Lemon Ladies

Ah Meyer Lemons!

Is there anything prettier than a grove of  lemons ripening in the sun? Not too much, unless of course you count the big bag of Meyer Lemons that arrived on my doorstep not very long ago!

I knew immediately, from the delightful scent coming from the box what was nestled within (and the bright yellow mailing label was a good tip off too) I found myself wishing for an old fashioned peppermint stick to push down into a lemon to suck the juice through like I did as a kid.

I TORE into that box and immediately began day dreaming of lemon curd, preserved lemons, pound cakes and the lemon zest that would soon be languishing in my freezer for future projects.

They were so beautiful, those sunny yellow globes resting on the deep green tissue they were packed in! It was almost a shame to think about sacrificing them to my culinary whims…notice I said almost!

Meyer lemons were discovered in China around 1908 by Frank Meyers (and named modestly for himself lol) They’re a cross between a mandarin orange (hence their sweetness) and a lemon and date back 3000 years!

In 2004, orchardess Karen Morss decided to plant an orchard just for Meyer lemons and Lemon Ladies Orchard was born. Each tree is named for a woman who inspired her and helped her achieve her goals and dreams. And each lady painted a tile for her tree with her name. Karen believes this is one of the reasons her lemons are so sweet!

They use organic fertilizer, lots of sunshine, water and love to raise these beauties. Ladybugs are also very welcome in the orchard!

Karen hopes you will enjoy her lemons as much as she enjoys growing them!

Lemon Curd Recipe

jelly roll filled with homemade lemon curd

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

4 lemons, zested and juiced

1 stick Earth Balance, cut into pats and chilled

Add enough water to a medium saucepan to come about 1-inch up the side. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium size metal bowl andwhisk until smooth, about 1 minute. Measure lemon juice and if needed, add enough cold water to reach 1/3 cup.

Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk smooth. Once water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place bowl on top of saucepan (Bowl should be large enough to fit on top of saucepan without touching the water).

Whisk until thickened, approximately 8 minutes, or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon. This stage always takes longer than 8 minutes, be patient, it will happen!

Remove promptly from heat and stir in Earth Balance a piece at a time, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next.

Push through a fine sieve into a clean container and cover by laying a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd.

Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. (yeah right!)

Lemon Curd may be drizzled over pound cake, ice cream or shortcake. It pairs beautifully with blueberries, makes an incredible jelly roll or simply eat it…a spoonful at a time. I do!

For more great recipes, check out the Lemon Ladies Recipe Page!

Karen Morss would love to help you bring some of her awesome lemon yumminess into your own kitchen and would like to offer one of my readers a chance to win a gift bag of delicious Meyer Lemons, like the one I was sent to help you on your way! Thank you so much!

Just climb aboard the Rafflecopter and start entering!

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]]> http://lifeinthelostworld.com/2012/01/enjoy-a-taste-of-spring-with-lemon-ladies-meyer-lemons-givaway-ends-218/feed/ 1 http://lifeinthelostworld.com/2012/01/it%e2%80%99s-national-blueberry-pancake-day/ http://lifeinthelostworld.com/2012/01/it%e2%80%99s-national-blueberry-pancake-day/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:46:56 +0000 Jayedee http://lifeinthelostworld.com/?p=4342

Blueberry pancakes are a wonderful treat to enjoy anytime of the day. They are nutritious enough to eat for breakfast, tasty enough for a mid-day snack, and easy enough to make for dinner.

To make blueberry pancakes, mix up a batch of your favorite plain pancake batter. Rinse the blueberries and drain them well. After you’ve poured the batter onto the griddle, scatter a few blueberries on top. This will ensure that your blueberries aren’t bruised during the cooking process and will be perfect bursts of flavor when you bite into your pancake.

Make a delicious batch of pancakes, top them with a little blueberry maple syrup, and celebrate National Blueberry Pancake Day!

source – punchbowl holidays

Blueberry Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup vanilla soy milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift the four dry ingredients into a bowl.

2. Add soy milk and vegetable oil, stir until mixed.

3. Heat a pan over medium heat, and grease. Your pan should be
hot enough that when a few drops of water are dropped on it, they
“dance” around before evaporating.

4. Spoon mix into the center of the pan, and scatter a few blueberries on top

5. Flip when the edges look a little dry and you see bubbles appear.

Serve with Earth Balance Buttery Spread and a dusting of powdered sugar!

Artist Bio

COUNTRY a lil ROCK’N ROLL and a WHOLE LOTTA SOUL!

