Today is my birthday and my husband, who has never baked a cake on his own, baked me a carrot cake completely from scratch!

When we were in Madera for Thanksgiving, I rummaged through my aunt’s recipe cards and found a few more of my mom’s recipes that I didn’t have.  One of the recipes was for a carrot cake that I remember eating when I was young.  I love carrot cake so I was thrilled to have a new (old) recipe to try!

When Justin surprised me by asking what kind of cake I wanted today, I first requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, a classic combination that I’ve always loved.  But at the last minute, I remembered my newly acquired carrot cake recipe and asked if he would be willing to give that a try instead.

I have to say that I’m pretty impressed.  Not only did he find all the ingredients on his own, he did absolutely everything without my help.  My only assigned tasks were carrot grating and pan greasing.  My husband normally does nothing in the kitchen besides making the occasional sandwich, so this new baking development is a rather nice surprise!

I have had a great birthday!  We went out to lunch and then I spent the afternoon shopping with birthday money and gift certificates.  I’ve been receiving birthday cards, phone calls, e-mails, text messages, as well as facebook and twitter greetings all day long.  Birthdays are so much fun in this digital age!  Thanks, everyone!

In addition to my birthday, today is the last day of November and therefore this is my last post for NaBloPoMo.  I shared a recipe with you every day this month (with the exception of Thanksgiving) and I’m finishing it off by sharing my mom’s carrot cake recipe, complete with cream cheese frosting!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Carrot Cake

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (about 4 medium/large carrots)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together first six ingredients.  Stir in oil then stir in eggs, one a time.  Add carrots and stir until well blended then add nuts.  Divide batter between two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans and bake in preheated oven, 30-35 minutes for the 8-inch pans or 35-45 minutes for the 9-inch pans.  Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for ten minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Edit 12/01/08: We decided that the cream cheese frosting from my mom’s recipe was way too sweet so I’ve removed it and am sharing another cream cheese frosting recipe that allows more of the cream cheese flavor to come through.  Hope you enjoy it!

2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar and blend until well combined.  Blend in vanilla extract.  Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting is at room temp, beat with mixer til smooth).

I am so happy to be participating in my second Daring Bakers challenge. I have to tell you that I had my doubts about pulling this one off. It’s been such a hectic month for me and even though I swore I wouldn’t put another challenge off to the last minute, the end of the month crept up faster than I realized. But this month’s recipe featured my all-time favorite dessert ingredient…CARAMEL! So I just couldn’t bring myself to skip it.

This month’s challenge is a Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon, as published on Bay Area Bites. The co-hosts for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge are Dolores of Culinary Curiosity, Jenny of Foray into Food, and Alex of Blondie and Brownie. Natalie from Gluten-a-Go-Go assisted with making gluten-free changes to the original recipe this month.

Although I love to eat just about anything with caramel, I’ve only made it from scratch a couple of times. I’m certainly not a caramel expert, and with my time crunch this month, I only had one shot to get this cake done right. Talk about pressure!

Luckily, Shuna took the time to answer all of our questions and gave us tons of guidance on this challenge. Since I waited so long to make it, I was able to read about some of the problems others had experienced and I had the benefit of reading Shuna’s answers to questions that I probably would have asked if I had attempted the cake earlier in the month.

The cake was a little time consuming, but it came together beautifully. The caramelized butter frosting has an amazing flavor but it’s definitely sweeter than I normally like. At first I thought that the cake with the frosting was just too sweet for me and I was a little disappointed. But by the second day, I had completely fallen in love with it and ate two slices before sending the rest with my husband to work. It got rave reviews from everyone who tried it.

The cake and frosting compliment each other beautifully, the trick is to use only a thin layer of frosting so that the sweetness isn’t overwhelming. I’ve decided that I will make this cake again in the future but will make a smaller amount of frosting and will frost only the top of the cake. I think the frosting would also be great for cupcakes if used sparingly.

