Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes with Peach Jam

The combination of lemon and poppy seeds is such a classic. And somehow, it makes every recipe it touches just a little bit better.

Maybe it's the brightness of the lemon
Or maybe it's the crunch of the poppy seeds.
Either way, it's a combination made in heaven.

These pancakes capture everything that's great about lemon poppy seed muffins or cake -- and bring it all to the breakfast table. They're tender and light, and if you use a bit of butter to cook them, you'll get those amazing ever-so-slightly crisp edges.

Most recipes for lemon poppy seed pancakes call for buttermilk. But you shouldn't worry if you don't have any on hand -- since you're using lemon juice in the recipe, you can just use regular milk for the pancakes, and everything will come out just fine (after all, you can make buttermilk substitute by mixing a bit of lemon juice with milk...).

And, while these pancakes are great with maple syrup, they really shine when matched with peach jam -- something I found out this morning when we whipped up a batch for breakfast.

Back in July, I found myself the happy recipient of two cases of Georgia peaches. I put some away in
the freezer for smoothies. But, I also managed to preserve about half of them -- in the form of peach mostarda and rosemary peach jam.

The rosemary peach jam was a stellar match for these pancakes, which are redolent with lemon flavor and crunchy poppyseeds.

Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes

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Preserved Lemons and Six Great Ways to Use Them

Do you love preserved lemons like we do?

I can't quite pinpoint when our love affair with these deliciously sour and briney lemons came to be. But, I can tell you that it probably began with my love for the Meyer Lemon -- that sweet, tart, floral fruit that seems to come along right around the perfect time in winter when I need a pick-me-up.

Every year, I look forward to seeing the first batch of lemons in the store. And I always buy a bunch of them, knowing that they'll perk me up.

This past February, I ordered 10 pounds of fresh Meyer lemons from the awesome women over at The Lemon Ladies Orchard in Emerald Hills, California.  And it was the best decision I've ever made.

I made Meyer lemon jam, limoncello, lemon sugar, these amazing lemon glazed doughnuts... and a big fat batch of preserved lemons.

Preserved lemons aren't the sort of thing you can just pick up anywhere. Fortunately, they are easy to make. And, although they require a bit of patience (ideally, they take at least a month to cure), they last almost forever in the refrigerator, so they're well worth the effort.

I'm just getting down to the last of my batch from February -- which I've been using on any number of things -- and I think I'm going to have to double the amount I make next year because I keep thinking of new dishes that could use a bit of their charm.

The most traditional way to use preserved lemons is in a tagine. And if you need great recipes, Paula Wolfert is the person to look to.

But, they're also great on a slew of other things. Here are some of my favorite ways to use them.

1. Simple weeknight pasta -- all you need is some good olive oil, garlic, and slices of preserved lemons to make a gorgeous pasta dish. 
2. Add them to salsa -- Whether it's summer peach salsa, mango salsa or regular old tomato salsa, it's sure to benefit from a bit of finely diced preserved lemon.
3. Use them in salad dressing -- seriously. They are an awesome addition to a simple vinaigrette (even a bit of the juice will give any dressing a lift). But, they also make an amazing addition to Caesar dressing. Add a few capers to really brine things up.
4. Preserved lemon aioli -- Whir them into a bit of mayo for an amazing dipping sauce or sandwich spread.
5. Roasted chicken -- Mix some of the juice left from preserved lemons with garlic and your choice of herbs. Rub the mixture on the inside and outside of your chicken before roasting.  For an added boost of flavor, add a few lemons to the chicken cavity.
6. Compound butter -- Add lemon to softened butter, roll into a log, and refrigerate or freeze. Use for corn on the cob, green beans, or just about any summer vegetable.

And I'll share another of my favorite recipes with you in the next few days.  In the meantime, maybe you want to get a batch of your own preserved lemons going.

Preserved Lemons

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Weekend Love: Lemon Glazed Doughnuts

We all have memories of doughnuts – whether fresh from the bakery on a Sunday morning, or served right out of a box from the local Dunkin’ Donuts. 

But, the luckiest among us have tasted homemade doughnuts – those bundles of love with a crispier exterior, a fluffier interior and a warmth that assures you that everything is right with the world.

We know you've been making excuses for not making doughnuts yourself (we were right there with you until a few weeks ago, when we decided to take the plunge).

But, we're here to tell you that you shouldn't wait another moment.

Classic yeasted raised doughnuts aren't difficult at all to make. In fact, the most difficult aspect is probably waiting for them to rise.

And whether you have a deep fat fryer -- or just a deep pan with a good candy thermometer -- even the frying process easy as pie (or maybe easier).

These simple yeast doughnuts are enriched with the goodness of real butter – both in the dough and in the delightfully tart lemon glaze.

