Grandma's Lemon Bars

This recipe has been in my family for decades.  My boyfriend LOVES all things lemon and he can easily eat a whole pan of these lemon bars in a weekend if not a day. My family is now lucky enough to have meyer lemon trees in our backyard, it is that much easier to make these sweet-tart treats.

One crucial element of these bars is the crust, which is flaky and buttery.

To make the crust:

1 cup of butter
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of flour

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make sure to well spray the pan to make sure the crust doesn't stick. Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes until the crust is brown around the edges. 

While the crust is cooking, you need to start making the filling.

4 eggs slightly beaten (i add them at the last minute)

2 cups of sugar 

6 tablespoons of flour

6 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of grated lemon juice 

As soon as the crust comes out of the oven, it is important to immediately add the filling and put it back in the oven. Then it will typically bake for around 30 minutes to an hour depending upon the size of the pan. I bake it until the filling no longer jiggles. 

Lastly, it is important to add the powdered sugar immediately after. It is supposed to create a crispy crust but in my experience these bars end up being ooey, gooey, and delicious. 

I never gone to a party or event with these lemon bars and not gotten rave reviews. 

Meet the Chef

I thought it would be interesting and fun to do a small Q&A about the face behind the blog - ME!

When did you start baking/How did you get interested in baking?

I got interested in baking from a young age because of my mom who loves to bake and has a HUGE sweet tooth (as do I). When I was in first grade, I used to make brownies and sell them at a bake sale on the corner of my street. Since then I have loved to bake. By 6th grade, I had memorized the recipe to make chocolate chip cookies (which have now become one of my signature dishes).

Do you consider yourself more of a baker or a chef? 

I think I consider myself more of a baker. I started out as a baker but as I have tried to develop a healthy lifestyle, I rarely bake. But not because I don't like baking - I just want to be healthy and eating chocolate chip cookies every week is not considered healthy living unfortunately. But I do like cooking - it is always exciting to try something new like making risotto or your first 4 layer cake for the first time.

What's your favorite food?

People are always surprised when I say this but I have an obsession with cauliflower. Roasted cauliflower is my favorite (some people might call it burnt cauliflower). I have tried all kinds of cauliflower and they are just delicious!

What's your favorite thing to bake or cook? 

This one is a toughy. I would say my favorite thing to bake is a four layer peanut butter and chocolate cake. It has two layers of reeses pieces cheesecake and two layers of chocolate cake. In between each layer is some caramel and salted nuts. On the top is peanut butter frosting and chocolate ganache. I like this cake because it is a very challenging cake to make and I love a challenge. It was actually the first cake that I made entirely from scratch - I made it for my friend's birthday party and it was a hit!

Overall, I just like to make new and challenging things. When my friends have birthdays coming up they just tell me what they want such as a cake with peanut butter and chocolate. Then I get to decide what exactly I will make.

What's your favorite restaurant?

My favorite restaurant hands down is Rio Grill. They have this amazing balsamic artichoke. The heart and stem are so tender - it's amazing. And they give you free bread - what's not to love?! Rio makes a tasty margarita (called a Rio rita) as well. For an entree, my favorite dish is the half-smoked chicken with broccolini. It comes with this chili butter sauce that is just to die for. It is creamy yet slightly spicy but oh so tasty.

Rio leaves you feeling full but at the same time wanting to (finish the last piece of bread) shove more food in your mouth. I go there practically once a week and get the same thing everytime and it is always satisfying.

Would you ever consider baking as a career?

I would consider it as a side career but not as a full time job. Baking has always been a fun outlet for me and that could change if I had to do it as a career.

Fancy Food Fridays

I love to challenge myself and make difficult yet delicious meals. So I decided to make a marinaded filet mignon atop parmesan risotto. I had never made risotto before but it is always so delicious in restaurants so I wanted to see if I could make some delicious risotto (spoiler alert - I CAN!).

So to start off I marinaded the steaks. I find most of my recipes on Pinterest and this one was called the Best Steak Marinade so I decided to give it a try

Here is the recipe for the marinade (posted via indulgy.com):

1/3 of low sodium soy sauce
1/3 of olive oil
1/3 of lemon juice
1/4 Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons of garlic powder
3 tablespoons of fresh basil
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1 tablespoon of minced garlic

I let the steaks marinade for about three hours before the grill master (my boyfriend) threw them on the grill. We put the grill on high and cooked the steaks for about 4 minutes a side.

While the steaks are cooking we made the risotto. 

Here is the recipe (posted via foodnetwork.com):

1 1/2 cups of Arborio rice (this is rice especially for risotto).

1 cup of white wine (we chose Pinot Grigio but you can pick any dry white wine).