All in all, this was a great challenge and I can’t wait to see what we’ll be working on next month! Be sure to check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see who else is participating!

Caramel Cake
Recipe courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

Caramel Syrup

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for “stopping” the caramelization process)
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Caramelized Butter Frosting
Recipe courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner’s sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

This morning my Aunt Kathy and I woke up early to make lemon shortbread. I’ve never made shortbread before, but it’s always been one of my favorite cookies. And I loved the idea of adding lemon zest to my aunt’s standard shortbread recipe.

When we dug out the recipe this morning, I saw that it’s made with brown sugar rather than white sugar. I wasn’t sure if I would like the combination of brown sugar and lemon in the shortbread, so we decided to do an experiment. We made two batches of shortbread, one with brown sugar and one with white sugar. We also used two different types of lemons to see which zest would impart the best flavor. To the brown sugar batch we added the zest of a meyer lemon and to the white sugar batch we added regular lemon zest.

The results of our experiment were this: we prefer regular lemon zest over meyer lemon zest in the cookies and we prefer lemon-flavored shortbread to be made with white sugar. However, I liked the flavor of the brown sugar shortbread so much that it will definitely become my standard non-lemon shortbread recipe.

Today I’m including two different recipes, one for Lemon Shortbread and one that I’m calling Brown Sugar Shortbread. The recipes are identical except for the color of the sugar and the addition or omission of lemon zest. They’re both absolutely delicious!

Lemon Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add lemon zest and blend well. By hand, stir in flour a little at a time. Dough will be crumbly, so dump it out onto a counter top or pastry board and work it together by hand until smooth. Pat or roll dough out into a rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into small squares, rectangles or diamonds (whichever you prefer). Arrange cookies on ungreased baking sheet (I use parchment paper for easy cleanup) and bake 20-25 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven until the bottom edges are just starting to brown.

Brown Sugar Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. By hand, stir in flour a little at a time. Dough will be crumbly, so dump it out onto a counter top or pastry board and work it together by hand until smooth. Pat or roll dough out into a rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into small squares, rectangles or diamonds (whichever you prefer). Arrange cookies on an ungreased baking sheet (I use parchment paper for easy cleanup) and bake 20-25 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven until the bottom edges are just starting to brown.

The dough will be crumbly, but just work it together by hand until it's smooth and holds together.

We shaped the first batch into a circle, but ended up with some tiny funny shaped pieces (they turned out to be good 'sample' pieces). Shaping the second batch into a rectangle worked better.

My aunt cut the first batch into diamonds but they were larger than we planned. We ended up cutting them in half and turning them into smaller triangles instead!

We placed the triangles on a parchment lined sheet and ended up baking them for 25 minutes because they were rather thick.

For the second batch, I managed to shape the dough into a rectangle.

I'm not good at cutting diamonds so I just cut the second batch of shortbread into simple squares. I need to practice before trying to cut any other shapes!

The thinner squares baked for 20 minutes at 325 degrees. We removed them when the bottom edges were just starting to color.

The cookies on the left were made with white sugar and the ones on the right were made with brown sugar. Both had lemon zest, but next time I won't add lemon zest to the brown sugar shortbread.

Overall, we really enjoyed both types of shortbread. The light-colored ones had a delicate buttery lemon flavor while the brown sugar shortbread was richer and slightly more intense. I recommend trying them both!

Related Recipes:

• Lemon Curd
• Giant Lemon Sugar Cookies
• Easy Lemon Cake
• Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

Around the Web:

• Hearst Castle Shortbread Cookies from 101 Cookbooks
• Twice-Baked Shortbread from Smitten Kitchen
• Shortbread Cookies from Simply Recipes
• Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread from Butter Sugar Flour

I made this on a whim late last night and it was still cooling when I went to bed. Since the recipe was completely improvised, I had no idea if it was successful until I woke up this morning. So when I rolled out of bed (way too early), the first thing I did was cut into the cake!

