So, how was Mother’s Day? Mine was extremely quiet and uneventful which sounds boring but was really nice! My oldest son called and we ended up chatting for over two hours. That usually does not happen but I guess we were both rather lonely for each other. He comes home the end of this month. Did I mention he comes home the end of this month? Not that I am excited. I always want to bake lots of things for him and feed him well but he is very much into grilled chicken breast/fresh green beans from the garden, gee thanks mom, I don’t want dessert. :/ He is busy creating muscles on his muscles.

Not so with my other children. The sweeter the better. Chris was always a little weird.

Did I mention he was coming home at the end of this month? ..Excited? Me? No, not at all, why do you ask?

Marc, on the other hand, has a sweet tooth the size of Alaska. Funny story…..We got married in 1980. I was rather naive about people’s eating habits because I grew up in a family where my mom did not cook, I was an only child, and I was an anorexic..I grabbed a lettuce leaf or a carrot every few days to sustain me. Marc, on the other hand, grew up eating. Lots. Snacks, cookies, pies, cakes….

SO…. we get married and I want to show my new husband that I am not just HOT I am a HOT cook. I made 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and a full dinner with dessert. I thought that the cookies would be a great snack for him for the week. He walked in the door and I put the platter of cookies on the coffee table and went back to finishing dinner.

When I called him for dinner he had finished half the cookies off. He then ate dinner AND dessert …and went back to finish off the cookies. My visions of being organized and planning ahead ..uh….crumbled. And that has been the way it is ever since. Cookies last no more that 1-2 hours here. Period. Leftover cake or pie? Right. You might as well hope to snow ski down the courthouse steps in downtown Dallas in July.

One of Marc’s favorite cookies is lemon bars. He likes the tangy-ness of them. When I came up with these slightly more tangy lime bars he was a happy, happy man. The secret to the taste in these is the just barely there whisper of rose-vanilla in the shortbread layer. Top these with some candied rose petals and they become impressive tea table fare.

If there are any left, which there probably won’t be..but IF, then just wrap them and keep them in the fridge.

Key Lime Bars

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp rose water flavoring
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lime peel

Powdered sugar for dusting.Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl. Add the butter, vanilla, and rosewater and cut in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Press mixture into bottom of 9×13x2-inch baking dish that has been buttered.

Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

Whisk eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, lime juice, 1 tablespoon flour and lime peel in medium bowl to blend. Pour into crust. Bake until mixture is set, about 20 minutes. Cool.

Cut into 24 bars.

Sift powdered sugar over top before serving.

Oh, and hey, did I mention my son was coming home the end of this month? No, I am not excited in the least…

Image:Marye Audet

Content:Marye Audet for Baking Delights

Post from: Baking Delights

This is my entry for Apples & Thyme, hosted this month by Marla, of Bella Baita View.

And..it is long.

I learned to love homemade jam at my Aunt Bernie’s house in Michigan. She had a farm, and I decided she had not only the perfect life, but the best farm ever. She grew raspberries, and strawberries by the gross it seemed. We spent several weeks in the summers at her place. There was nothing quite like waking up in the morning and smelling coffee wafting up the stairs, picking up the scent of old house and musty books, to mingle with the scents of hay, and cows, and fresh summer that the breeze was blowing through the window. If Yankee Candle Company came up with that scent I would buy it!

Running down the steep stairs and into the kitchen I would see her, sipping scalding coffee, and slowly chewing on a light biscuit covered with homemade jam while she read the paper. She and I were the early risers of the house. She would smile and ask me if I would like one, and then got up and made it for me.

This was different than my own home where my mom was a late sleeper, and you waited on yourself. It was faintly unnerving to sit and allow someone to make something for you that you could make yourself. Unnerving but deliciously decadent.

She would talk to me about whatever my current interests were: saving the wild horses, Peter Maxx artwork, owning a farm of my own someday, wild life rehabilitation…

She was the undisputed Queen of her siblings when it came to food and cooking, crafts, home improvement, and decorating. She was admired for many things. The most amazing was lifting a two year old colt up off of a spike that he had impaled his neck on. He was stuck on back feet, front feet off the ground and this woman lifted him up enough to get him off that spike. I determined that I would be like her if at all possible.

I think I am. I do many of the things she did. I see evidence of her when I sew, or when I craft, or when I am faux finishing my parlor. I see her in the scalding coffee I love, and the cooking I do. But nothing says Aunt Bernie like homemade jam. At least to me.

I don’t see my cousins at all, and haven’t been back to Michigan since 1985. All of my mom’s siblings have passed away, and she was the last to pass, about five years ago. But I am willing to bet that if any of the cousins was to come upon this post they would smile and agree, knowing exactly what I am talking about.

My thanks to Inge, Jeni, and Marla for encouraging this trip down memory lane.

We are entering in to the main part of strawberry season here in Texas and I was really blessed to pick up a flat of berries for less than $10.00. Now, saying that, I can remember buying flats for less than $5.00 and feeling as if I was paying dearly. Sigh.

Anyway. I had decided that I was making jam this year. There was a time that I made jam every single year but I had gotten out of the habit. Finally, with all of the recalls, and other food issues over the past couple of years I decided I was going back to eating the real thing, or none at all. Once I tasted my homemade jam I could not, for the life of me, think why I had ever stopped making it. The flavor is so much fresher and more real. It is sparkling and fruity, rather than cloyingly sweet.

If you have never made jam try it. It isn’t difficult, nor is it particularly time consuming. If you are new to canning I suggest starting with the freezer jam recipe that is available in packets of Sure-jell or Certo. I use either of these, but not off brands. I never do well with the store brand. In fact, the jam pictured was made with Kroger brand pectin and it is a little drippy.

I made this a little different. As you can see I am still playing with the strawberry, key lime, and rose combination. This jam is very strawberry tasting at first, then the lime comes through, and finally the faint rose taste lingers on the tongue.

Oh, and once you make it? Slather it on one of the following:

Key Lime and Rose Muffins

Buttermilk Yeast Bread

Biscuits

Strawberry, Rose & Key Lime Jam

2 qts strawberries, washed hulled, and crushed.

1 package Sure-Jell powdered pectin

1/4 c key lime juice

1 Tbs Rose water

7 cups sugar (full 7 cups!)

Combine crushed berries, juice, pectin, and rosewater in a large pan. Bring to a boil stirring once in awhile to keep from sticking. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Return it to a rolling boil and boil hard for one minute stirring constantly.

Remove from heat. If there is any foam on top, skim it off and discard. Ladle Jam in hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

4 pints jam.

All images (c) Marye Audet, Apron Strings and Simmering Things

Apples and Thyme image used by permission, Vanielje Kitchen

All other content (c)Marye Audet for Baking Delights

Post from: Baking Delights

  You can’t often find key limes in the produce section but the juice is available. It is usually right by the lemon juice on the shelves.  If not, I did check Amazon and they have several types available. Do not substitute lime juice here, it just won’t work.

1 baked crust or,

1 graham cracker crust or, my favorite,

1 gingersnap crumb crust

2 cans eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

2 egg yolks

1 c key lime juice

1 pint heavy cream, whipped and sweetened

1. Whisk the egg yolks and condensed milk together until smooth.

2.Add lime juice and  whisk until thickened

3 Pour into desired crust and bake at 350 15 minutes

4.Chill for about 2 hours

5. Top with whipped cream

Post from: Baking Delights