We were lucky enough to have a few Meyer lemons on hand for this recipe, so the glaze was sweet, tart and pleasantly floral.

Lemon Glazed Doughnuts

But, don't stop with doughnuts!  There are more great recipes where this one came from! We created this dish as part of our work with the Go Bold with Butter blog, where you'll find an amazing collection of delicious recipes using real butter.

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Gooey Lemon Butter Cake

 I actually have more of a salt-tooth than a sweet tooth, so it’s a rare occasion when you can entice me to get overly excited about a sweet treat.

But, I'll give it ALL up when it comes to butter cake.

Peef and I tasted our first St. Louis style butter cake at the Flying Monkey Patisserie in the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.  The crisp sugary top, rich cream cheese and butter filling, and chewy cakey bottom won us over, and we knew we needed to recreate it at home.

So, I went on a hunt for recipes.

Guess what I found?  Lots and lots of recipes using boxed cake mix and other short-cut ingredients.  So, I decided to take on the recipe myself.

Turns out that keys to a great butter cake include room temperature ingredients, an electric mixer, and ... you guessed it... real butter.

Although there are many varieties of butter cake, including vanilla and chocolate, I decided to take advantage  of the seasonality of lemons for this version. I'm a big fan of lemony desserts. And  I feel like the natural tartness of the lemon really helps to balance out the sweetness of this otherwise sinful and addictive dessert.

Gooey Lemon Butter Cake
This recipe is also featured over at Go Bold with Butter

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Roasted Chicken with Dill-Garlic Butter

  We stand in awe of dill.

 What other herb inspires home cooks to stand in excruciatingly hot kitchens on 100 degree days just so they can look forward to biting into crisp, delicious pickles eight weeks later?

On the other hand, we lament that this delicious fernlike herb is highly under-utilized in most kitchens.
Sure, dill is great for making pickles. But, it’s also indispensable for pairing with cheeses, adding to breads, enhancing the flavor of vegetables, and complementing the briney notes in feta cheese or seafood.

 In this case, it really shines when matched with butter, garlic, and lemon to create an amazing roasted chicken.

It takes just a few basic techniques to produce a beautiful dill-scented bird with crisp, salty skin, moist breast meat, and dense, meaty dark meat. First, rubbing the exterior of the bird with seasoned butter assists in ensuring a beautiful brown crisp skin.

Slipping some of the butter under the skin of the breast helps to keep it moist and adds flavor to the otherwise mild meat. And finally, adding lemon quarters and extra dill to the cavity seasons the pan juices as they flow from the bird into the roasting pan.

This chicken is scrumptious served alongside fresh green beans and mashed potatoes for a weeknight dinner. But, leftovers make phenomenal chicken salad, so consider roasting two birds while you're at it... just to be on the safe side :)

Roasted chicken with Dill-Garlic Butter

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Grilled Eggplant with Buttery Herbed Breadcrumbs

  Ah! Summer bounty. There’s no thrill quite like visiting the farmer’s market at the peak of the season and filling up our bags and baskets with the best that summer has to offer.

Lately, we've been enjoying the bounty of summer greens, corn, green beans, tomatoes, and eggplant. Our refrigerator is always stocked with something fresh and delicious. And that's a pretty awesome feeling.

But sometimes -- even with all that great produce staring us in the face -- we find ourselves at a loss for what to do with them. Fortunately, there are a few techniques that bring new life to even the most ordinary produce. And they won’t require you to spend any extra time in the kitchen.

In a very similar fashion to roasting, grilling summer vegetables caramelizes their sugars and, if you use a charcoal grill, gives them a hint of fantastically smoky flavor. The best part is, it won’t heat up your kitchen on even the hottest of summer days.

Using melted butter instead of oil when grilling helps the vegetables to caramelize deeply, and imparts a wealth of deep rich flavor. Adding a topping of delicious herbed bread crumbs with a touch of lemon perks everything up at the very end and is sure to win over even your most avid vegetable haters. Best of all, even tentative anchovy eaters (like Peef), appreciate the umami that a bit of mashed anchovy adds to the mix.

These grilled eggplant slices are delicious served as part of an antipasti platter or as a delicious summer salad with a bit of sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Of course, eggplant is only the tip of the iceberg. Try sprinkling these buttery herb-infused crumbs over a variety of summer vegetables like summer squash, green beans, and even kale or other late summer greens.

Grilled Eggplant with Buttery Herbed Breadcrumbs

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Buttery Lemon Thyme Biscuits

Is there anything more delicious than a homemade biscuit?

 Not according to Paul, whose eyes glaze over whenever I announce that we’ll be having a weekend breakfast of biscuits and gravy. And who blames him? After all, biscuits have been a staple at the family table for centuries – and for very good reason.

