French Lemon Cake

 

  I finished reading a very sweet memoir the other day called A Home Made Life by Molly Wizenburg.   In it Molly writes about the memories she has of her father when she was growing up, how she met her husband, and about the twist and turns in her young life.  And all of it is tied to food.  And at the end of each chapter, she gives the recipes for whatever food might have been mentioned in that chapter. There are fifty recipes in all and I want to try almost all of them. 

 

The first recipe that I decided to try was her recipe for a French Style Yogurt Cake With Lemon.

French Style Yogurt Cake With Lemon

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

1/2 cup well-stirred plain whole –milk yogurt (not low fat or nonfat)

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil, such as canola

For the Syrup:

1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 cup lemon juice

For the Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

3 Tbsp.  lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter or cooking spray.  Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, and grease it too. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add the lemon zest ad whisk to mix thoroughly. 

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs and stir to mix well.  Add the flour mixture and stir to just combine.  Add the oil and stir well.  ( I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer but was careful not to over beat or over mix so that I wouldn’t get a tough cake.) The batter will become pale and yellow.  Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.  Do not over bake. 

Cool the cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes.  Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake and remove the piece of parchment paper. Place the cake back on the cake rack and set the cake rack on a baking sheet. This way any of the syrup that drips off of the cake will catch in the baking sheet. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the syrup ingredients.  Spoon the syrup slowly over the top of the warm cake and let it soak in.  Cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine the icing ingredients.  Make sure the sugar is well dissolved.  Spoon the icing over the cooled cake. 

Wonderful served warm.  Wonderful served cold later on.

This cake is just plain lovely.

So very lemony and delicious.  The book and this recipe are highly recommended .  Molly also writes the blog Orangette.  It’s just as lovely as this recipe. 

French Lavender Eye Pillow

Quite some time ago, I saw an idea for how to make your own soothing eye pillow filled with lavender over at Centsational Girl.  I am talking about one of those pillows you hear about that you can put in your microwave to heat up or place in your freezer to cool down.  Either way, they bring soothing comfort and if filled with lavender…well, relaxation. :) 

Recently I saw a technique on how to transfer an image from your printer using freezer paper over at the blog called Home Frosting.  I thought it was a great idea and had to give it a try.  And then when I saw a graphic for a French Chocolate Label over at The Graphics Fairy, I knew that was what I wanted to use.  I wanted to transfer that graphic to some leftover “Painter’s Cloth” fabric that I had and then I wanted to take that fabric and create a microwaveable/freezable pillow with it.   And of course I had to add some lavender to it.  So I was able to combine all three of these ideas into one project.

First thing I did was read the  Home Frosting tutorial on how to transfer an image from your computer onto freezer paper.  It wasn’t too difficult.  It required me to cut a piece of freezer paper exactly the same size as piece of regular printer paper.   I am in the process of making another bag and since I didn’t take pictures of the French Chocolate Label after it printed out onto the freezer paper I thought I would show you here with this Graphics Fairy graphic of some old fashioned eye glasses. 

 

I just laid the printer paper over top of the freezer paper and cut around it.  I used some tape to keep it secure while I cut it out.  Be sure to leave the waxy side of the freezer paper exposed.  It is the waxy side that you will be printing on.   Then carefully load that into your printer so that when it prints it prints on the waxy side. 

I used the French Chocolate Label from The Graphics Fairy as I said.  Karen made it so easy by already giving you the mirror image graphic you will need for this project.  If you use some other image, you will have to flip it in your word processing program so that it prints out backwards.  It will look right side up after you transfer it. 

When your printout comes out of the printer, be careful not to bend or smear the image.  It will be wet.  Then immediately turn it over and carefully place the image on your fabric.  Tape all four corners to secure it.  Then take the back of a spoon and burnish or rub it firmly and to completely transfer the image from your waxy paper to the fabric.  When you are sure you are done, carefully lift up the paper and reveal your transferred image. 

Now, to make the actual Lavender/Rice filled bag, I followed the great tutorial over at Centsational Girl.   She actually ran her fabric right through her printer.  I wasn’t brave enough to do that quite yet.  :)   Click and go see how she made hers.  It’s a great tutorial and very easy to do. 

After I transferred the image to my fabric I cut out two pieces about 1/2 inch larger than I wanted my finished bag to be and then I sewed the fabric right sides together with my machine and left a small space open.  I used a funnel to get the rice and the lavender into the bag after I sewed it the fabric together.   I think I used about 3/4 rice to 1/4 lavender.  I found my lavender in the spice and herb section at The Fresh Market here in Greensboro.  I have seen other tutorials that mixed their lavender with some essential lavender oil.  I did not do that and really my bag still smells wonderful.  Now, I am not sure how long that will last but for right now I am okay without using the essential oil.  Then I sewed the opening closed.  It looks better if you hand sew your opening closed and that is what I will do if I make one of these for a gift.  But for today, I zipped it closed on my machine.

    

And here it is!  It has a old vintage look to it don’t you think?  It smells heavenly and it really does heat up in the microwave.  I micro-waved mine for about 20 seconds and it was nice and warm.  This will work nicely all warmed up in the wintertime. I can see myself climbing into bed with it on cold winter nights.  And  in the summertime or when a sore muscle is calling I’ll be pulling it out of the freezer. 

I think the new eye pillow I am working on with the old fashioned glasses is going to turn out cute.  I’ll keep you posted.  :)

I am linking up to Brag Monday over at The Graphics Fairy!

