Lemon Curd Recipe

Hello friends! I finally found the time to write up that lemon curd recipe for you! Remember all the way back to that cheesecake recipe where I showed it topped with lemon curd, but didn't tell you how to make any? Yes, I'm evil. Just ask my husband! ;)

I'm going to make you wait for that recipe for just a minute more (see, Ben was right about the whole evil thing!). It has been overcast with showers for a few days now out here in the islands. But back on Saturday our afternoon weather was just beautiful. You would have never known it would be raining by evening.

 Ben and his dad decided to go kayaking, and I was planning on taking Izzie for a walk.

 Well, the guys chose Medicine beach as a launch spot, and it's about 5 miles from our house. They drove, and we walked.

 Izzie and I spent some nice time on the beach, and had a snack. I read my book while she napped...

but not before rolling in some unknown but very stinky beach funk which stuck to her neck. Great.

Eventually the guys showed up from their mini kayak adventure, and we all drove home together. Ah, I just love the weekends!

Ok, now that I have made you suffer, here is the lemon curd recipe. From Cathy Burgett, as usual. Her recipe's are my baking staples!

Lemon Curd
zest from 6 lemons
juice from 6 lemons (1 cup)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
6 eggs
12 egg yolks
9 oz. butter

-Place the eggs and egg yolks in a large bowl that will fit over a water bath.
-Whisk in the other ingredients to mix, and continue whisking over hot, simmering water until the butter is melted and the curd is thick.
-Remove from the heat and strain into a clean, dry bowl.
-Cover the curd with plastic wrap, pressing it right down onto the curd so it doesn't form a skin, and refrigerate.
-Lemon curd will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 days, and it will freeze, well-covered, for 2 months.

Yield: 1 qt. lemon curd

You can also make this recipe using oranges, limes or other citrus (think blood oranges!). I used it as a cheesecake topping, but it is also good over ice cream, as the filling in a layer cake, in tart shells, over fresh berries, or by the spoonful (my favorite)! Try it in crepes, or use it as a layer in a parfait! The uses are endless.

Enjoy!

Exercise and More Blueberries

Hello, all! Hope it's as beautiful a day where you are as it is here! Gorgeous!

Last nights dinner was pretty darn tasty! My MIL made a roasted chicken and baked sweet potatoes, and Ben sauteed up some tiny green beans. I put some peanut sauce on my chicken, it was such a comforting meal on a rainy evening.

We watched 3 movies last night, none of which were that spectacular. Operation End Game was a funny-ish actiony movie, but utterly forgettable. Literally. I just had to ask Ben what movie we watched! Second was The Cove, an informative movie about the sickening slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Not a pretty sight. Very disturbing. But very accessible to the public, fact based, and well made. We had t take a break after that one! Finally, we watched Young Sherlock Holmes, which was a pretty funny one, but plenty entertaining in a goofy kinda way.

Dessert accompanied the movies. We had fresh blueberries with a light sprinkling of sugar, and waaay too much heavy cream. This was originally supposed to be served on top of the tapioca pudding Ben's mom made, but we had too many blueberries in our bowls, so the pudding was a side dish. Wow, dessert with a side dish. Could be a hint that there was too much there...naw, just kidding!

Yeah, I ate all of that! Nom nom nom! We pretended to work some of it off by taking a movie break and strolling through the mist, but come on, we would have had to run 10 miles to work off that much cream!

This mornings breakfast centered around blueberries again (what a surprise). I had hemp seed and flax oatmeal with chia seeds and cocoa nibs, blueberries and a big dollop of Nutella. This was SO filling, and beyond delicious! Breakfast is turning into my favorite meal of the day, besides dessert that is.

Once I was able to move after eating all that goodness I decided to go on a short bike ride to the ocean, as the morning was just beautiful.

I rode out to Peter Cove, then around to Starvation Bay. The tide was pretty far out, and the water was looking a bit scummy. Not the best smell, either. But, in general, it was an enjoyable little jaunt on the beach.