Been working on a lot of biscuits in the kitchen lately to develop the perfect recipe for the Go Bold With Butter blog we've been writing for.  

In the process, we developed a simple, modified technique that won’t require you to roll out the dough or haul out your biscuit cutters. They’re chock-full of flavor, thanks to the addition of lemon zest and a bit of fresh thyme.

And they’re just about foolproof -- buttermilk, along with real butter, in the dough creates a tender flaky biscuit that won’t disappoint.

These lemon and thyme-infused treats are delicious with a bit of lemon marmalade, as shown int he picture.  But, they also make a great dinner biscuit... I'm envisioning these being perfect next to a delicious slice of roasted chicken with garlicky green beans on the side.

Plus, they freeze well, so don’t be afraid to make the entire batch even if you can’t eat them all in one sitting!

Just writing about these makes me wish it was the weekend again... such a great breakfast.

Lemon Thyme Biscuits

If you thing these look good, check out the Buttery Basil Biscuits we developed for the Butter Blog using yogurt instead of buttermilk!

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Mother's Day: Schaum Torte with Lemon Curd

 Unless you’re from Wisconsin, you may never have heard of schaum torte (foam cake), a favorite among German immigrant families.  You may have heard of this dessert called simply "a meringue," “Pavlova” or even a "Bizet."  Essentially all of the desserts are one in the same -- meringue, filled with sweetened whipped cream, and topped with fruit.  Like pavlova, there are two schools of thought when it comes to schaum torte -- one side insists that the meringue be crisp on the outside, but squoodgy (marshmallowy) in the center; the other camp insists that a good schaum torte is dried and crisp throughout.  

My family staunchly swears by the first approach. In fact, I actually grew up utterly convinced that the women at church who made the crisp version were simply bad cooks who had made the mistake of baking their schaum tortes too long!


My grandmother made schaum torte for at least one holiday every year while I was growing up.  Hers was always baked in a springform pan, flavored with both vanilla and almond extract, and topped with sliced strawberries (often those she picked and froze from her own garden). And it was always topped with freshly whipped cream.

One of the things about schaum torte is that it uses a boatload of eggwhites, so you end up with quite a few egg yolks that need to be used up.  While you could always freeze them for later use, I find that whipping them up into a deliciously tart lemon curd to serve with the schaum torte is a seriously smart move.  The tartness of the lemon really compliments the sugary sweetness of the torte.  And it goes perfectly with those deliciously fruity spring strawberries.

This will be our first Mother's Day without Grandma, as she passed away this fall. But, her memory will live on in that deliciously sweet squoodgy torte that will inevitably work its way into the Mother's Day menu. 

So, this recipe is a nod to Grandma, and a celebration of all that is good about spring.

Serve each scoop of schaum torte with a spoonful of fresh spring strawberries, a dollop of lemon curd, and plenty of fresh whipped cream. Serve it plain -- or fancy it up by serving in a martini glass.  Either way, Mom will love you for it. 

Schaum Torte with Lemon Curd

You can find this recipe, along with plenty of other mouthwatering dishes, on GoBoldWithButter.com  Seriously -- you should check it out.  So. Much. Good. Food. 

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Lemony Crepes: Perking Up A Winter Weekend

 After indulging in Peef's rich & savory cassoulet this week, I've apparently gotten caught up in all things French. My mind is now drawn to pondering rich creamy cheeses, delightfully earthy wines, and creamy sauces.  Since French cooking is delightfully tied to the changing seasons, it seems all the more appropriate that I've been dedicating my time to dreaming en Francais.

That said, I'm also fully conscious that, as the Milwaukee winter turns snowier and more blustery, my mind also has a tendency to wander to thoughts of more tropical climes where inhabitants sip limey drinks in the warm sun. The increasing presence of citrus fruits (including one of my very favorites -- the satsuma tangerine -- a fruit whose candy sweet flesh is surrounded by an inexplicably easy-to-peel skin that makes it easy to consume multiples in one sitting) has me craving bright, sunny dishes

Fortunately for me, I've just returned to the grind from a delightfully long weekend during which we had a little bit of time to poke around the kitchen and create some delicious new dishes.  One of the highlights was a plate of deliciously tender lemon crepes strewn with beautiful seasonal pomegranate seeds, a perfectly welcome brunch dish that would also double as a light evening dessert.

To make my favorite lemony crepes, spread the pale side of a warm homemade crepe with a bit of butter, sprinkle with sugar, and embellish with a generous squeeze of lemon before rolling up into a loose cigar shape.  Top with powdered sugar or a generous sprinkling of pomegranate seeds or other fresh fruit.

Now crepes may sound fancy and complicated to the uninitiated.  But, for anyone who knows a few basic secrets, these deliciously light pancakes are one of the easiest (and most versatile) French dishes to master. They were one of the first dishes I learned how to make in my high school home economics class, and I've made the recipe so many times I quite nearly have it memorized.

