Book Nook

Book Nook, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

The book nook has been finished for a while, but I just got around to taking a photo.

Low Fat Lemon Frozen Yogurt

Bought a new, bright red toy last night, so I needed to try my hand at making something sweet and frozen with whatever ingredients I could scrounge up. I used a mash-up of recipes for frozen yogurt, lemon buttermilk sorbet and lemon-buttermilk sherbet. My taste-testers judge the results to be pretty tasty at the soft-serve stage straight out of the ice cream maker, and I suspect it will be even tastier after a few hours in the freezer.

1 cup raw sugar
1 large lemon plus lemon juice to equal about 1/4 cup
3 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup non-fat plain yogurt

• finely mince lemon peel
• juice the lemon, add juice from bottled lemon juice or another lemon to make 1/4 cup
• combine sugar, juice and zest in non-reactive pan over low heat, stirring until sugar melts
• cool to room temperature, combine in a bowl with the buttermilk and yogurt
• chill several hours or until you return from walking your dogs and cannot wait another minute to try out your new toy
  
• prepare according to ice cream maker directions.

Note: If you rush the syrup by using a higher temperature or combine your ingredients without allowing to cool to room temperature, your lemon syrup may transform into a gooey wad of candy at the bottom of your milk mixture. A quick trip into the blender on "liquefy" will remedy this situation. Not that it happened to me. But should you be a tad impatient, you might find this
advice helpful.

Garden nook with Indian Tapestries

Finished Corner with Indian Tapestries, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Buddha with tree (and our tree), originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

This is my back porch, I found the park bench and replaced the seat, the lights and cushions are from walmart, the canopy is a bed canopy, and I got the tapestries from an ebay seller in india (http://stores.ebay.com/letajmahal). This is my favorite part of the house now.

Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry Sorbet, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/07/i-do-salad-pizza-sorbet-and-the-loot-it-rode-it-on/

Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Sorbet
Recipe from the London River Cafe Cook Book, via The New York Times Magazine

1 lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons

1. Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor, and pulse until combined. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Puree the strawberries in a food processor, and add to the lemon mixture, along with the juice of 1 lemon. Taste and add more juice as desired. The lemon flavor should be intense but should not overpower the strawberries. Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until frozen. (it took only about 30 minutes in my machine)

Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

I thought it needed to be more lemony, but then I realized that I was probably supposed to include the entire lemon (including rind) for the 1 lemon seeded and chopped. It was still delicious

New Easter Stencils

Prosciutto and caramelized onion pizza from pioneerwoman.com

This is the mean ol' recipe that finally convinced me: I am not a fan of prosciutto. I've since been informed that this makes me weird. I would definitely make it again, though, and substitute bacon for the prosciutto. And double the caramelized onions. Mmm.

Recipe:

2 tsp. olive oil (or, um, bacon fat if it's right there anyway.. or if you had to dig in the fridge for it)

1 onion, thinly sliced (I would go with 2. PW recommends red onion; too strong for my taste, so I used vidalias)

2 tsp. brown sugar

1 big ol' pizza crust (the powder-in-a-package-just-add-hot-water kind, if you're nasty)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Cook the onions in the fat of your choice for about 3 minutes or until they start to brown. Sprinkle with sugar and continue cooking until caramelized; set aside.

Spread out your crust and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parmesan. Lay slices of mozzarella on top (per PW, or use the shredded kind like we did.. we used about 2 1/2 cups because we're cheese whores. What.).

Evenly distribute onions over the pizza, then top with prosciutto slices and sprinkle with a bit more parmesan. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Mmm.