citrus salad

My fridge has been rather barren of late. Holidays and travel and work have robbed it of it's bounty and sapped me of time or energy to make stuff.

So last night when an intense chocolate craving hit, and my sad half stick of butter made it virtually impossible to bake something (excuses), rather than going to the store to get more butter (which would have been the logical thing), I drove 20 minutes each way to get my sorry self a sinfully rich chocolate/peanut butter cupcake.

It was SO worth it.

But thanks to a quick Whole Foods run for milk and bananas the other morning (which turned into a long Whole Foods run for milk, bananas, blueberries, citrus, bacon, cheese, cookies and other stuff), I found my fridge stocked with just enough good stuff to make this wonderful salad for snack today.

It's a perfect way to use those beautiful winter citruses, and I think you'll find it refreshing and incredibly energizing as I did. I felt so great afterwards that I probably would have been annoyingly upbeat to anyone who might have been around. Fortunately I was alone.

Citrus Salad
Serves 1-2

1 grapefruit
2 blood oranges
2 clementines
1/2 -1 whole avocado, depending on preference 
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Olive oil
Sea salt and Fresh ground pepper
Salad greens, optional

Section all the citrus into a bowl. (Here's a helpful tutorial if you need it.) Slice the avocado and add it to the bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lime over the fruit. Drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Toss gently. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Eat as is, or serve (mostly drained) over greens (like watercress or arugula or baby greens).

I ate it first with watercress, then ended up eating the rest straight from the bowl and actually preferred it like that!

things i think you should do

1. Make this for lunch (I added feta and topped it with watercress).

2. Make this for guests (or hey, just for you).

3. Watch this for laughs.

Hope you had a fab 4th weekend! 

I've been living in some sort of twilight zone: it's been all eating and celebrating and hanging out with friends and fam, folks. I'm trying to remember what normal life looks like and hoping you had a similar experience.

Back to regular scheduled programming sooon!

coconut lime cupcakes with basil lime cream cheese frosting

The other day I had a life-altering experience when I randomly decided to stop for a cup of gelato on my way home. I saw this flavor called coconut basil. I tasted it. I got a whole cupful of it.

Those spoonfuls of creamy coconut basil heaven may have been the best ten minutes of my day, but I would never admit that.

For the rest of the afternoon I obsessed over how else I could combine those two flavors. Soup? Rice? Fish? Cupcakes? Cupcakes.

These are the things I think about.

 

 These are fantastically sweet and coconut-y with a hint of lime zing to them. I do wish the flavor of the basil would have come through more in the frosting though. Next time I make these I will be trying other basil-adding methods. But I have to finish these up first.

So now I am single-handedly ridding the world of coconut lime cupcakes with basil lime cream cheese frosting. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it. And I am winning the battle...these cupcakes don't know what hit them.

Coconut Lime Cupcakes with Basil Lime Cream Cheese Frosting 

Makes 12 cupcakes

Recipe adapted from the Neelys

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon coconut extract

2 T. fresh lime juice   

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 T. lime zest

3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes, ground up in food processor

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

Into a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Using a hand held mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time until just combined. Add vanilla, coconut extract, and lime juice. Add buttermilk and dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix. Mix in the lime zest and shredded coconut.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks before frosting.

Frosting:

1 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 stick (4 T.) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 T. fresh lime juice

1 tsp. lime zest

1/4 cup finely chopped basil (I put mine in the food processor)

approx. 4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup toasted sweetened coconut flakes, for garnish

Using a hand-held mixer beat cream cheese and butter together until light and smooth. Add vanilla extract, lime juice and zest, and basil and combine. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time until thoroughly incorporated and at desired consistency. Add more sugar if desired texture is not reached. Adjust flavors as desired.

Pour coconut flakes evenly onto a baking sheet. Place in 350-degree oven for 5-7 minutes, stirring often and keeping an eye on them so they do not burn. Remove when golden-brown.

Frost cupcakes and garnish with toasted coconut flakes.

Lemon "cupcakes"

 I use quotation marks because I almost want to call these muffins. 

Muffins with cream cheese frosting. 

Could there be a better muffin?

 They are sweet, but not overly sweet. And the texture is more dense, similar to that of a muffin or maybe even a pound cake. Either way, they taste quite good. I felt bad because I was asked to make cupcakes for an event, and well, I had 24 of whatever-you-want-to-call-these, and no time to throw together anything else, so I brought these muff-cakes. 

Anyway, people seemed to like them. And I ate like 3 of them beforehand, because for some reason I thought that if I kept tasting them, I could be convinced that they were in fact cupcakes. It didn't work, and I just ended up 3 cupcakes fatter.

Ah well.

A veritable cupcake army!

Lemon Cream Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe adapted from here and here

Makes 24-30 cupcakes

CUPCAKES

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 T. grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp lemon extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sour cream

FROSTING:

1/2 cup butter

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 T. Lemon Juice

1 tsp almond extract

approx. 6-7 cups of powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with paper cups (or grease it).

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add lemon zest and extracts; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

For frosting, cream butter in a small mixing bowl. Add softened cream cheese, and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and almond extract. Beat on high until smooth. Add powdered sugar, adding more until desired consistency. You may also play with the lemon juice measurements if it is not lemon-y enough for you. Frost cooled cupcakes.

oh snap

I don't really have a whole lot of interesting things to say today, so let's just get right down to business, shall we?

Gingersnaps with Lemon-Ginger cream filling... 
 

Make these cookies if you want to impress people. 

They come out perfect, zingy, delicious, addictive.

They are delightfully chewy with just a bit of crisp on the outside edges.

Basically, exactly what you would want from a gingersnap.

And the filling, well let's just say the filling is something that you're gonna have to stop yourself from eating by the spoonful before it even makes it to it's rightful place between the cookies.

And now I'm salivating.

Find the recipe right here.