a group of Jane's friends)

 The winner hands down is--Aunt Gail.  They were both good, but Martha's was a little rich for my taste, and much more complicated to make.  Even Carol agreed that Aunt Gail's crust was far superior.  

AUNT GAIL'S LEMON BARS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

CRUST

1 cup  all purpose flour

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup powered sugar

Add sugar to butter, then flour.  Mix well.  Press evenly into 8" square pan.  Bake 20 minutes.  

FILLING

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of lemon juice 

a little lemon zest

Beat all ingredients together, and pour into baked crust.  Return to oven and bake 20 minutes longer.  Do not over bake.  Let cool, then dust with powered sugar and cut into squares.

Sorry Martha!

 
 

 

FOUND

I loved seeing Drew Barrymore in this vintage Janine dress purchased in Austin for $25.  She looks incredible!

 

I happened to be browsing one of my favorite vintage sites this morning.  C Madeline.   Lo and behold, there was the very same dress worn by Drew Barrymore!  

 

It's a little more than $25, more like $475.00, but it is a great dress!!  Here is the link.
 
 

KITCHEN INSPIRATION

Carol found these great kitchen pictures on line over the weekend.  I'm never very good at finding images on line.  Still deciding about my own kitchen, but one thing for sure----definitely painting my cabinets white.  Right now they're kind of a yucky pine color.  Todd came by this morning, and thought we might be able to put glass fronts in them. That might be nice.  I'll take inspiration from these pictures for now.

 

 

I really love these double sinks--not a possibility in my home, but.....

 

 

I like the tile on the backsplash.

 

I love this.

 

These types of stoves intimidate me.

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  
  

All photos:  House Beautiful
 
 
 
 
 

SPAGHETTI WITH BROCCOLI, WALNUTS, AND RICOTTA

This is the third recipe I've tried from my new book, Market Vegetarian.  You can view it here.  We all really liked this one.  It called for regular spaghetti, but we substituted whole wheat spaghetti.  The fresh lemon zest was wonderful!

 

There was lots of fresh garlic.

 

The toasted walnuts were an excellent addition.

 

And lots of broccoli.  One of my favorite vegetables.  Recipe from Market Vegetarian.  

SPAGHETTI WITH BROCCOLI, WALNUTS, AND RICOTTA

2/3 cup walnut halves

1 head of broccoli (about 1 pound)

3 tablespoons of light olive oil

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley-chopped

finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

7 ounces of fresh ricotta cheese

14 ounces of spaghetti  (I used whole wheat, I thought it went well with this recipe)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the walnuts out on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes, shaking the sheet occasionally, until they start to brown.

To prepare the broccoli, trim off the gnarly part, about 1 inch from the stem end, and discard. Thinly slice the stem until you reach the point where it starts to branch into florets.  Slice off the individual florets.  Heat the oil in a skillet, add the stems, and cook for about 2-3 minutes, turning often, then add the florets and cook for about 5 minutes, until the broccoli has softened.  Add the garlic, parsley, lemon zest, and walnuts and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Reduce the heat to medium and stir through the ricotta and lemon juice.  Season to taste with the salt and pepper and leave in the skillet to keep warm.  

Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions.  Drain well and return it to the warm pan with the sauce.  Stir gently to combine and serve immediately.

 
 
 

 

MORE BEETLE INFO

Thanks to everyone!  The response to the beetles has been overwhelming.  I'm still sifting through all of the e-mail.   For ordering information, please go here.  We are expecting a new shipment of beetles in the next couple of weeks, but more than likely, it will be around 60 days before we ship the beetles.  If you wish to order, click "add to cart", but don't complete checkout.  This will place your beetle on order, and we will not invoice until ship date.  Thanks!!

 

Jane and I are featured in a really nice story on Above the Fray.  You can view the story here.  Thanks Kari!!
 