The way there is all downhill, so of course the way home is tons of work. We live on top of a hill, so it's always uphill to home, no matter where you're coming from. I do think I'm getting a little better with the bike riding. I made it up all the hills without gasping for breath too much. Not bad!

When I got home my dog Izzie let me know how mean it was of me to go for a ride without her, so I decided to take her on a walk to see if there was anything good at any of the produce stands on our road.

We stopped for a photo shoot of Izzie, because she's SO cute! No other reason needed.

I rest my case!

None of the stands had anything, but we admired the pretty garden.

It was warmer than I thought it'd be, so by the time we got home I was sticky, and Izzie was panting. I made a smoothie to cool me down. It had plain yogurt, almond milk, frozen blueberries and raspberries,and a packet of omega oils.

All was going fine, until I took the lid off the blender just that little bit too soon. Um, yeah. The smoothie attacked me, and won. Not a pretty sight.

After cleaning up the projectile smoothie I poured two large glasses of berry goodness and plopped in my new stainless steal straws! I've been dying to try them! They work so well, and I like the way they feel. Plus, I can just stick them in the dishwasher! Score!

Izzie hung out with me while I made messes in the kitchen. I think she was pretty worn out!

I took the smoothies out to Ben where he was working in the yard. We sat around sipping for a while, then I helped him do some digging for our pond. That made me hungry, of course, so back to the kitchen I went. I mashed a whole avocado, then put about 1/2 cup of my roasted red pepper hummus in and mushed it all together. I have to say, this made a pretty satisfying snack schmeared all over some cracker! Too bad Ben raided my plate, getting away with 2 of my crackers!

At this point in the day we're thinking of dinner ideas. Maybe some big salads with leftover chicken, and some corn on the cob. Yup, sounds like a plan!

Have a good evening, everyone!

Healthy Eating and Exercise: A Second Attempt

Yikes! Wednesdays are CRAZY! Every Wednesday I work 2 shifts at the bakery; A day shift to check in with my boss/friend Nora for order day, and my regular night shift with the guys. Not to mention that because I have a day shift I ride my bike the 6 1/2 miles to work in the morning. Not a lot of sleep happens, and things can get ugly.

Luckily, everything went just fine yesterday, and I got a good nap in. I also slept like a rock last night. Oh yeah!

So today I decided that I really need to step it up with the whole exercise and eating right thing. I've been feeling sorta chubby lately, and every time I look down at my midsection I think of Pulp Fiction and pot bellies. Not good! I did however weigh myself today, and I'm back down to 135 after being 140 for most of the year! Woot woot! Now I just have to keep working at it!

To work on the whole eating right thing I decided to try out a new recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows. Curry chickpea burgers. Of course my wonderful husband offered to help with dinner, which means we're having fresh french fries, but I promise I won't eat many(as in I won't take seconds ;) ) I hauled my laptop into the kitchen yet again ( I know, livin' on the edge!) and got out everything I needed for this recipe.

Things came together pretty quickly, as the recipe promised, and I love how few main ingredients there are. Granted, we haven't eaten them yet. But if they're as good as I think they will be, then i'll have to try this same basic recipe with other herbs and spices. I bet there are endless flavor possibilities! Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I formed the patties and laid them out on my sil-pat lined baking sheet. I only got 5 out of this recipe, but I made a couple of them kinda big for B and his dad.

Then I popped them into the oven for about 25 minutes. I did flip them once, just so they'd be evenly cooked. I plan on warming them on the grill just before we eat. We actually have some ripe avocado, so that'll go on top with some lettuce, mayo, and hopefully tomato if I can find one. We have fresh whole wheat Kaisers from the bakery too!

I think they came out looking pretty good! Great color, and seems like a good texture. I'm having a hard time restraining myself from demolishing one right now!

While doing the dishes I got to admire our yard and view. We live in such a beautiful place!

This of course inspired me to work on the exercise routine, so I started drying off (I say drying off, because it tends to look like monsoon season when I do the dishes. The counter, cabinets, my shirt, and shoes were all soaked!). While toweling off I discovered this! Guess I was a little too enthusiastic with the green food coloring at work last night! Seriously, that's above my elbow! How do I manage these things?!

