Citrus Almond Torte with Almond Brittle

It's been a while since I've baked with any regularity, as both SB and I have been trying to limit sweets. Today, though, I missed our tea time treats, so I pulled out the spring form pan and made a lemon torte. While it baked, I found an easy recipe for sugared almonds that is reminiscent of peanut brittle. It has far less sugar though!

Lemon Zucchini Tea Bread

One of the things I love about social media is the sharing of recipes and foodie websites. My cousins and I pass our share of yummy food porn photos back and forth. Jenny and Gretchen love their baked goods and last week a photo of a lemon zucchini bread was smeared ALL over our FB walls. It was more than I could take, so I have grabbed the recipe they shared with gusto, whizzed up some of the copious zucchini that is coming from our backyard plot, and put together the bread for today's tea time treat.

Baba Ghannouj with Black Olives

Okay. So this is the next starter dip that I will prepare when next we have guests come through the door. So smooth and warm, so full of smoky, lemony, garlicky flavors ... perfect scooped onto plain pita chips or slices of cucumber or radish. My God. Could it be semi-healthy also !?!

Lemon Bars with Rosemary Scented Shortbread Crust

Lemon bars are a thing of beauty, don't you think? 

Served with a hot cup of tea, they seem so very proper.

Asparagus Tarts with Lemon and Cream - IHCC Potluck Week !

Today's lunch came right from the pages of Nigel Slater's Notes From the Larder.

June 1st entry on page 230 ... thank you very much!

Avgolemono - Greek Lemon and Rice Soup with Lemon Pepper and Garlic Bread Sticks

Over the weekend, I made a friend a big pot of chicken noodle soup ... the kind that reminds us of our childhood lunches. It had plenty of carrot bits, was loaded with celery and onion, nice bite-sized bits of juicy chicken thighs, plenty of super thin egg noodles, and a softly salty chicken broth with bits of bright green parsley floating through it all. That's not the soup I am going to share with you today, though.

Lemony Chicken Soup

When the kids were really small, I made soups for them all the time ... lunches usually consisted of soup and crackers and little sandwiches or tiny bowls of chopped up fruit or pieces of cheese and ham bits. The sides changed a lot, but the soup remained a constant. They would come in from the back yard sandbox and swingset with rosy cheeks and chilly hands, get a wash-up, and climb up onto their chairs to gobble lunch and play with their 'little guys'  - then it was time for an afternoon nap and some quiet page-turning or make-believe in their rooms before a bit of Winnie the Pooh or Mr. Roger's Neighborhood or Sesame Street on the television.

Lemon Nut Bars

Silent Bob is at it again ... rattling the cover of the empty cookie jar. I always have to chuckle at such a transparent plea for a sweet treat, but I suppose he knows I'll smile and catch his twinkling eye as he passes through the kitchen on his way out the back door. By the time he gets back in from a session down in the woodlot, the kitchen will smell sweet and lemony ... and it will be time for tea.