3 to 4 cups of low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

1/2 cup of parmesan (more to sprinkle on top)

4 tablespoons of butter 

salt and pepper to taste

To make risotto it takes about 40 minutes. So to start out you sweat the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes with two tablespoons of butter with the pan on medium heat. While this is happening, put the chicken stock in a separate pan over medium heat so it can warm up. After the onions become somewhat transparent you add the rice for only two minutes - just so the butter can cover the rice. Then add the cup of white wine - once that has been absorbed you can begin to slowly add a ladle full of chicken broth at a time. Only add more chicken broth once the rice has absorbed all of the chicken broth. This process will continue for the next 20 minutes until the rice is cooked. At the last minute you add the parmesan and remaining two tablespoons of butter to the risotto. 

After letting the steaks rest for about 5 minutes, we sliced them and put them on top of the risotto and sprinkled extra parmesan. The result was a beautiful dish. And thankfully it tasted amazing as well.

The steak was delicious. The marinade really brought the steak to life - i hate to say this but the lemon really brightened up the dish (thankfully it didn't taste like lemon though). The steak was tender and juicy. The risotto was creamy and delicious. It had this rice-oatmealy quality that was awesome.

Tonight, I felt like a real chef cooking items like risotto but it really was not that hard and it was definitely worth all the time it took to create it. 

I've Got Sole

My boyfriend is not a huge fan of seafood (but I LOVE seafood), however, dover sole is one of the few fish that he will eat.

Dover sole is a fish that my mom has been cooking for us for years and it is easy and delicious!

This delicious dover sole dish is Panko crusted Dover sole (you can use any kind of sole like Petrale).  It takes about 30 minutes in total to prepare and cook.

I start out by dredging the fish in flour. I typically add spices to the flour as well as such as Thyme, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Paprika, and Basil. My boyfriend loves spicy food so he adds ancho-chile and Cayenne pepper powder. We let the Dover Sole sit in the flour for around ten minutes.

Then we put the fish in egg wash and coat it with panko bread crumbs. We put the fish on a drying rack before cooking them. This allows the coating to really adhere to the fish.

    We cook the fish in a hot pan with olive oil on medium heat until golden brown (around 3 minutes a side). 

The fish comes out crispy - its so delicious! My boyfriend likes to eat the fish with lemon but I personally like to eat the fish with ketchup (my favorite condiment by far).

Sides

Yum Yum Sides

When planning dinner, one of the things I struggle with the most is figuring out what to make as side dishes. So this will be one of many posts about the amazing possibilities of side dishes.  My family and I are always very health conscious so our dinners typically revolve around a meat and some kind of veggie. 

One of my personal favorite vegetables is broccolini (not really sure how it differs from broccoli but it is very delicious). I start off by steaming the broccolini (i typically remove the leaves from the stalks). Then I put the broccolini in a pan with some olive oil. It typically cooks for 6-7 minutes and then I add garlic and soy sauce. The broccolini comes out being salty and delicious. This dish has always proved to be a winner for everyone because it is tasty and very easy to make. 

Another one of my longtime favorite sides is corn. I LOVE grilled corn. The charred flavor with butter is just so tasty. I like to grill (have my boyfriend, the grill master, grill) the corn - add butter and some truffle salt. The truffle salt adds a really great earthy flavor to the corn that makes it delicious. Anything with truffle flavor is always a winner. The truffle flavor also adds a bonus of impressing your friends. Not many people use truffle salt or oil so people will be impressed when you use it. However, it can be very hit and miss since not everyone likes the taste of truffle. 

Porkalicious!

         First blog post! So exciting!! I decided to start things off with my new favorite recipe! It started off as a recipe for steak but its really good on pork tenderloin as well. My boyfriend and I love to cook dinner together. We are always looking to find delicious dinner recipes and we were delighted to find this amazingly delicious recipe! 

       The marinade is really easy to prepare. I like to do it the night before and this allows the meat to really soak up all the marinade. 

Here is the recipe (recipe taken from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/176770/the-best-steak-marinade/): 

1/4 cup of Olive oil
1/4 cup of Balsamic vinegar 
1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup of soy sauce (low sodium)
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard (i normally add an extra teaspoon or two)
2 teaspoons of minced garlic 
salt and pepper to taste

I start off by grilling the pork loin (by me I mean my boyfriend who does all my grilling for me since he is a great on the grill) and then I put it in oven at 350 degrees. In terms of cooking temperature - 145 degrees is medium rare and 160 degrees is well. But I typically cook it to 150 degrees. 

Then I let the pork loin sit for 15 minutes before I start slicing it. 

I like to add a little extra sauce to my pork loin. But it is typically very tender if you let it sit long enough. If you cut it too early then the juices will run out and pork will become dry. 

This is an AMAZING recipe! My mom and boyfriend's mom both consider this the best pork recipe they have ever had and my mom doesn't even really like pork (except for this recipe of course). 

What to do with the leftovers? If there are any! 

 I love to make sandwiches with the leftover pork. For example, I take sourdough bread with             mozzarella and pork and cook it on the panini grill. Then I dress it with the pork loin marinade  - seriously delicious!