Secret #1:  There really are no secrets.  Most information about successfully making crepes can be found right on the miraculous Internet... so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Secret #2:  The crepe batter is actually best made ahead. After mixing, the batter needs a rest so that it can relax and absorb the flour, ensuring that the finished product is supple and tender.  Rather than being a nuisance, this is actually an advantage to the home cook with less than scads of time.  Be sure to make the batter at least 1/2 hour ahead of time... but you can also make it the night before and allow it to rest in the refrigerator until you're ready for it in the morning.  Your crepes will thank you by being deliciously tender & easy to deal with.

Secret #3:  You don't need a special crepe pan to make crepes. And don't let the so-called experts try to fool you. Any old 8-10 inch non-stick skillet will do.  I used any number of pans for my crepes before I finally broke down, in a moment of uncharacteristic weakness, and procured a 10-inch non-stick crepe pan from Amazon.com.

Secret #4:  You'll probably mess up a couple of the crepes when you make a batch. So what? I've made lots of crepes, and I still mess up at least one per batch. Sprinkle some sugar on it and enjoy it as a snack. It will taste just as good as the rest, even if it's not quite as gorgeous.

Secret #5:  Crepes are the perfect playing field for getting creative with more interesting flours.  Try substituting half of the wheat flour with buckwheat, quinoa or corn flour.  If you're gluten-free, crepes can also be made with a wheat-free blend, such as Bob's Red Mill.

I tend to make an entire batch of crepes at once, stacking them on a warm plate.  The residual heat from the crepes will keep them warm enough while you're working that you shouldn't have to reheat them before filling and serving.

Once you've got your crepes made, it's up to you to let your imagination run wild.  Crepes are delicious with as little as a sprinkling of cheese or a drizzle of honey. But, they can be fancied up with any number of either sweet or savory fillings.  

Of course, I'd recommend a smattering of sugar and a drizzle of lemon juice... it's a sure cure for just about any winter funk.

Basic Crepes


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Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Sunday Sammiches: Roasted Asparagus & Onion Panini

Spring has sprung. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself now that U.S. asparagus has shown up in the market.

Asparagus is one of the seasonal crops that we eat with gusto for a short time, and then relinquish at the end of the season -- so "asparagussed-out" that we are happy to have a long reprieve. Like the tomatoes of August, we crave them for months, eat them with abandon, and walk away from them when June hits.

At this time of the year, I really ought to start the countdown for fresh WI asparagus. After all, local produce offers so many benefits... but, I can't help myself. It's hard to resist when my winter palate starts to salivate over their crisp, green stalks. So, I have a tendency to break down and buy a few rounds of California spears.

I thought the first asparagus spears of the season deserved a special treatment, so Peef and I put our heads together. A sammich was probably the last thing on our minds, but then it occurred to us that a ham & swiss with asparagus might be seriously good. And why not make the sammich less about the ham and more about the asparagus while we were at it?? Peef agreed that the concept sounded good, so we got to work.

We happened to have a couple of light, fluffy Telera rolls on hand, along with some local gruyere, which I thought would make a nice match for the asparagus.
We chopped the asparagus into 2-3 inch pieces, and tossed it with some thinly sliced onion.And I made a lemon vinaigrette of sorts with a bit of lemon juice, some zest, a bit of olive oil, and some melted butter.
We tossed the vinaigrette with the asparagus & onions...
... and then threw everything into a hot oven to roast for 15-20 minutes.
Then we set to work on the sammiches -- first placing a few thin slices of gruyere on each bun...
Then, adding the ham...
We spread the top of the bun with a bit of basil pesto, and added a slice of regular Swiss cheese (for a bit of creaminess).
At this point, we closed the sammich up and threw her on the panini grill for a few minutes until the cheese got all nice and gooey.
We opened her back up again (you'll note the cheesy goodness all intermingling with the pesto and ham. yeeeum.)
And we loaded on the asparagus and onions.
This was going to be one happy little sammich.
Turned out to be kinda purty too, with a majority of the asparagus spears lining up for their photo op.
Seriously, these were some great sammiches. The Telera buns were the perfect texture -- soft in the middle, but crisp on the outside, and not too heavy so that they overwhelmed the asparagus. The cheese was creamy and flavorful. The asparagus was fresh and tender (NOT stringy) -- and the onions were ultra sweet from being roasted. The lemon gave everything a burst of freshness, while the basil pesto brought forward a great herbal note. Surprisingly, although the ham was a nice touch, I'd venture a guess that these would be just as amazing as a vegetarian sammich.

Like "spring in a bun."
Try 'em for yourself!!

Roasted Asparagus & Onion Panini (with or without ham)



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