Ladies Brunch

This last weekend the hubs was gone so I had some of my girls over for brunch.
Why don't we do this more often girls?  It was fun and great to catch up!
The girls asked if I would be blogging brunch.....I didn't take photos of my own, but I thought I'd share our brunch menu anyway.

Brunch was scheduled at 10:30 and my first question was is that too early for soup?
Nobody said no, so I made Shutterbean's Carrot Coconut Soup.

Via

In the first two lines of her post Tracy (Shutterbean) says, "I made this soup twice in one week. That’s how good it is".  She is SO right.  This is my third time making this recipe in about a month or so.  The Sambal Olek is SPICY.  On attempt 2 of making the soup I added a tad less than a tablespoon.  This time, I was heavy handed (oops) and the soup was really spicy.  I added an extra can of coconut milk to take it down a notch and that worked great.  (I should note that I doubled the recipe, so I used 3 cans of coconut milk instead of two).  I made the soup the night before the brunch and it held up perfectly and re-heated well.

I also made a green salad.  I don't know what my deal is honestly.  I make salad ALL the time and its always different and good, if I don't say so myself.  It is the #1 thing people ask me to bring to parties, you make good salad, they say (thanks people!).  After all that I don't have a single green salad recipe on my own blog.  So, here is how my salad went (you pick the measurements for how big you want your salad to be):

Green leaf lettuce, washed & torn
Swiss Chard, washed and torn
Celery, sliced
Orange Bell Pepper, chopped
Avocado, chopped
Craisins
Golden Raisins
Sliced Almonds
Sunflower Seeds

I made this Champagne Vinaigrette and used my Trader Joe's Orange Muscat vinegar.

Via

Last but not least, I made Gluten Free Cranberry Corn Muffins.  I used this cornbread muffin recipe and made the following changes:

Replace 1 cup all purpose flour with 1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.
Use 2/3 cup of sugar (instead of 1/3).
Add 1 cup of fresh cranberries.
Cook as directed.

All in all this was a tasty lunch.  The sweet cornbread muffins with tart cranberry was a nice compliment to the creamy, spicy soup.  The salad made a good side for all the other good stuff we ate.  Most importantly, it was a fun day with the ladies.  Thanks ladies!

♥TCW

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

Oh Meyer Lemon, how I love you.

Living in Sacramento gives us great access to all kinds of fresh fruits and veggies, especially citrus.
I have a friend who says she can't understand why anyone living here would ever buy citrus.....there are so many trees to borrow from.

This is true.  It is in fact her tree, from which I borrowed the Meyer lemons to make this pound cake.
Thanks Coco!

This could easily be served as a brunch item or dessert.
We ate it for dessert after scrumptious carne asada made by my Ironmommy.  Yum.

I'm sure plain lemon pound cake is good, but I really believe the Meyer lemons make a difference.  They have such a sweetness and even more so when baked.

This recipe was inspired by this one.

Ingredients:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Unsalted butter to grease your baking dish
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of two Meyer lemons
1/3 cup olive oil (that's right, olive oil)
1 1/2 tablespoons milk (I used 2%)
3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I used the Trader Joe's low-fat version)
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Note - you'll need a few clean bowls for this recipe.  Lot's of bowls happening.

Limoncello Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Limoncello* (feel free to substitute with fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice)
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

How to:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Pre-heat your oven to 325
Line the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper
Grease the pan and paper with unsalted butter
Melt your unsalted butter and set it aside
Sift flour, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and mix well
Whisk 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form, transfer to a separate bowl**
Add 2 egg yolks, sugar and lemon zest to your clean mixer bowl.  Beat on medium until the mixture turns light yellow and forms ribbons when beater is lifted, transfer to mixture to another bowl
Add olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt and lemon juice to your clean mixer bowl, whisk at low speed until combined
If using a stand mixer, switch to your paddle attachment
Add flour to the olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt, lemon juice mixture
Drizzle in melted butter and mix until combined
Add in the egg yolk, sugar and lemon zest mixture and mix until combined
At this time you should have combined all of your bowls except the egg whites
Fold in the egg whites to the mixture by hand
Now all your pound cake ingredients should be in one bowl, mixed
Pour the batter into the prepared pan
Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan
(while the cake is baking you can get started on the glaze)
Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes
When done the cake should be golden and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean
Transfer the pound cake to a wire rack to cool
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

Limoncello Glaze
Using your mixer (again) with a clean bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, limoncello (if you're using it) and Meyer lemon juice***
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

*You can buy Limoncello at most well stocked groceries.  We have an Italian grocery nearby that stocks several varieties.  I happened to have Meyer Limoncello that my mom made from the same Meyer lemon tree where I got the lemons from.
**I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to make this, so I whisked the egg whites first, transferred them to a different bowl, rinsed out my mixer bowl and then did the next step.
***You can increase or decrease either ingredient to get the consistency to your liking.  I like the glaze on the thinner side.

When I make this cake again, I will pour the glaze over on a different dish than I'm using to serve.  You can see in the pictures that there was a pool of glaze around this cake.  My step-dad enjoyed sopping up the glaze with his cake, so I suppose it all worked out, but, that said, I think it would be more eye appealing if it wasn't drowning in glaze.

The cake itself is super moist and refreshing tasting.  This would make a great Easter dish.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. If you could give me a Facebook like over here that would be awesome!

Have a great day,
♥TCW