pink grapefruit marmalade ice cream

The second recipe that I created for #bakingwithmackays isn't technically "baking", but who could say no to ice cream? Definitely not me!

One of the jars that Mackays sent to me was their Pink Grapefruit Marmalade. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE pink grapefruit. So, when I had the idea to make ice cream with one of the Mackays products, I immediately reached for the pink grapefruit.

The final product was really creamy (Paul couldn't believe I had made it from scratch) and it had a nice, light vanilla-grapefruit flavour, with spikes of grapefruit "bite" from the peels that were in the marmalade. This is a perfect ice cream for the summer, but if you're like me...really, ice cream is a year-round treat

birthday cupcakes: lemon curd cupcakes

My mother-in-law chose "lemon pudding" as her birthday cupcake flavour, which really put my mind into a tailspin. Lemon pudding? In a cupcake? How the heck was I supposed to achieve that?

And then, inspiration just dropped into my lap. Actually, it was delivered to my front door in the form of Mackays. You see, the lovely folks from Mackays over in Scotland have put out a #bakingwithmackays challenge to food bloggers and I was lucky enough to be sent a package of their goodies to experiment with. One of the lovely jars I received was their Lemon Curd.

So, confession time - I've never had lemon curd before. I may have had it in a dessert at some point, but if so, I don't remember. So I wasn't sure what it would taste like when I opened up the jar, but I was hoping it would be a suitable lemon flavour to base a cupcake around. Oh. My. God. This stuff is AWESOME! I ate about 3 huge spoonfuls before I had to remind myself that I needed some to bake with. But seriously, where has lemon curd been all my life?

Obviously, you can substitute any lemon curd into this cupcake (or even a different flavoured curd), but for me, it's pretty much always going to be Mackays Lemon Curd (unless of course, it's their Lime Curd...oooohhhh).

pan-fried mahi-mahi with honey grapefruit dressing

Ever since our honeymoon in Hawaii many years ago, Paul and I have always been partial to mahi-mahi. Also known as dorado or dolphin fish (relax people, it's not related to dolphins in any way), mahi-mahi is a very "meaty" fish. By meaty, I mean that the texture is much more substantial and "sturdy" (but not tougher) compared to other fish, which are often lighter and flakier. Because of the heavier texture, mahi-mahi is great on the grill or pan-fried and I love cooking with it because it never falls apart on me when I'm moving it around.

The other day, Paul wanted something light for dinner, so I pulled out some mahi-mahi fillets and when I noticed we had some pink grapefruit in the fridge, I pulled those out too.

This meal takes no time to make and is a perfect, light dinner for hot summer evenings!

cookie calendar - day 24: lemon shortbread bars

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well, here we are - the very last day of the Cookie Advent Calendar! This has been an amazing and fun project and I can't believe that I actually managed to pull it off! I want to thank all my wonderful Cookie Recipe contributors who took the time to share a recipe with me - I couldn't have done this without your help and support. You are all too kind and generous!

To wrap up the Cookie Advent Calendar, I'm re-posting the recipe for my lemon shortbread bars. The reason for this is because lemon shortbread bars have a special place in my heart around Christmastime.

You see, every year since I was a young child, my parents' neighbour, Betsy, would bake a stunning variety of cookies and gift us with a cookie tray. Her assortment of treats ranged from shortbreads to pecan balls to fruitcake bites and we each had our favourites. Everything she baked was delicious, but my absolute favourite were her small lemon squares. I love Betsy's lemon squares.

For the past several years, I've been trying to replicate her lemon squares and this year, I've finally managed to do it! I love these lemon shortbread bars and am so happy to finally have a recipe of my own that I love as much as Betsy's.

Needless to say, all of us were waiting with baited breath today for the annual delivery of Betsy's cookie tray and she didn't disappoint! I managed to take a photo of the tray before everyone dived in. :)

cookie calendar - day 13: cranberry lime shortbread cookies

Besides being one of the sweetest people I have had the pleasure to meet on Twitter, Linda has a beautiful blog that just inspires me to become a better cook and to enjoy life more!

