Testing limits...

I still have lessons to learn when it comes to my allergies to lemons. Like... don't eat it. It was our turn to bring snack for Youth Group and Bronwyn was all about lemon cookies. This recipe - is an absolute winner. I did not zest or juice the lemons - she did that for me. I did mix them up and bake them and tried a very tiny one made from extra dough. Oh heavenly. Soft, pillowy, lemony. SO GOOD! On the night of Youth Group - I ate one before we left. Left my purse - and meds - at home and off we went. For a good part of the evening I couldn't feel my mouth or upper lip. So yeah... they made me promise not to do that again. Not the forgetting my purse part - the eating a lemon cookie. So now the leftovers sit - on my counter - wishing to be eaten by me and knowing... I shouldn't. I promise to let my family enjoy them and stay far far away.

Lemon Cookie Recipe
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 Tbsp lemon zest
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar, for rolling cookies

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.
Add in the lemon juice and egg, beat again to combine.
Gradually add in the flour, baking soda and salt, mixing by hand with a spatula until combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Place 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl for rolling the cookies.
Use a cookie scoop to form balls, rolling each ball into the sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges have a faint golden color.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Roll it, spread it, pour over and bake.

Why are Mondays so hard? Even when they really aren't? I have been trying to plan easier meals on Mondays just in case Monday are rough. While yesterday wasn't really rough - premaking these Lasagna Roll Ups sure made dinner easy. Andy pulled it from the fridge during his lunch and then I popped it in the oven when I got home. Dinner was ready when every was home from wherever they were and no one had to work too hard for it. I did spend my Saturday morning making it - but by Monday night? That's long forgotten. My weeknight self often appreciates my weekend self for meal prep. These Roll Ups were actually very easy to make. Boil some noodles, cook some meat, spread some filling, roll up, pour sauce, and sprinkle cheese. These would also probably freeze well. I did all 18 lasagna noodles in the box because what are you going to do with 3-6 random noodles in a box? Also we like extra noodles. For sure a "make again" from all at the table.

Cheesy Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

12-15 lasagna noodles
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1, 10 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. parsley (fresh, roughly chopped)
10 oz. Mozzarella cheese (fresh) (shredded (about 2.5 cups))
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (shredded)
1/3 cup Asiago cheese (shredded)
1/3 cup Romano cheese (shredded)
1/2 tsp. salt and pepper (to taste)
16. oz. Ground Italian Sausage, cooked (optional)
1 (24 oz.) jar Marinara of choice

Cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions. Using tongs, carefully remove them from the stockpot and align them on parchment or wax paper, side by side. Preheat oven to 375°F.
For the cheese filling: In a mixing bowl stir together the thawed spinach (moisture squeezed out), ricotta cheese, egg, parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a separate bowl, combine the Mozzarella cheese, Asiago cheese, Parmesan cheese and Romano cheese. Stir 2 cups of the cheese into the ricotta/egg mixture and reserve leftover cheese for sprinkling on the roll ups prior to baking.
To assemble lasagna roll ups: Spread 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture evenly along length of the noodles (You can just use your hands, it's easier). Add meat on top of cheese, if using.
Roll noodles up jelly roll style to opposite end. Pour about 1 cup of the marinara sauce into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Place lasagna roll ups in baking dish then cover the top with remaining marinara sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake in preheated oven 30-35 minutes, or until heated through.
Let cool for ~5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy with more red sauce on top if desired.

Salt Appropriately - unlike me.

This crew loves a good mushroom and chicken dish, add some orzo and we are talking a winner. This was a pretty easy dish for a Tuesday night. We even had Marsala wine which was a winner. I will say that I did add extra chicken broth since it seems to get sucked up pretty quickly by the orzo. Did I add way too much salt? Oh my goodness yes... WAY too much. We did all enjoy it - but we also needed a lot of water. For reference the next night I really undersalted what I was making. I believe in over or under - rarely getting it just right. Ehhh. Oh well.

Marsala Chicken Orzo
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup orzo pasta
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped for garnish
Instructions
Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Cook the chicken for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and fully cooked.
Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
Prepare the Mushrooms:
In the same skillet, melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms for 4-5 minutes until browned.
Add the minced garlic and dried thyme, cooking for 1 minute until fragrant.
Deglaze with Marsala Wine:
Pour in the Marsala wine, scraping the skillet to release browned bits.
Let the wine simmer for 2-3 minutes to reduce slightly.
Add chicken broth to the skillet and bring to a gentle simmer.
Stir in the orzo and cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente, stirring occasionally.
Reduce the heat to low and stir in the heavy cream until the sauce is creamy and smooth.
Return the chicken to the skillet to warm through. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Garnish with fresh parsley and serve hot.