I snagged one of my tasty banana spelt muffins from the other day (still delicious!) for a quick snack.

I think Izzie wanted some too!

Then we got ready for some cardio. Izzie LOVES walks! She recognizes my workout shoes/clothes and starts dancing around making happy sounds. SO cute!

We went to our mailbox and back, one mile each way plus lots of huge hills. I did intervals of 1 minute walking, 1 minute jogging the whole way, hills included. That got my heart pumping! When we got back I did some strength training. I use 5lb weights, and today I did arms. Here's the routine.

2 sets of 12 reps each:

chest press

overhead triceps extension

chest fly

triceps kickback

side lateral raise

alternate bicep curls

front raises

shoulder press

concentration curl

one arm dumbell row

I need to go finish dinner now, and get ready to go to work. Gotta get my stuff together for tomorrow too, as B and I are going to Victoria for errand day. The weather's been so nice, maybe we'll see the Orcas out and about on the ferry ride!

Do you guys work little errands in throughout the week, or do you do one big errand day? We obviously do it all at once! Sigh, it's gonna be a looong day tomorrow!

Picture Overload!

Last Christmas I bought B a Nikon D5000 digital camera. It is so cool! I have tried it out a few times, but haven't really messed with it much. While checking out other peoples blogs I have developed picture envy! Everyone's pics are just so beautiful! So I asked B if I could use his Nikon, and the request was approved!

So, unfortunately for you, I went on a photo frenzy today in our garden. Such fun!

This is my dog Izzie, after an adventure in the yard. She is such a bur collector!

Our yard...

O.K., I think i'm done for now. Hopefully I'll be taking most of my blog pictures with this camera now, and eventually my skills will improve. Yet another thing to play with! Pender is such a beautiful place, I'm sure there will be many more photos to come!

Salad weather and strawberries

So i actually managed to give Izzie that long-needed bath and trim. She's pretty good about baths, and surprisingly patient with the trimming. It was worth it! She's a bit fuzzy now, but so much cleaner and more comfortable. Isn't she cute?!

Before and after


After being sprayed with water by my little dog i decided i needed a snack. I cut up some of the bread B had made the night before, a nice multi grain loaf, and toasted a slice. Topped with peanut butter and a little nutella, it was yummy! I also had a smoothie with fresh strawberries. I love strawberry season!

Dinner was made by my MIL, and was so good! She made us big salads with lettuce, grated carrot and zuccini, red onion, tuna, hard boiled eggs, white beans, and a dill yogurt dressing. We had some fresh kalamata olive sourdough made the night before. Just right for a hot evening.


While B and I ate our cool tuna salads we watched the last episode of the made for TV series of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was made in '81, and looks it! What a hilarious show! I recently read the book, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Smart, funny and decidedly odd. Good stuff!

So 9:30pm sees me at work, baking away, rocking out to System of a Down and Third World (the benefits of working during the night...music as loud as you can blast it!). My boss had bought some local strawberries from a little market for me to use, and they were the BEST i have ever eaten!




So, other than smoothies and fruit salad, what to do with all those amazing fresh berries? I decided to make classic tarts to sell. You bake off the tart shells, fill them with pastry cream, arrange sliced strawberries on top, and glaze (hopefully i'll remember to post those recipes soonish). They looked amazing, and unfortunately tasted great!I didn't promise that all my recipes would be healthy, did I?



This morning I had one of my usual breakfast choices, 1% plain yogurt with Nature's Path hemp plus granola and sliced strawberries, chased with a mug of jasmine green tea. Very yummy, and it really lasts me for hours. A good breakfast choice.



B and I had a lazy morning to kick off the weekend, then got ready to go. We hopped onto his BMW motorcycle and rode off to the Show and Shine car show, a Pender classic! Once home we went on a hike around the property with all the dogs (my exercise for the day!). We took a tour of our garden while coming up with dinner plans, enjoying the perfect temperature, and all our flowering plants.

Now, off to the kitchen again!