A Soulful, Genuine and Passion filled Country Singer and Writer that brings amazing energy to all his performances! Jimmy has received Radio play for 4 of his songs

including “Whatever It Takes” that played Nationally on Clear Channel Country radio. Season 9 “AMERICAN IDOL” Hollywood contestant, 2007 Top 50 “Nashville Star”, Guest judge for “Nashville’s Next Big Star” 2011 performed and interviewed live on Countless Radio Stations, Newspapers and Televised programing. Opened a side stage for Montgomery Gentry and Lady Antebellum. Featured Artist for the Mrs. North Carolina US Pageant in 2009 and 2010. Pageant Judge for Miss Southern Del (Picking the eventual new Miss Del.). Has Performed and supported many Benefits and Charity Events naming Cancer and Children as two of his Top priorities. Named “Nashville Artist of the Week” on the Billy Block Show 103.3 WKDF and has performed many Venues in Nashville and different parts of the Country with an Awesome 5 piece Band. Jimmy also has experience in film and modeling.

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Jimmy Charles and #fanjam12 Twitter Party

Tonight at 9pm EST

We are so excited for our #fanjam12 Twitter Party!

A Soulful, Genuine and Passion filled Country Singer and Writer that brings amazing energy to all his performances!

Jimmy has received Radio play for 4 of his songs including “Whatever It Takes” that played Nationally on Clear Channel Country radio.

• Season 9 “AMERICAN IDOL” Hollywood contestant
• 2007 Top 50 “Nashville Star”,
• Guest judge for “Nashville’s Next Big Star” 2011
• Opened a side stage for Montgomery Gentry and Lady Antebellum.
• Featured Artist for the Mrs. North Carolina US Pageant in 2009 and 2010.
• Pageant Judge for Miss Southern Del (Picking the eventual new Miss Del.). Has Performed and supported many
• Benefits and Charity Events naming Cancer and Children as two of his Top priorities.
• Named “Nashville Artist of the Week” on the Billy Block Show 103.3 WKDF
• Jimmy also has experience in film and modeling.

Having just passed the anniversary date (January 22, 1973) of Roe v Wade, this past week,  giving all women the right to an abortion,  I’m
reminded of a conversation I had recently, with a young vegan woman of my acquaintance.

It was a longish kind of talk during which we touched on a lot of different subjects. The give and take was going well until I happened to mention that I wasn’t above eating the (unfertilized) eggs of my own chickens, on occasion.

You would have thought I’d admitted to torturing small animals and stealing candy from babies, by her reaction.

Please keep in mind, that my chickens are cherished pets. They are not caged, except at night, for their own safety (in a big roomy coop), fed a wonderful diet and will live out their lives happily doing all sorts of lovely chicken-y things.

Part of the lovely chicken-y things they do is lay eggs…about once every 24 hours for most of their reproductive lives. If these eggs are not fertilized and hatched into more chickens….well, that’s a lot of eggs to dispose of. I choose to dispose of them by feeding them to my family.

Anyway, after launching into me with a tirade I would have thought best reserved for a serial killer, I asked her how, if I was so wrong for the occasional consumption of a chicken’s egg, how she could justify the aborting of a human being, or if you prefer, potential human life. My chicken eggs, after all, being unfertilized have no potential for life, but aborting a human embryo, beating heart and all, was justifyable in her eyes.

She screamed at me about a woman’s right to choose and potential human life was not the same as a baby. In short, using most of the pro choice arguments I’ve heard down through the years. The arguments came up short, to me, the same as they always have.

I walked away that day, stunned and sad, that to that vegan woman, at least, all life was not precious, at least not when it became an inconvenience or burden.

Chickens – 1   Babies –  0

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Happy Punch the Clock Day everyone!
This holiday celebrates keeping track of employee work hours through the invention of the Punch Clock system. On this holiday you are encouraged celebrate with plenty of coffee, tea and doughnuts in the break room so you and all your work mates can get together on your coffee break and celebrate the punch clock.

Laura DeLuca

My name is Jayedee and I enjoy YA books.

There, I said it. I’m out of the closet and I have no regrets, either!

While I’ve always loved to read, I loathed book reports. I’m not
wonderful about gathering my thoughts, about something I’ve read,
and putting them down, cohesively, in a way that makes folks want
to read what I’m telling them about.

If you promise not to hold it against me, I’d love to tell you about
a great book I read recently – Destiny by Laura DeLuca!

Destiny is Laura’s first novel in a new series of YA books and I have to tell you that I’m impressed. It’s fairly fast paced, with a unique concept well developed characters. It’s a classic story of good vs evil…and then some!

It begins with Gabrielle still reeling from the death of her mother and trying to survive in a home with an abusive alcoholic father. She’s haunted by the repressed memories of being a witch due to the murder of her mother, by an evil warlock type that has now set his sights on Gabrielle.

Enter Darron, our hero, who with the help of nudgings from beyond,
helps Gabrielle accept her past and joins with her to defeat the forces of evil that are determined to make Gabrielle their own.