Her recipe combines some of the freshest flavours into one yummy cookie - I can't wait to make these and share them over the holidays!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hi everyone! My name is Linda and I am always hooked when visiting a foodie site. Being a foodie myself, I always drool each time I read other foodie stories from food bloggers, and those stories have motivated me to share my own. To that end, The urban Mrs was created.

The Urban Mrs is about cooking simple, healthy, and daringly delicious dishes. A fusion of different cuisines, dishes inspired by my favorite restaurants, or just whatever is in the fridge. So, please do stop by and feel free to comment.

cookie calendar - day 8: lime meltaway cookies

I chose to try this cookie recipe because of one word: "lime". Paul loves lime-flavoured treats so I figured this would be a good cookie to master.

This cookie is really simple to make and you don't have to worry about it spreading out when baking as it pretty much keeps its shape and size from start to end.

These cookies fall into the "crumbly and sandy" section of the Martha Stewart Cookie cookbook that I got them from and they definitely live up to their name! The first time I ate one, I thought that it was too dry, although Paul and my mom both assured me it wasn't. I kept them in an air-tight container and discovered that a day later, the cookie had firmed up a bit and had a less dry texture (but still dryer than most cookies). It would be great with a hot mug of coffee or tea.

The best part though is that they are full of great lime flavour! You can substitute other citrus fruits for the lime if you prefer, which I want to try one soon. I think it would be great to have a plateful of different flavours (lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit meltaways, anyone?)

cookie calendar - day 4: lemon meringue pie cookies

The power of Twitter to connect like-minded people still amazes me sometimes. Here's a great example.

Sometime in mid-November, the lovely Yvonne (aka @th3hungrycat - who I had first met on Twitter, and then met in real life) suggested I contact @noshameshow to see if she would submit a recipe to my Cookie Advent Calendar since she had just competed in the Chef's Challenge Cookie Challenge.

I was a little nervous - I don't have a problem approaching people who I've already had some contact with, but to approach someone who I wasn't following on Twitter and then ask them for a recipe, especially one that they had just entered into a big competition? Yeah - nerves.

But @noshameshow (aka Lauren) was so nice that within minutes of me following her on Twitter and sending her a tweet she sent me a reply via Twitter and emailed me her amazing cookie recipe. I loved her format so much, I'm posting it as is instead of the normal recipe format. (If you want something to print out, I've typed it out as well). Plus, her cat wouldn't move, which makes me love it even more.

Lauren's Lemon Meringue Pie Cookies were a big hit at the Cookie Challenge (you can read a recap on Th3 Hungry Cat's blog - Lauren came in second!) so I'm very excited to be able to include them in my Cookie Advent Calendar.

Enjoy!

You can connect with Lauren by visiting on Twitter via @noshameshow.

lemon shortbread bars

I love lemons. I love their scent, their taste and their bright, sunny yellow colour, so it's definitely one of my favourite ingredients to cook with. It's even better if a recipe calls for zesting lemons - then the entire kitchen smells heavenly!

I've never made lemon bars before and I've also never made shortbread before (although Paul makes amazing shortbread cookies), so this recipe was definitely something new for me on all levels. It was a fairly simple recipe to follow (I've tweaked it a bit based on my experience with it) but it does take a while to finish the bars and there's a lot of waiting involved, so make sure you have an afternoon set aside to make these.

Now, my own personal test for any recipe is alwaysPaul's reaction. He's brutally honest when it comes to tasting my cooking/baking, and I can usually tell within 10 seconds if a recipe is a success or not. So, when he tried these lemon bars for the first time and didn't say anything at first, I feared the worst. I anxiously asked him how they were and he said (and I quote), "You can't serve these to people. If they taste them, they'll keep asking for more." Haha - they're a hit!

A couple of things to keep in mind, especially if you're baking these ahead of time for the holiday season:

• dust them with icing sugar ONLY if you plan on serving them soon afterwards. If you plan on storing these covered, the icing sugar melts into the lemon topping (it leaves a shiny glaze, which isn't terrible, but just not as pretty as the sugar dusting)
• if you eat the bars on the same day that they're made, the shortbread is almost flaky and crispy; if you store them covered overnight, they lose their flakiness and take on a more buttery and cookie feel (both ways are delicious and highly recommended!)