While I wouldn’t suggest eating cake for breakfast on a regular basis, this Pumpkin Spice Cake turned out to be the perfect day-before-Thanksgiving breakfast for my husband and I. It was moist, spicy, and delicious…exactly what I was hoping for!

I’ve always loved spice cakes served with nothing more than a sprinkling of powdered sugar on top. This cake is moist enough to stand on it’s own, and serving it without frosting or glaze allows the warm and wonderful spices to shine.

This recipe is loosely based on a Walnut Spice Cake recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook. But I added some ingredients, removed others, and changed amounts of the remaining ingredients, so it really was quite an improvisation. I also changed the method, so it’s simple to put together, much like a quick bread. In fact, you could really say this is a quick bread that is baked in a Bundt pan. Call it what you like, I say it’s delicious, easy, and worth baking!

Pumpkin Spice Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a Bundt pan (or even better, use Baker’s Joy spray).

2. In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.

3. In a large bowl combine eggs, sour cream, pumpkin, and oil. Beat well with a hand mixer (or use a stand mixer), scraping down sides with a spatula, until everything is well blended. Add flour mixture a little at a time, beating well after each addition, until everything is well combined. Scrape down sides, then blend in the vanilla extract.

4. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake in the center of a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack for ten minutes, then invert cake onto wire rack and let cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar immediately before serving if desired.

Yield: 10-12 servings

Recipe Notes: *Pumpkin pie spice can be substituted with 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or make your own combination). Make sure to butter your Bundt pan really well and get into all the crevices. I like to use a spray like Baker’s Joy because I’ve never had a problem with cakes sticking to the pan when I use it.

Related Recipes:

• Pumpkin Roll
• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Maple Muffins
• Pumpkin Spice Scones
• Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Spread
• Sweet and Sour Grilled Pumpkin

Around the Web:

• Rosemary-Polenta Pumpkin Spice Cake from The Recipe Girl
• Pumpkin Spice Cake from For the Love of Cooking
• Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake from Whipped
• Apple Pumpkin Cake from Zoe Bakes
• Gluten Free Pumpkin Raisin Cake from Karina’s Kitchen

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow! We’re heading up to Central California to spend Thanksgiving with my family so my next few blog posts will be from there. Hope my family has some great new recipes I can steal and share with you!

This is one of my favorite salads ever.  It combines all of my favorite things: broccoli, bacon, raisins, and cashews!  How can you go wrong with that combination?  I even had a hard time taking the photo because I  just can’t stop eating this salad once it’s put together.

I just remembered that I made this salad last year for Thanksgiving.  It’s getting close, but I decided to throw it up here in case there are any other procrastinators out there looking for last minute Thanksgiving side dish ideas.  It really is simple enough to throw together at the last minute!

Broccoli Salad with Bacon and Raisins

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
salt
fresh ground black pepper
4 cups broccoli florets (about 2 small heads chopped into small florets)
6 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cashews, roughly chopped

1. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, brown sugar, and vinegar; add salt and pepper to taste.

2. In a large bowl, combine broccoli, bacon and raisins.  Add dressing and toss well.  Store, covered, in refrigerator until ready to serve.  Stir in cashews before serving.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Recipe Notes: Because the broccoli isn’t cooked, be sure to cut it into very small florets. If you prefer to stay away from raw broccoli, the florets can be blanched (boiled or steamed for only a minute or two until broccoli turns bright green but is still crunchy) before the salad is made. I don’t normally use the thick stems, but others have suggested peeling and finely chopping the stems for the salad, so I’ll try that next time.  You can add a bit of chopped red onion to the salad for extra flavor.  Also, as other commenters have pointed out below, sunflower seeds can be substituted for the cashews if that’s what you prefer.  There are several variations of broccoli salad floating around out there, feel free to create your own!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared any recipes from Sicily, hasn’t it?  I learned this Zucca Gialla in Agrodolce, or Pumpkin in Sweet and Sour Sauce, in a cooking class I took from my friends Alberto and Liliana in Catania.  In the version I learned, the pumpkin slices were sauteed in olive oil rather than grilled, but I decided to put my own twist on it today!

