Meyer Lemon Icebox Cake

Earlier this week, I made the following Meyer Lemon Icebox Cake. I finally found a grocery store in town that carries three varieties of Meyer Lemon Curd (a small jar for ~$3, which is obviously much cheaper than the Williams Sonoma alternative I started with, priced at a whopping $14).

The cake was very good, and both refreshing and light. After assembling the layers, the cake requires 24 hours of refrigeration before serving, which was annoying (who wants to wait that long to eat dessert?). When I finally delved into the soft layers, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor and smoothness, although in hindsight, I think I would skip the extra dollops of Meyer Lemon. Between the lemon wafers and lemon flavored whipping cream, there seems to be more than enough lemon flavor. But other than that, this recipe is definitely a keeper and an ideal choice for a summer soire. Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon Icebox Cake (from norecipes.com)

An icebox “cake” is actually cookies layered with cream. In this case I use lemon wafer cookies I got at Whole Foods, Meyer lemon curd, and lemon cream. Left in the fridge overnight, the wafers absorb liquid out of the creme and take on a firm cake-like texture without getting mushy. For being relatively simple, this is actually one of my favorite desserts. Here’s my take on this classic.

-1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream

-3/4 C Meyer Lemon Curd to mix with the cream

-3/4 C Meyer Lemon Curd to layer1 box vanilla or lemon wafers

-Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup lemon curd to the cream and fold it in gently with a rubber spatula.

-In a 8 x 8 square baking dish or other suitable vessel, put down 1/3 of the cream and spread it around. Then put down a layer of wafers smearing the tops of each one with a good dollop of lemon curd. Repeat, finishing with a layer of cream.

-Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Jeopardy! Experience

Sitting in on two tapings of the Jeopardy! College Championships last Friday evening was very cool. It was my very first live game show experience and it was awesome to enjoy it on campus, and personally know one of the contestants! Suchita Shah, one of our campus tour guides was selected to represent UW-Madison, along with 14 other contestants from colleges and universities all over the country.

In the first taping, I watched students from the University of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Tufts battle it out. The next taping featured students from Michigan State, University of Colorado-Boulder, and a seemingly socially challenged student from Harvard. Tapings continued into Saturday, with the semi-finals and final championship round.

The episodes will air on May 5-9. So as not to ruin your viewing experience, I am not going to reveal the winner. I can tell you Suchita did wonderfully. I can also tell you that I was sitting pretty far back, so you probably won't catch any Kristin sitings, but maybe you'll catch a quick shot of me waving my towel (above) and cheering.

Admittedly, I've never been much of a Jeopardy! fan. But I certainly enjoyed the live experience, and am now a little more intrigued with the show and Alex Trebek. He was hilarious, brilliant, and extremely witty. When there were breaks in the taping, which were relatively frequent, Alex would come out into the audience and answer questions. We seriously covered everything--favorite lunch meat, worst drinking experience, favorite Indian food, best vacation spot, favorite animal, etc. It's like we go way back now.

The Most Beautiful Chocolates

Have you ever seen a more beautiful box of chocolates? I certainly haven't. What incredible eye candy. And not only are they pretty, I can tell you from personal experience, that each one of these morsels was heavenly. I think I ate them all in one sitting. Well, maybe not quite.

Karen and I received this box of David Bacco chocolates as a gift from our friend Jane, who attended our St. Patrick's Day party. David Bacco is a local chocolatier (I swear Madison has more chocolatiers per capita than any other city in the US. There's David Bacco, Gail Ambrosius, Candinas, Nilda, etc.)

What I like best about David Bacco's chocolates is that they feature such imaginative flavor combinations inspired by elements of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. And they are beautiful and each so intricately designed and detailed.

Bacco, who was the exclusive chocolatier for Madison's Cocoliquot downtown restaurant (which, unfortunately, closed in February), will be opening his own shop at Hilldale Mall in May. Slated to open across from Sundance Cinemas 608, between Sushi Muramoto and WineStyles, the shop will feature Bacco's signature line of chocolates. Yay! But until then, his chocolates are still available at some local retailers, and more information will soon be available on his Web site at www.davidbacco.com.

Ultimate Comfort Food

I recently tried a recipe for Chicken and Dumplings that I found on my mom's recipe blog (yes, my mother has multiple blogs). It was really good and warm (and comforting).

Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients:
3 (10.75 oz.) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
3 2/3 cups water
1 cup and 3 tbsp. chopped celery
3 onions, quartered
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
6 carrots, sliced
2 (10 oz.) packages frozen green peas
5 potatoes, quartered
3 2/3 cups baking mix
1 1/2 cups and 2 tbsp. milk

Directions:
1. In large, heavy pot, combine soup, water, chicken, celery, onion, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat about 1 1/2 hours.
2. Add potatoes and carrots; cover and cook another 30 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from pot, shred it, and return to pot. Add peas and cook only 5 minutes longer.
4. Add dumplings. To make dumplings: Mix baking mix and milk until a soft dough forms. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto BOILING stew. Simmer covered for 10 minutes, then uncover and simmer an additional 10 minutes.

Updates from Derby Central

This just in from Louisville.

It's spring here. Tulip, dogwood, and pear trees are blooming, jonquils (daffodils for you Yankees) are up all over the place, and my cats are lying in the sun on the big screened porch off the back of the house. You can hear birds chirping, the neighbor's dog's ID tags chattering as he patrols the fenceline, and the hum of lawnmowers - that's right! It's beginning of another season of whose lawn is greenest!

So that means there are only 21 days until we take Louisville by storm for Derby 2008!

Breakfast on the Farm

I'm totally going to this on Sunday...

13th Annual Breakfast on the Farm
Presented by: UW-Madison Association of Women in Agriculture

Sunday, April 13, 8am-Noon
UW-Madison Stock Pavilion
1675 Linden Dr.
Tickets: Adults $7, Students $5

Enjoy a delicious country breakfast including eggs, mushrooms, sausage, pancaked, applesauce, cheese, ice cream sundaes, juice, milk and coffee.

Entertainment includes: Prarie Thunder Cloggers, Old Time Polka Band, Petting Zoo, Education Corral, UW Marching Band, and a visit from Bucky Badger!

Steal My Heart

Over the weekend, I made these great sugar heart cookies with meyer lemon curd filling. They seemed festively appropriate for the start of spring! You can use any sort of seedless preserve as a filling, but I think the meyer lemon curd spreads particularly well, and tastes great. I opted for the slightly expensive and pre-prepared Williams Sonoma alternative, but my mom just sent me the following recipe for meyer lemon curd. Might give it a try sometime soon.

Meyer Lemon Curd

1 stick unsalted butter (1/4 lbs
2-3 Meyer lemons zested
1/2 C Meyer lemon juice
3/4 C sugar
2 extra large eggs separated

Drop the whole stick of butter into a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat and let it melt (the pan should be just warm enough to melt the butter). Once it's mostly melted turn off the heat.
In a medium bowl, add the sugar and zest a few lemons into it. Then squeeze about 1/2 C of juice and add it to the sugar.

Separate the eggs, dropping the yolks into the pot of melted (but not hot) butter and the whites into the sugar mixture.

Whisk the yolks and butter together until well combined. Then take the whisk to the sugar mixture until well combined. Pour the sugar mixture into the pot with the butter and whisk it all together.

Turn the heat back on to low and use a heat-proof silicon spatula to constantly stir the mixture, scrapping the bottom and sides of the pan to make sure nothing burns. If you have an instant read thermometer, just get the temp up to 170 degrees and you should be golden. Otherwise, just keep stirring until the curd thickens enough to coat the spatula. Make sure you don't over cook it!