These bars keep in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 days after baking - although I'm not sure if they'd last that long anyway if you live in a house full of lemon-lovers!

treat petite: blueberry muffins

UPDATED: For my first "Treat Petite" challenge from Stuart (aka Cakeyboi) and Kat (aka The Baking Explorer) , I'm using one of my favourite past recipes - blueberry muffins. The theme for Treat Petite No. 1 is 'No Theme', so anything goes!  :)

I had a couple of extra days off from work last weekend so I was planning on whipping up a double-batch of banana crumb muffins (after I made them for the first time, there were a lot of complaints from family members who saw the photos and didn't get to try any so I was trying to bake enough for everyone).

While I was getting everything prepped, I noticed a HUGE bucket of fresh blueberries on the kitchen table. Apparently, my mom's friend had spent the weekend "picking-your-own" blueberries and ended up with too much, so gave us some. They were incredibly small (and juicy) and I immediately jumped on the internet to find a simple blueberry muffin recipe.

I ended up baking two batches of banana crumb muffins and one batch of these delicious blueberry muffins. The original recipe (on allrecipes.com) included a crumb topping, but I just used the same crumb topping that I use for the banana muffins.

Note: Crumb topping is always amazing if you eat the muffins on the same day as they're baked. Otherwise, they get soggy by the next day. If you aren't planning on eating these right away, I'd suggest skipping the crumb topping and just making simple blueberry muffins (Paul requested that I leave the crumb topping off one muffin for him and you can see from the photo above that it's still stunning).

Either way, these muffins are perfect for breakfast...or dessert...or a snack!  :)

banana crumb muffins

I had a real "baker" moment last weekend. I woke up and just felt the urge to BAKE something. I've never had that feeling before. The problem was I didn't really have that many ingredients handy...until noticed there were four over-ripe bananas hanging around. Eureka! I found this amazing recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins on the internet and off I went.

A couple of hours later, my house spelled wonderfully of bananas and cinnamon and I could barely wait for these babies to cool before I started nibbling. My parents were there when these came out of the oven and they could barely contain their enthusiasm (I fear my mom will be handing me over-ripe bananas by the bushel now in the hopes I will make more for her!)

The only (very minor) problem I had was the amazing crumb topping on these inevitably goes soggy by the next day...I haven't figured a way to keep them crunchy yet. Not that it mattered much as this batch was gone by the third day!

strawberry jam x three

A couple of weekends ago, I managed to cross off one of my food resolutions for 2012 - making strawberry freezer jam!

I love jam. I'm especially a fan of "berry" jams - raspberry, strawberry - and being able to make my own seemed like a great way to try something new and stock up on my jam supply at the same time.

Paul's been making jam with his mom for ages, but I never had a chance to join in the fun. However, I finally managed to convince Paul to "help" me make jam (mostly, he made the jam and I watched).

We picked up two different jam gelling powders - Certo and Club House - and then went to Whittamore's Farm and bought a whole lot of strawberries (six quarts to be exact). I'm not normally a fan of strawberries (I know, weird) but I thought strawberries would be a sweet and easy introduction into jam making.

We made sure to have lots of mason jars (the ones with separate lids and screw rings) washed and ready to go since we didn't know how many jars of jam we'd end up with after our big jam-making day. 

We made three different types of jam - two "no-cook" ones and one that required a little more work (including sterilizing the jars).

Verdict: the no-cook jams are very runny and sweet, with the Certo-based one being the sweeter of the two strawberry jams (it was our favourite). It's also a great jam for beginner cooks (like me) to start with. The strawberry-rhubarb jam was a good mix of the strawberries and tart rhubarb and I love that it will keep longer, but I'm too lazy to sterilize jars every time I make jam. I love the simplicity of the no-cook jams - they're both quick and easy to make.

Next time we'll try making jam using other fruits and also making jam without any added commercial pectin. But first I'll have to make it through all the strawberry jam we now have!  :)

Note: although the jam itself doesn't take too long to make, give yourself plenty of time to prep the fruit. Seriously. Do you know how long it took me to hull 6 quarts of strawberries?!