A party planner I am not

For well over 6 months I've been planning a tea party. Why yes that is what I said - a tea party! Our girls club at church this year has been blessed with a prayer partner for each girl (which wasn't the easiest to wrangle but I'm getting better at twisting older women's arms but not breaking them). To almost finish off the season we had a night where the prayer partners came and worked on an etiquette badge with the girls (one on one) and then they enjoyed a tea party together complete with tea (and hot cocoa), cupcakes, and sugar cookies. This all took quite a bit of planning and trying to lay it all out so I could get the baking done and decor done. I opted to bake ahead and make the cookie cut outs ahead. For the cupcakes I baked them about 10 days early and froze them so all I needed to do was thaw, make frosting and pipe them. The cookies I rolled them out, cut them out and froze them, then stacked with parchment paper. I baked them a day or two before and they worked out perfectly. It really made the stress of the event less that I had premade all the goodies. The evening turned out wonderful - the ladies and girls all had a wonderful time and the treats were wonderful. These cookies were great - not super sweet - the sprinkles added the extra sweetness and did not need any extra frosting - but I'm sure you could add some if you want to. When baking I let them sit on the tray a few minutes so they weren't rock hard - they did not spread at all, they baked perfect with maybe a few extra minutes than what the recipe recommends since they were out of the freezer.

Rainbow Funfetti Cut-out Cookies
1 c (two sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of almond extract
2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1 tsp salt
1/2 c rainbow jimmies
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar and whip until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and extracts and mix until well combined.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder then add to the wet mixture one cup at a time until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated.
Add sprinkles and mix until just combined.
Divide the dough into evenly sized pieces and roll out on lightly floured parchment paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch.
Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes until done.

Procrastinating the Procrasibaking

I've been dreaming of this focaccia since I first saw pictures online of similar recipes. It felt really daunting so I avoided it for quite a while, but it's not dauting... at all. Actually - it's honestly a lot of sitting around and waiting. Not that we sat around for any of the waiting - not a busy Saturday in our household. This was going to be breakfast for Sunday morning but after a 14 hour Saturday work day for Andy... we all sat around the counter and dug in. It was worth the effort and all the overthinking. The texture was almost an apple fritter so I may try to do one with apples next time. It's rare that my kids actually tell me to save a recipe to make again - and everyone has seconds... but it happened and oh man I will certainly be making this again. Also planning more sweet flavors because yes and yes!

Brown Butter Cinnamon Roll Focaccia
500g (4 cups) white bread flour (12% protein or higher)
390-420ml (1.75 cups) warm water
15ml (1 Tablespoon) extra virgin olive oil
6g (1.5 teaspoons) instant yeast
5g (1 teaspoon) honey
10g (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt

Whisk together warm water, olive oil, honey and yeast. Stir in bread flour and salt. Cover and rest at room temp for 15 minutes.
Stretch + fold the dough over itself and rotate the bowl a quarter turn - do this about 8 times around the bowl. Cover and rest at room temp for 15 minutes.
Repeat the stretch + folds once more, cover and proof at room temp for 1-1.5 hours.
While the dough is proofing, make the cinnamon filling.

Cinnamon Filling:
1/2 cup (115g) salted butter, browned
1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
1.5 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the browned butter with the brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Set aside.
When the dough has finished proofing, line the parchment on the tray with 2 tbsp melted salted butter instead of olive oil. Transfer the dough to the tray (9x13 inch) and gently stretch the dough to edges. Spread half of the filling over the dough and fold up as seen in this video. Flip the dough over and cover to finish proofing at room temp for 1-1.5 hours.
Preheat oven to 420F, place rack in lowest position.
You’ll need to warm up the cinnamon sugar butter to make it drizzling consistency again (it hardens as it cools). Spread over the top of dough evenly and dimple in.
Bake for 18-23 minutes.
While it bakes, whisk up the glaze:
1 cup (125g) powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp (30-45ml) milk
Dash vanilla extract
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Drizzle over the focaccia once it’s out of oven, brush on top, sides and bottom (rubbing the bottom in tray that’s been brushed with the glaze).
Transfer to cooling rack for glaze to harden (about 15 mins!).