(Photo by foodmuse)
...you don't only have to make lemonade! After a successful attempt at cooking for my boyfriend for the first time, I baked cookies for him and his family for Christmas, using a standby recipe. A few months ago, my boyfriend and I went through the time-consuming (but rewarding) process of cooking wonton soup, making our little dumplings from scratch (minus the store-bought wrappers) and wrapping them each by hand:
No lemons were used in the making of this yummy soup, though. However, they were definitely used in our next cooking experiment: linguine with shrimp scampi. Knowing that we both like shrimps and wanted a quicker dish to cook than wonton soup, it seemed like a great choice -- and it was!
My boyfriend and I actually ended up cooking dinner for his parents, his brother, his brother's girlfriend, and us! We also used lemons to make lemon Italian ice, based off of a lime Italian Ice recipe. However, it took a lot longer than expected for the dish to freeze in his parents' freezer, so I never got to taste the fruits of our labor.
Instead, I was stuck with six leftover lemons from my lemon shopping spree (I had originally bought ten fresh lemons, unsure of how many would be needed to equal the recipes' measurements -- no bottled, concentrated stuff for me!). I have found a few personal uses for those lemons in the subsequent weeks. For example, I've used lemons on a couple occasions to make a variation of the linguine with shrimp scampi dish to feed myself. Instead of using shrimp, which I didn't have on hand, I used eggs to get my protein. I also added tomatoes to the dish. Something else I added was thinly sliced lemon skins -- essentially lemon zest:
(Photo by kightp)
I was surprised to find out neither my boyfriend nor his parents were familiar with zest. The colored layer of citrus fruits' rinds contains oils that can really flavor food. You can read more about it here. We ended up not putting any zest in the linguine with shrimp scampi, but that didn't stop me from put some in my future pasta dishes:
For my boyfriend's graduation BBQ, I also added fresh lemon juice and zest to cookies and their accompanying glaze: Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze. Ricotta cheese may sound like a strange ingredient to add to cookie dough, but it gives the cookies a soft, cake-like texture. The cookies have a light taste, so the glaze gives them an extra zing. The glaze would probably be good for other baked goodies, too:
It was hot today, and I tried my hand at making lemon Italian ice, using water, granulated sugar, fresh lemon juice, and lemon zest. It's currently still freezing, and I hope the results are worth it. I've been craving Italian ice, a popular frozen treat on the East Coast that is also known as water ice in Philadelphia. I tried this treat a few times when I was living in Philly last summer (I recommend Philly Flavors), but I have yet to find a place here in California that sells it. The texture is softer and creamier than a sno cone, since it has finer ice particles:
Yum! Also today, I finished off my last lemon with another linguine with shrimp scampi variation, this time with green beans, egg, and a handful of shrimps from a friend. I think I may need to buy some more lemons in the future: They're versatile fruits that give dishes, whether they're savory or sweet, some extra flavor, and they seem so fitting for this time of year. Hope these ideas are helpful for anyone who has extra lemons on hand. What are your favorite dishes with lemon?
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