Lemon Meringue Pie Bars

The past two weekends, I have been at the lake--cooking, eating, playing spades, skiing, boating, and floating. The cabin was FULL, and the kitchen is SMALL. Needless to say, it wasn't the best set up to pictures of the five dishes I was simultaneously cooking for each meal. Had I remembered to take pictures, all you would have seen was a huge mess. This post, therefore, will be minimalist. I only have one picture of these bars, and it's of my plate after I had already taken a bite out of it. Hey, it's better than no post at all!

My mom and another of the house guests are huge lemon fans. Last weekend, my mom made her famous lemon bars, and of course, they didn't last until this weekend. After the second weekend at the lake, we were able to convince one of the guests--the lemon lover--to stay just one more night with us in town. We went to town (first unpacking and doing laundry) cooking. They started with chicken fettuccine alfredo (with a hint of pesto!), and we just had to bake something. My partner in crime wanted something lemon, clearly, and while we found a lemon meringue pie recipe, we didn't have the stamina left after skiing to stand over a double boiler.

After finding a box of graham crackers in the cabinet, we decided to use that for a crust that would be topped with the filling from Mom's lemon bars...followed by meringue. Voila! Everything we wanted in one.

Crust:
10 graham crackers/one sleeve, crushed (tip: toss them in a gallon bag and smash them with a rolling pin or wine bottle)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted (I know...just do an extra crunch or two before you go to bed)

Toss crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a greased  9" x 13" pan..

Filling:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened (1.5 packs)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 eggs
zest and juice from one lemon
pinch salt

Beat the cream cheese before adding any ingredients so that it is easier to work with. Add the powdered sugar in tow batches so it doesn't snow all over the kitchen. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon zest, juice, and salt. Place on top of the unbaked crust and bake for about 25 minutes or until the filling is set. Cool to room temperature. You may even put them in the refrigerator until the next day if you don't have time to make the meringue then.

Meringue:
5 egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar

Once the bars have cooled, start your meringue. Separate the eggs. Place the whites in a CLEAN, DRY, METAL, or GLASS bowl. NOTE: egg whites (and cream) do not whip in plastic bowls or bowls that haven't been thoroughly washed and dried. Beat the whites and cream of tarter on medium-high until they are frothy. Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time with the beater on high speed. They are finished once stiff peaks form.

Spread this over the completed bars. Broil it just until the meringue starts to brown. That's it! Cut and eat immediately. Store in the refrigerator.

Preacher Cookies

Obviously, something is taking up a lot of my time, and it's not cooking. It is wedding season. I have been to my fourth wedding so far this year, and last three were within the past week. As exhausted as I am, I am still on cloud nine from reuniting with friends over the past two weekends. I see friends one or two at a time fairly regularly, but nothing compares to having everyone in one place. These have also been excuses to get dressed up--a far cry from my uniform of athletic shorts and t-shirts--and ditch the messy bun. It's a tough, tough life, but someone has to go...eat great food...dance to the oldies...and spend a little time on the lake recuperating from all of the dancing, eating, and socializing. It's truly, truly agonizing.

It's so hard to believe that we have been out of college for two years. Whenever my friends and I get together, no matter how infrequently, we seem to have just as much fun as we did in college, so that's proof that we have all changed at the same rate...or we are still equally as immature as we were before we had real responsibilities. I certainly don't feel any older than I did when I graduated college, and I don't act any older, that's for sure, other than the fact that I now pay for insurance. (BOO). 

One of the girls I lived with second year got married the weekend before last. There wasn't a detail that went untouched--from the band, to the food, to the transportation, to the favors (family recipe snicker doodles of which I think I had three bags and pickles from the groom's side). No one was surprised that everything was perfectly planned, because she was the extremely responsible, organized roommate who always knew what was going on and kept us on track. When I saw the timeline for the weekend down to the minute, I remembered who was getting married and realized I should have expected that!

This girl is also the friend that would be there for you no matter the time or situation. She's so selfless that when I asked her what type of wedding dress she wanted, she said, "I've never thought about that. When I think about my wedding day, I was always looking out at everyone and everything...not down at myself and what I was wearing." I guess she finally 'looked down' and figured out what she wanted, because she looked absolutely beautiful.

A couple of months ago--see how good of a friend I am in return--she requested the recipe for these cookies and suggested I make them for the blog. I didn't have the time then to make them, but I did send her the recipe, so cut me a little slack. I made them when we lived together; everyone in that apartment--all six of us--loves peanut butter. Like many things I make, they are embarrassingly easy. Here I am, two months later, finally getting around to fulfilling her request.

I am sure you have had these before, but they are great to make when you don't have much time, when your oven is broken, when you don't have eggs, and/or when someone is gluten intolerant (just make sure your oats are certified gluten free). I'm not sure why they are called preacher cookies, but if I were a preacher's wife (I'm sure she's likely to do the baking for the shut-ins, the sick, the friendless, and the needy), I'd make these all of the time for the above reasons.

Pesto

Summer is here--well not according to the calendar, but according to the thermometer...