I’m wondering if there are any people out there who bought a few sugar pumpkins this year with the intention of finally making homemade pumpkin puree for their Thanksgiving pies.  I did.  And no, I never got around to baking those pumpkin pies from scratch.  But this recipe is so delicious and so simple to make, I’m not regretting it all!

I have the original recipe somewhere around here, along with the other recipes I learned from Alberto and Liliana.  But I just didn’t feel like digging through my (still unpacked) boxes in the office.  So you’re getting my improvised and Americanized version of Zucca Gialla in Agrodolce.  I do remember hearing that the old Sicilian way to serve this dish is with thinly sliced raw garlic and chopped fresh mint adorning each slice of pumpkin.  I didn’t do that, but feel free to try it!

For those of you who don’t live in San Diego, land of year-round grilling, you may revert to the original recipe and brown the pumpkin slices in olive oil rather than cooking them on the grill.  You could even throw a smashed clove of garlic into the oil to flavor it while it’s heating.  Just remove the garlic before adding the pumpkin so it doesn’t burn.  Brown the pumpkin slices in batches over medium heat, adding olive oil as needed, then remove them to a serving platter.  Drizzle with the sweet and sour sauce before serving.

Zucca Gialla in Agrodolce (Sweet and Sour Grilled Pumpkin)

1 – 1 1/2 pounds sugar pumpkin*
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
kosher salt
3 tablespoons wine vinegar (red or white)
3 tablespoons white sugar
chopped fresh mint or parsley (optional)
thinly sliced garlic (optional)

1. Prepare coals or preheat your gas grill. Cut Pumpkin in half, scrape out seeds and membrane. Peel each half and cut into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, one clove of minced garlic, and a generous pinch of kosher salt.  Add pumpkin slices and toss well to coat.

3. Grill pumpkin slices over medium to medium-heat for a few minutes on each side or until just tender. Watch closely and don’t let them burn.  Remove grilled pumpkin to a serving platter.

4. In a small saucepan, mix vinegar, sugar, and any garlic oil left in the bowl.  Cook until sugar is dissolved and mixture thickens just slightly.  Drizzle sweet and sour sauce over the pumpkin on the serving platter.  Garnish with fresh chopped mint or parsley and thin slices of raw garlic if desired.

Recipe Notes: *If you can’t find sugar pumpkins, try substituting butternut squash or acorn squash.  If you decide to saute the pumpkin slices rather than grill them, start with two tablespoons of oil in the pan, and add more as needed.  When all the slices have been cooked, add the vinegar and sugar to the remaining olive oil in the pan and heat until sugar is dissolved and sauce thickens just a bit.  Serving the pumpkin with thinly sliced fresh garlic and fresh chopped mint is traditional.  I prefer to skip the raw garlic and serve it with either fresh chopped mint or parsley.

Yield: four servings.

This sugar pumpkin was intended for a pie, but we're happy he ended up on the grill instead!

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the insides. Save the seeds for roasting if you're into that kind of thing!

I find that a vegetable peeler works very well for peeling pumpkins (and butternut squash).

Cut the pumpkin into slices that are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. They don't have to be perfectly uniform.

The whole process only takes a few minutes!

Toss the pumpkin with olive oil, garlic, and salt until well coated.

Grill pumpkin over direct medium heat for a few minutes on each side.

To get decent grill marks when using a gas grill, make sure you preheat the grill while you are preparing the pumpkin.