 

JANE'S ROOM

 

 

Click to enlarge photos

For those who didn't get to see Jane's room on Nowness, here are some pictures.  Sam from StyleSwoon helped me design Jane's room.  Jane was in Italy, and we had only one week for a total transformation.  Sam decided to mount the oriental screen that we didn't use downstairs on the wall as Jane's headboard for her bed.  The rest of the pieces were leftovers in the garage.  Sam did  graffiti on an old chair we had forever.  I chose the bedding, and found the lacquered orange side tables at Again and Again in Dallas.

As you can see, Jane's room is very tiny, so we made use of every square inch of space.  There is a fairly nice sized closet in the room, but we added more hanging space by making a makeshift closet along the wall.  Todd built the shoe shelf, which enables Jane to keep all of her shoes outside of her closet.  This makes it much easier to keep organized.  

Needless to say, she loved it!!  Thanks Sam!

Photos Douglas Friedman
 

 

ZUCCHINI FRITTERS

This past weekend, Carol made these delicious zucchini fritters.  They were so good.  These would make a perfect Sunday morning breakfast dish.  They were quick and easy to make.  

 

Recipe from Williams Sonoma, Essentials of French Cooking listed below.  

We topped them with plain greek yogurt.

 

Here is the recipe:

ZUCCHINI FRITTERS

4 zucchini (about 1 pound)

1/4 yellow onion

1/4 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 large egg

Extra-virgin olive oil for cooking

Trim the stems from the zucchini and coarsely  grate them.  Peel the onion and grate also.  Using your hands, gently squeeze the zucchini and onion to remove as much liquid as possible.

In a bowl, stir together the grated zucchini and onion, the flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the pepper.  Add the egg and mix well.

Line a plate with paper towels.  In a frying pan over medium high heat, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Working in batches, drop the zucchini mixture by heaping teaspoons into the oil, spacing them about 1 inch apart.  Using the back of a wooden spoon, press down gently on the fritters and fry, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes total.  Using a slotted spatula, transfer to the paper towels to drain.  Arrange the fritters on an ovenproof platter and keep warm in the oven while you fry the remaining fritters.  Repeat with the rest of the mixture.  It should yield 12 to 16 fritters.

  
 

 

AND WHAT ABOUT THE SOCKS THE WASHER DOESN'T EAT?

Every year I end up with one of these piles.  A mess of socks with no mates.  This is what Carol and I came up with this week when we went through the sock drawer.

I hate throwing away perfectly good socks.  A couple of years ago, I found this great book.  Stupid Sock Creatures.  You can order from Amazon here.  It's less than ten dollars, and full of great ideas and pictures.  Last year, the girls and I made these.  

 

 

 

 

They're very easy to make, and all the sewing can be done by hand.   

Thanks for all the beetle inquires, I'm busy getting all the info together for everyone.  I'm trying to make it as simple as possible, so thanks for your patience!!
 

 
 
 

 

TWO NEW BISCOTTI RECIPES

This week Carol and I tried two new biscotti recipes.  Orange almond biscotti, and cinnamon raisin.  They were both good, but the almond orange biscotti was the best recipe for biscotti that I have ever tried!

 

 

The cinnamon raisin was very good, and we chose this recipe so that we could try substituting whole grain flour for all purpose.  This particular recipe seemed like a good candidate, and it was.  It's full of almonds, and raisins, so it was almost more of a bread than a biscotti.  I would try it again definitely, but the orange almond recipe is perfection!

 

Cinnamon raisin dough.

 

Recipes below.

Cinnamon Raisin.

Orange Almond.
 
 
 
 

BEETLE PREVIEW

Karen just picked up our first batch of beetle necklaces from the foundry.  Here is a little sneak peek!  If you would like to order one, just e-mail me.  ([email protected])  I will give you shipping, sizing and pricing info, and supply pics of the various chains available for your beetle.  These are all solid bronze, and quite heavy.

 

This is the biggest beetle, he measures 3 inches long.

 

 

These are both medium size beetles.

 

This is the tiniest beetle, and he is not heavy.

 

I'm partial to this one, he has so much personality!  He is quite large.