The community garden is alive and well...for now--I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on it for the summer, so it's only a matter of time before things go south. The basil crop is out of control; I cut a gallon bag of basil and didn't even make a dent. I left with about $15 of basil while it only cost $5 to buy into the garden. Now, that's an investment!

I lived in the sorority house during my third year, and the catering service would make a creamy pesto and pea pasta salad--pesto mixed with mayonnaise, whole wheat penne, and peas. Everyone went crazy over it. There were always girls crowded around the bowl of pasta, and in the rare event that there was anything left from lunch, it got devoured as a late-night snack circa 2:30 am.

Pesto is a simple, fresh way to add a ton of flavor to anything--use as a spread on a sandwich, toss with pasta, add to your pizza (mix with the regular pizza sauce or add to a white pizza), add to your spaghetti, spread on a crostini and top with parmesan, or brush on chicken before baking and wrap with bacon and top with crumbled feta. Toss it with tortellini, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and broccoli for a crowd-pleasing pasta salad. It will be the hit at any cookout you go to this summer, and you don't have to worry about a dairy-based pasta salad spoiling.

I tossed this batch with brown rice--I needed something gluten-free--and served it room temperature as a side--not too shabby. With the leftovers, I tossed in steamed peas and sliced grilled chicken.

If you are fortunate enough to have a ton of basil on your hands, make the pesto, and freeze it for times when you don't have such fresh ingredients on your hands. It will add nice, springy flair to a winter evening when only a comforting bowl of pasta will do. Such nights seem far, far away as we are hitting record temperatures all over the nation this week...

3 cups fresh basil leaves, washed and removed from stems
1/3 cup toasted pecans (or pine nuts (the traditional choice) or walnuts)
1/3 parmesan, shredded or grated (I left this out)
juice from one lemon (I had to cheat, because I didn't have a fresh lemon on hand)
olive oil, enough to bring it together
2 cloves of garlic (next time I will try roasted garlic for a more mellow flavor), sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients, reserving the oil, to a food processor and pulse. Add the oil through the spout of the food processor with the motor running. This will help everything some together and keep from separating.

Serve as you desire!

Grilled Romaine Salad

Hey, it's Memorial Day--the official beginning of summer, in my book at least. And what do you do in the summer? You grill? What do you do to ring in the first day of summer? You grill EVERYTHING. Even your salad.

I have eaten grilled romaine in restaurants, but I haven't been brave enough to try it at home and my grill has been out of propane since mid-August. Those two factors were working against me in my romaine-grilling endeavors.

This past weekend, my uncle brought, quite possibly, the largest head of romaine I have ever seen. He plucked it right out of his garden on his way to my house. He also came bearing red and green onions and cabbage. Did I mention I love summer and fresh produce?

After removing and cleaning the majority of the leaves, I was left with a better-than-store-bought romaine heart. I looked up to see if anyone had noticed how perfect it was. Right then, my aunt said, "You better hide that!" Immediately, it was whisked into a bag and put in the back of the produce drawer.

I knew I wanted to grill the heart to see if I could do it as well as the restaurants. Grilling the lettuce a very simple way to dress up a salad. It only takes a few minutes and has drastic results. If I had a delicious caesar dressing, I would have made a caesar salad, but I only had the homemade balsamic on hand at the time. You could a) chop the lettuce and toss it with dressing, b) drizzle dressing over the lettuce (as I did), or leave it in tact and lightly brush the dressing between the layers of lettuce.

The end result is a lettuce that is very tender--there is very little crunch factor--and flavored with a hint of grill...mmm. Who says lettuce tastes like nothing?!

head of romaine, halved
grill
dressing and toppings of your choice

Warm the grill to about medium heat. Once the grill is toasty, place the romaine halves on the grill. Flip after two minutes. Once the second side has finished cooking...you are finished. See, it's that easy!

If your lettuce turns black or catches fire, either the grill is too hot or you forgot to watch the time.

Fresh! Local! Broccoli!

My small town has an event every month once it gets warm called "Friday Night Jams" where vendors (anything from soap, to concessions, to food, to jewelry, to wine) gather and musicians perform. Last Friday night was the event for May. Mom and I walked downtown--stopping along the way for calamari, softshell crab, and crab cakes...oh, and a martini--to see the happenings.

My aunt, uncle, and cousin were there. It was great to see them, and my uncle had gotten into some of the local wine--POTENT. By the end of the night, he befriended the drummer and, I'm pretty sure, helped pack up the equipment all the while trying to convince the band to play just one more song. My cousin, had we not been outside, would have been hiding in the corner; he had to settle for pretending like he didn't know his father.

There wasn't much produce at the farmer's tables, because it's not quite time yet, but the produce that was in, looked great. The onions looked fake, and the broccoli was huge! I got the ginormous head of broccoli (pictured below) for $2. The farmer was precious. He tried to get me to buy one of everything (an then some) that he was selling, but the broccoli was calling my name. At the end of the evening, Mom and I walked home broccoli in tow.

Right now, my pantry, I'll admit, is pretty bare. I haven't been too inspired recently, but that will change once everything is in season--I promise. Anyway, I didn't have too much to work with, but I had a jar of sundried tomatoes in oil. Those are basically the two ingredients in this dish. Easy as that.