In additon to the evil Richard, there is, of course, the resident jackass, in the form of Patrick, the circle of girlfriends, and much of the drama I remember from my own high school days. (show of hands for everyone who would NEVER endure THAT again)

All and all, I found Destiny, published by Free Focus Publishing, to be a very satisfying read, full of whatever magic makes a book hard for me to put down. I’m giving it a huge thumbs up and anxiously await the sequel!

And now a few words from my daughter, Caitlyn who writes the snarky new blog        ”Slow Road to Insanity“

Caitlyn’s take on Destiny:

Unlike so many of the closet YA Fiction readers out there I have no problem admitting my passion for the books, so when I was given a copy of Destiny, I was thrilled to have literally been handed a new author and immediatly set about to devouring the story.

I was hooked within the first pages!

I joined Gabriella, a girl with a tainted past and an uncertain future, Darron, the handsome charismatic outsider, Flora, the talkative comedian and Monte, the lovable gay best friend in this thrilling adventure of good vs evil, where magik was possible and all you had to do was believe; in yourself and in the powers of love and friendship.

Of course, what story wouldn’t be complete without a stuck-up jock, an evil queen bee and a power hungry warlock. Enter Patrick, Vanessa and Richard.

Throw these characters together and you’ve got a novel that you won’t be able to put down and that you’ll reach for again and again. After all, love and friendship never get old or go out of style.

Are you ready to read this great book for yourself? Destiny is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other fine booksellers online.

OR

You can climb aboard the Rafflecopter and throw your name in the hat for a chance to win an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Destiny and a box of incense that the author, herself, has graciously offered one of you!  Thank you so much!

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Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t!
It’s a good day for feeling like a nut, today, on Peanut Brittle Day!

Brittles are hard candy confections made by caramelizing sugar syrup,
adding nuts, pouring it into a think layer and when cool, cracking
the brittle candy into peices. YUM!

Making brittles is not as hard as you might think, just a little time
consuming. Why not celebrate Peanut Brittle Day by firing up the stove
and making your own? You can thank me later!

Peanut Brittle

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw Spanish peanuts
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
2 tsp. baking soda

Heavily grease 2 15x10x1 inch baking pans with Earth Balance Buttery Spread and set aside

Heat and stir sugar, syrup and water in a heavy 3-quart saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Add salt. Cook over medium heat to soft ball stage (234 degrees). Add peanuts at 250 degrees. Cook to hard crack stage (290 degrees), stirring often. Remove from heat.

Quickly, stir in Earth Balance and soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds. Pour at once onto prepared pans, spreading with spatula. If desired, cool slightly and pull with forks to stretch thin. Break into peices when cool.

makes bout 1-1/2 pounds of peanut brittle.

SurfSweets

In a perfect world…our littles would only eat sweets that
are made with organic fruit juice and sweeteners. They would
contain only natural colors and flavors, would supply 100% of
our daily vitamin C, be gluten free, made in a nut free facility
and be completely free of nasty high fructose corn syrup and GMOs.
We, as parents, wouldn’t have to feel guilty about letting our
kids (ok and ourselves) indulge a bit.

Some day, it will happen, far in the future, right? WRONG! The day is now and the candy is made by SurfSweets!

“Surf Sweets organically-sweetened gummy candies and jelly beans are
drenched in fresh fruit flavor. Free of artificial colors and sweeteners, these fun treats are great for kids and adults. Enjoy them any time you’re looking to add a smile to your day!”

One of my first stops, when I hit Chamberlin’s or the Whole Foods Market, is the candy aisle so I can stock up on SurfSweets. They aren’t available in my little rural town, so when I get into the big city of Oviedo, I take advantage of it! Find out where YOU can buy SurfSweets Candy close to your home by checking the handy dandy store locator  or for your convenience, SurfSweets can be purchased through a number of fine online retailers.

We were blessed recently with a selection of delicious SurfSweets candy to taste and tell you about today. SurfSweets Jelly Beans (my all time fave) Sour Berry Bears, Gummy Bears and yummy new Fruity Hearts!

I confess, I was tempted to hide this candy, so I could enjoy it at my leisure. But I caved and shared instead (ok, I hid the jelly beans and ate them by myself!) As usual, we loved ‘em!

New to the SurfSweet line are the yummy little Fruity Hearts – delicious little watermelon and cherry jelly hearts dusted with sugar! Too bad they’re only available for a short time or they might have replaced SurfSweet jelly beans in my affections!

SurfSweets is a company that gives back too by supporting organizations like The Ocean Project, Climate Cycle, FAAN, Kids With Food Allergies, EcoMom Alliance and Green Halloween. You can read more about their causes HERE

Want to try some of SurfSweet’s yummy awesomeness for yourself? Well you’re in luck today! The wonderful folks at SurfSweet want to give one of my readers a chance to win a great selection of their awesome products! Thank you so much!

Just climb aboard the Rafflecopter to enter!

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