How to make candied lime and lemon peel.

First, cut into 8ths. Slice everything off, down to the green or yellow part of the fruit, as much as possible.


Next, slice the peel into thin strips.


Next, blanch the peel by dropping them in boiling water for 1 minute....


then drop in ice water to stop the cooking.


Let dry.


Next, boil 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and place peel in the simple syrup. Boil for about 12-15 minutes.


With a slotted spoon, place peel in sugar and toss to coat, making sure to separate the small slices so they don't stick together.


Ta-da! Ready to decorate.


The cute cupcake liners I got to use today for the wedding.


The giant cupcake and regular cupcakes ready to decorate.


Coconut.


Lime-coconut.


Lemon poppyseed.


I also got to use a green sugar-glitter for garnishing.




Finished giant cupcake!

As we have been getting settled into married life, I have been exploring the art of cooking. That may seem strange to everyone, seeing as I graduated with a degree in Culinary Arts, but what I learned didn't come close to teaching us about day-to-day cooking. It was more about cooking in a restaurant or catering for 200 people. I did learn tons of useful baking skills, but I have been trying to translate when I learned in school, to cooking at home for 2 people. I have been kind of sucessful.

We are going to look back and laugh at my shopping habits one day and remember in the first months how I ate ground beef everyday because I thought I would save time and money by purchasing the "value pack" and realizing how NOT practical that was. (In my house, cooked pasta would be gone in a day! I forget Tommy doesn't live here....therefore a package of cooked pasta is used for every meal for a week.)

Anyhow, I absoloutely love lasagna, especially white lasagna, so I looked up some recipes since I decided I actually needed to start cooking things, not just warming up food. I am providing 2 recipes that have worked so far. One is a combination of two that I found. Kind of lengthy, but worth it! The second is a far simpler version and lots of substitutions can be made with the sauce, type of meat, and veggies.

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White Chicken Lasagna

Gourmet/Barbara Daddario

12x8 Lasagna

 

1 pkg (12 noodles) Lasagna Noodles, cooked

1 # mozzarella cheese, grated

 

Sauce:

3/4 cup minced shallots (about 6)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

3 3/4 cups milk

1 cup rich chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

1. Cook shallots in butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 4 minutes.

2. Add flour and cook over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, 3 minutes.

3. Add nutmeg, then slowly whisk in milk and stock.

4. Bring to a boil, whisking, then simmer, stirring occasionally, just until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool to warm, stirring occasionally.

 

 

Chicken Filling:

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 pound white mushrooms, thinly sliced

3/4 pound fresh spinach, stemmed and coarsely chopped

5 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 pounds total), cut into ½ inch strips.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons dry white wine

 

1. Into a small bowl crumble oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme.
2. In a large skillet melt butter over moderate heat and cook chicken, garlic, and herb mixture, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken with a slotted spoon to the sauce. 3. Add wine to skillet and bring mixture to a boil, stirring. Add mushrooms and spinach and cook, covered, until spinach is wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until liquid given off by mushrooms is evaporated.
4. Transfer mushroom/spinach mixture to chicken and sauce and stir until well combined.

Assembly:

1. Spread sauce in the bottom of the 12x9 pan to cover. Place one layer of noodles over sauce. Spread half the sauce over noodles. Sprinkle with one third of the cheese. The layering should look like this: Sauce, noodles, ½ sauce, 1/3 cheese, noodles, ½ sauce, 1/3 cheese, noodles, 1/3 cheese.

 

2. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees covered with foil. Bake for 5 minutes uncovered.

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Mushroom and Chicken Lasagna

Yield: 1 8x8” lasagna

Barbara Daddario 7-10-09

 

6 Lasagna Noodles, cooked

 

2 cups Tomato Alfredo Sauce

 

2 TB butter

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 Shallot, minced

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

 

2 TB butter

2 Chicken breasts, cut into 1” pieces

Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

 

8 oz Mozzarella

 

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Saute shallots 1 minute.  Add mushrooms, cover and cook until mushrooms are tender. Add veggies and remove from heat.

2. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Cook chicken until no longer pink inside. Sprinkle seasonings.

3. Combine chicken, mushroom mixture, and sauce.

4. Spread sauce on bottom of glass 8x8 pan to cover. Layer 3 noodles (you will have to trim excess and save for last layer), ½ chicken mixture, 1/3 cheese. Repeat, then end with the last of the noodles and cheese.

5. Cover with foil and bake in a 350° oven for 40 minutes. Uncover for the last 5 minutes to melt cheese on top.

ps. Pray for Anthony. He has been sick with the flu since Tuesday. (That is why the entire season 2 of 24 has been watched.)

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This weekend I was busy making a wedding cake for a friend of a friend. It was a 14", 12", and 9" vegan chocolate cake with orange zest in the cake and orange extract in the ganache. The test cake was amazing!

In my new kitchen....searching for something....story of our lives right now. lol


Being well-documented. Thanks Anthony. You're welcome mom and dad.



I have no idea what I'm doing....haha....jk....but not really.



Almost there.



Woohoo! It looks good! I am always relieved when cakes turn out. :)



We got to go on our Target shopping spree yesterday. We spent $820 and only had to pay $8! We had so many gift cards! We are so blessed. :)