The Pentagon Memorial

 

On this 10 Anniversary of  the events that took place on 9/11,  I wanted to link to a post I did last year when we visited the Pentagon Memorial in Washington DC.  I have never seen anything on TV that talks about this memorial.  I think  many Americans might not even know it’s there.    It is an incredibly moving tribute.  Please click here to re-visit my post on The Pentagon Memorial.    Never forget.

Garlic and Herb Dipping Oil

God Bless Souffer’s and their Lasagna!    That is what we are having for dinner tonight.  Quick and easy and now that school has started, everyone is suddenly starving when they get home from school and work.  Tonight we are having lasagna and Caesar Salad.  And I also picked up a French baguette and mixed up a dish of Garlic and Herb Dipping Oil.   

Lot’s of restaurants serve a dipping oil in place of butter with their bread.  It’s easy to do at home and while I like my butter, this is a very delicious and healthier way to go.

Garlic and Herb Dipping Oil

Olive Oil, approximately 1/4 to 1/3 cup

1 to 2 cloves of garlic, pressed

Dried Basil, a pinch

Dried Oregano, a pinch

Dried Red Pepper Flakes, a couple of shakes

Salt and Pepper, a couple of shakes of each

Pour the olive oil onto a small serving plate.  I like to use a salad sized plate.  Press the garlic and stir it into the olive oil.  Add the “pinches” and “shakes” of the basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  (Scientific I know.)  :)

Stir all ingredients in the dish so they are evenly distributed.  Serve with fresh, sliced French or Italian Bread. 

Then dip away.  Careful, you’ll be tempted to eat more than you should but don’t do it!  There’s salad and lasagna still to go.

Trick or Treat Match Box Cover

I love this Halloween Trick or Treat image from The Graphics Fairy! So, I came up with a project to recover a box of matches so that I could use it. I was originally planning to decoupage the image onto the matchbox but when I remembered that my printer is an inkjet and that I would have to make my copies a on a “real” copy machine and have to get in my car to visit my local Kinkos, I came up with a different way to make it. (If you want to decoupage, you need to make your copies from a “real” copy machine otherwise the ink will run when you apply the decoupage medium. ) Anyway, since I didn’t want to have to make a car trip and I wanted to get started right away, I came up with the idea of using Scotch clear Shipping Tape and a Black Sharpie Pen. It worked!

Here is what you will need to get started:

A box of matches, Scotch clear Shipping Tape, Scotch tape, a Black Sharpie Pen, scissors, and printed copies of the image you want to use.

Here is how I did it:

1. Using my Black Sharpie Pen, I filled in the white space on each end of the box. Then I took the Pen and outlined the edges of the front and back of the match box (almost like coloring in a black frame ) to cover the bright red and yellow color on the edge of the box in case any of the edges were exposed after I attached the image.

2. I copied my image into my Word program and then played with the sizing by holding the box over the image on the screen to get it as close to the exact size of the top and bottom of the box that I needed. The match box is covered with the same image on both sides so print out two once you get it sized. Cut the image out with your scissors. I then Scotch taped the image onto the box by rolling a piece of tape onto itself, tacked to the back of the image and then centered it and fastened it to the front of the box. Repeat for the opposite side. This will help keep the image in place while stretch the clear shipping tape over it.

3. Next I covered the image with a stretch of the Scotch Shipping Tape. Slide the inside box of matches out of the cover so that you are only working with the outside cover. This way you do not “accidentally” tape your match box shut. Carefully apply the tape over the image and smoothed it down over the edge of the box so that it is “tucked smoothly” inside of the match box cover. I then applied a second stretch of the tape and butted it up right next to the edge of the first piece of tape and smoothed it down. Trim any excess tape if you need to with your scissors.

That’s it! The clear shipping tape helps protect your image and your newly covered matchbox.

I still might try making some more of these match box cover by decoupaging them to see if I like the finished product any better. I just have to make sure I have the right kind of copies made when I do.

This was quick and easy. Cheap to do too which is always a plus!

I am linking this post up to Brag Monday over at The Graphics Fairy. More projects to be seen there! Stop by.

Giveaway Winner

Thanks to all who entered the Giveaway!   With the help of the Random Number Generator at Random.Org, the winner of the one year subscription to Country Living Magazine goes to:

Erin from the blog The Fierce Beagle!  Congratulations Erin!!   Check out her blog, she is truly a gifted writer.  Erin,  I’ll be sending you an email shortly to get your mailing address. 

Enjoy the last of this three day weekend and have a Happy Labor Day. We’ll be relaxing and I’m sure there will be a grill involved at some point.  :)  

Country Living Magazine Giveaway!

I am giving away a Free Subscription to Country Living Magazine! 

I don’t say it enough but Thank You to Everyone who reads my blog! 

Summer is almost over and my favorite season starts (at least for me) on the other side of Labor Day. To win a one year subscription to Country Living Magazine, simply leave a comment here and tell us what was the most fun thing you did this summer. 

(Sorry but this is only open to residents of the US, and I must be able to get your mailing address easily for the subscription so sorry to any “anonymous” comments.)

For a second chance to win, go to my new Facebook Page for Pickles and Cheese and click on “Like” and come back here and leave me a second comment that you did so.  See……EASY!

I will announce the winner on Sunday, September 4, 2011