Related Recipes:

• Bruschetta
• Blood Orange and Green Olive Salad
• Pasta with Pistachio Cream Sauce

Around the Web:

• Grilled Kabocha Pumpkin and Asian Pear Salad from Fresh Approach Cooking
• Toasted Pumpkin Seeds from Simply Recipes
• Thai-Spiced Pumpkin Soup from 101 Cookbooks

Today is my friend Ruby’s birthday and since she doesn’t live close enough for me to cook her a birthday meal, I told her she could pick today’s recipe for Pinch My Salt.  She chose a curry rice salad with artichokes that she says my mom used to make.  I have a vague recollection of the salad, but I think it must have had some ingredients I don’t like because I don’t remember eating much of it.  But, since it’s Ruby’s birthday, I decided I could create a curry rice salad that we would both enjoy!

The problem is that I don’t have the exact recipe for the salad Ruby remembers.  There are tons of curry artichoke rice salad recipes out there and many of them start with a box of chicken-flavored Rice-a-Roni.  I knew I could come up with something better than that, so I’ve been working on a new version of the salad for a couple of days.  What Ruby likes best about the original salad is the combination of creamy mayonnaise, curry powder, rice, and artichoke hearts.  She left the rest of it up to me.

I decided to keep the recipe simple, but opted to make a homemade curry mayonnaise rather than use mayonnaise from a jar.  Making the mayonnaise from scratch doesn’t add any extra time to the recipe because it can be made while the rice cooks, but it adds tremendously to the flavor!

Rather than start with a box of flavored rice, I used plain basmati and cooked it with butter, cumin seeds, and chicken broth.  Rice cooked this way is delicious enough to eat plain, but is also a great base for the salad.  When the rice cooled I added the curry mayonnaise, chopped artichoke hearts, and toasted almonds.  It tasted delicious but definitely needed some color.  Fresh chopped parsley and some chopped red bell pepper added the color and complimented the curry flavor well.

My husband and I have really enjoyed eating the salad for the past couple of days, and I hope Ruby likes it too! Hopefully we’ll be able to get together after Thanksgiving to cook and celebrate both of our birthdays (they’re only a week apart). I requested a pumpkin roll!

Happy birthday Ruby!

Curry Artichoke Rice Salad

1 cup basmati rice
2 tablespoons butter (can substitute olive oil)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 large jar (14.75 oz) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)*
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted.**
1 recipe curry mayonnaise (see below)
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional)

1. Put rice in a mesh strainer and rinse well under running water, swishing it around for a few minutes.  Drain well.

2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add cumin seeds and stir for a few seconds. When seeds have darkened and are fragrant, add rice and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice grains have turned opaque and a few of them are just starting to brown.  Add chicken broth, stir, and let come to a boil. Turn heat down to low, cover pot and let simmer undisturbed for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff rice with a fork and pour into a large bowl.  Allow to cool.

3 While rice is cooking and cooling, make the mayonnaise, chop the vegetables, and toast the almonds.

4. When rice has cooled, stir in the artichokes, almonds, bell pepper, parsley and curry mayonnaise.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe Notes: *I prefer the Cara Mia brand of artichoke hearts. **To toast almonds, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and stir until fragrant and lightly browned. Remove from skillet immediately and let cool. If you really don’t want to make the mayo from scratch, use one cup of good quality mayonnaise and whisk in one tablespoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne. To turn this salad into a meal, add one or two cups of cooked shredded chicken. Would also be good with leftover turkey!

Curry Mayonnaise
adapted from Molly Wizenburg’s Homemade Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk*
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 t. white wine vinegar
1/4 t. dijon mustard
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon curry powder

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt.  Start adding oil, a few drops at a time, whisking continuously, until you’ve incorporated about 1/4 cup of the oil.  Add remaining oil, still whisking continuously in a slow, steady stream.  Mayonnaise should be thick and creamy.  Whisk in curry powder, brown sugar, and cayenne.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Recipe Notes: *Raw egg is not recommended for infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems. To avoid the risk of salmonella infection, you can use pasteurized egg yolk instead. But, I’ve always just used regular fresh eggs from the grocery store.

I love lemons.  Love love love them!  So it should come as no surprise that lemon curd is one of my favorite treats.  Sweet and tart, rich and creamy, it’s just one of those perfect creations that I can’t imagine living without.

I first tasted lemon curd only a couple of years ago.  I was staying with my aunt and uncle and was going through a ’scone stage.’ I don’t know how many batches of scones I made in a week, but it was plenty.  Since I’ve always heard that lemon curd is the perfect accompaniment to scones, I decided to try a batch.  My Aunt Kathy and I fell in love with it and now my scones just seem lonely when I eat them without lemon curd.

Well, I’m going through a scone stage once again so I decided to try out the Lemon Curd recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook.  I generally have a hard time following a recipe without changing anything, but this lemon curd was made exactly as directed.  I have to warn you that it’s very, very tart.  But I absolutely love it that way!  I’ve eaten it on several cranberry orange scones (these but with orange zest instead of lemon) and I’ve also been stirring it into bowls of my favorite plain Greek yogurt.  And since this recipe made quite a large batch, I might just have to bake some more scones in the morning!

Although I am really enjoying this batch of lemon curd, it’s not as thick as other recipes I’ve tried. I’m not sure if it’s something I did wrong, or if it’s supposed to be this way, but I think next time I might try this Foolproof Way to Make Luscious, Light Lemon Curd that I read about at Fine Cooking.

Lemon Curd
from The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl

1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
pinch of salt
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1. Whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, eggs, and salt in a heavy medium-sized saucepan. Cook, stirring, over moderately low heat until mixture warms, then add butter and cook, whisking constantly, until curd is thick enough to hold the marks of the whisk and first bubbles appear on surface, about 10 minutes.

2. Immediately pour curd through a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to help force it through.  Discard what is left in strainer.  Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then refrigerate, covered, until cold.

Yield: about three cups

Recipe Notes: For me, it took much longer than ten minutes for the lemon curd to thicken, although I think that might have had something to do with the faulty burners on my stove.  However, it never thickened enough to hold the marks of the whisk like the recipe said.  I finally removed it from the heat when it was visibly bubbling and poured it through the strainer.  It did thicken in the fridge, but it’s still not nearly as thick as lemon curds I’ve made in the past, so keep that in mind. The lemon curd can be kept, refrigerated, for about a week.  And I’ve heard that it can also be frozen, although I haven’t tried that myself.  Also, as I mentioned earlier, this is a very, very tart lemon curd. This is perfect for my taste, but if you prefer more sweet than tart, you should perhaps try a different version of lemon curd.  I’ll add links below to several recipes.

Lemon curd is wonderful spread on fresh, hot scones but it’s also great on muffins, or even toast.  The Gourmet Cookbook suggests folding it into whipped cream for an instant lemon mousse, and I’ve already mentioned how much I love it stirred into some thick, plain yogurt.

Related Recipes:

• Buttermilk Cranberry Scones
• Apricot Cream Scones
• Quick and Easy Lemon Cake
• Giant Lemon Sugar Cookies
• Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

Around the Web:

• Lemon Curd from Becks and Posh
• Homemade Lemon Curd from Lex Culinaria
• Alton Brown’s Lemon Curd from Food Network
• Lemon Curd for Scottish Shortbread from Fine Cooking

The winner of this beautiful 9-inch knife from New West KnifeWorks is Adam, whose favorite thing to eat over the holidays is Mac and Cheese.  Congratulations, Adam!

I chose the winner using the Random Integer Generator at Random.org.  The random number chosen was 224, and Adam was the 224th person to leave a comment on the Knife Giveaway post.

Thanks to everyone who participated, it was a lot of fun reading about your favorite holiday foods! And thanks again to New West KnifeWorks for providing the knife.

I’ll be back later with today’s recipe. Stay tuned!