Mochi. And donuts. If there are two more wonderful things in the world, you let me know. I thought I’d combine the two to get a nice sweet donut with a little chew. These are similar to ‘dango’ which is a fried dough that is sold at church carnivals – but those are plain. I wanted to add more sweetness and FLAVA and you can’t go wrong with cinnamon and sugar.

ingredients:
2 cups mochiko (sweet rice flour)
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups whole milk
4 Tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoon vanilla

oil (you need to DEEP fry these, so they are immersed)

1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cinnamon

In a large bowl mix together the mochiko, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder and vanilla. Set aside.

In a separate shallow dish, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Set this aside for later, and start to heat your oil.

You know I HATE frying, but someone gifted me a fryer years ago and man, I think it’s the best thing ever. It does all the work and no mess. Heaven. If you don’t have one, just heat some oil in deep skillet, that’ll work too. The optimum oil temp for these is around 350 degrees.

Now you’re going to drop these by the Tablespoon into the hot oil. They expand a lot so don’t go crazy overflowing the spoon. Also the mochiko makes the batter very pull-y and sticky, so try your best to keep it formed into nice round shapes or you will get some craziness at the end of it all.

Once the dough pops up and floats, you know you are in good shape. Fry until golden brown, a few minutes on each side. Drain them on a wire rack. If you drain them on paper towels alllll the oil will get sucked back into the donut. GROSS. Trust me and use a rack.

While still hot, roll the donuts in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

These things are BEST warm, but people who ate them hours later said they were still great. There’s nothing more comforting than sugary donuts. YUM!!

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. And FINALLY we’ve come to the end of Lemon Week!
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This dessert is so light you’ll want to eat the whole pie, but don’t fool yourself, it’s chock full of ice cream and whipped cream, aka two of the most fattening fabulous things in the world. But the secret is the crust. I had leftover Nilla Wafers lying around and didn’t want to waste them. Thank goodness, it sent this pie over the top! You just may find yourself eating it straight out of pie plate like I did. Ahem. I’m classy.

ingredients:
1 (9 inch) nilla wafer pie crust (see recipe)
3 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 cup lemon sugar (you can just white sugar if you don’t have lemon)
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Prep your pie crust, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, water, lemon zest and lemon juice. Fold in the ice cream, make sure it’s softened, you’re job will be easier!

In a mixing bowl whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until soft peaks form. PAY ATTENTION: You will only use HALF of this. Fold HALF into the ice cream mixture and pour into the pie crust. Place in the freezer until set!

NOW use the other half of the whipped cream to dollop on top of the pie before you serve! And come on, serve it on a clean plate, let’s be civilized here!

I often have leftover Nilla Wafers lying around, and while I’ve made cupcakes out of them, the obvious thing to do would be to make pie crust!

ingredients:
approx. 36 Nilla wafers
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 Tablespoons sugar

In a sealed plastic freezer bag, bash the heck out of the vanilla wafers. Or use a food processor. Whatever works. Combine the crumbs with the melted butter and the sugar – then press into your pie pan.

As you can tell from my picture I got super lazy and did not crush them that fine.

Now you can bake this or not, depending on how lazy you are. Use it as is, or to make it REALLY NICE, bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool before you use it.

I received a few emails about what to make for a party since it seems ya’ll are doing something on Sunday…football..what? So I thought I’d put together a list of really tasty, fun and EASY party food. These are tried and true that I’ve made over and over. What are you making for your Superbowl party on Sunday? Have fun!

Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Brown Sugar Meatballs
Easy chicken chili
Spam Musubi
Brownie cupcakes
Ice cream Jello (in team colors!)
Watermelon Ice Cream bombe

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. I’ve been working my way through them, so you know what that means, it’s Lemon Week!
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This is a really refreshing take on a berry lemonade…but slushy. It doesn’t have to be summer to have this…we drank it when the weather was in the 40s!! It’s slushy time, all the time!

ingredients:
2 cups frozen strawberries
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

Frozen strawberries are the key, you don’t need to add ice, they do the work for you.

Blend everything together. Sure, let a small child play with an electric appliance and then take a picture. Hey, he’s just a really small sous chef, ok?

Blend until you get a mini tornado going in there, then pour into cups. This makes two large cups or 4 very small ones. I’m talking about kids here, not oompa loompahs.

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. I’ve been working my way through them, so you know what that means, it’s Lemon Week!
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This smells amazing when it’s cooking, all the ingredients come together so nicely. The kids just loved this and ate it right up, unfortunately that’s why I don’t have any good pictures – I apologize, but trust me it was delicious!

ingredients:
6-8 chicken thighs (bone in!!)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons flour
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons parsley
3 teaspoons lemon zest
3 carrots, cut into chunks
3 celery, cut into chunks
juice of one lemon
12 ounces chicken broth
1 cup water

Place chicken in the slow cooker pot. By using bone-in thighs, the chicken stays moist as compared to using filets which can really dry out, even in a crock pot.

In a small bowl combine the salt, pepper, onion powder, flour, chopped garlic, lemon zest and parsley. Rub into the chicken.

Put the cut carrots and celery on top.

Add the lemon juice over everything, then slowly add the chicken broth and water down the side (not on top of the veggies) filling the pot. This keeps the lemon and the spices intact.

Cover and cook for 6 hours on low. I served it with rice, but by itself with a nice biscuit is pretty great too!

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a big bag of lemons on my porch. I’ve been working my way through them, so you know what that means, it’s Lemon Week!
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I made these up on a whim, they came out really good, then I realized I needed to write down the recipe. Oops. So I had to make them again. And again. And again…not to test the recipe…just because they were so good – YUM. Lemon-y. Moist. Soft. And muffin-y. I’m sure those aren’t words, but let me tell you, they’re delicious. The secret? Lemon sugar, of course!

ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup lemon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon

more lemon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a muffin pan with liners. (you will only get about 10 muffins out of this)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, lemon sugar and baking powder, whisk to combine.

Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Oh. So. Lemony. This is the kicker here, peeps. Lemon juice, lemon sugar, lemon zest. Don’t skimp, you’ll be rewarded in the end! Stir until JUST combined. Not too much – you don’t want a tough muffin!

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. Top with a sprinkling of even MORE lemon sugar.

Bake for 15-18 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

These are for true lemon lovers. Flavorful, not overly sweet – just the perfect muffin for a morning snack.

Just like LAST YEAR, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. I don’t know whether to hug her or punch her because she knows my weakness. I just can’t let these things go to waste. I’ve been working my way through them like a maniac, so you know what that means…it’s Lemon Week! A new lemon recipe everyday…until I die from citrus poisoning. Is that possible? I hope not…
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Simple, right? It is – but the taste is beyond compare. It’ll make your days brighter and your life longer. Ok, maybe not, but it sure makes does give your baking that extra somethin’.

ingredients:
1 cup sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon

Zest the lemon into the sugar. Stir around so that the oils can mix into the sugar. Keep in a sealed container. I use this for baking lemon cakes and muffins, it adds a whole new dimension to your lemon-y desserts!

Pardon me while I conduct a bit of research:

If you were going to a luncheon – What desserts would you LOVE to see there?

Thanks!

**Thanks for all the great ideas, they’re all useful and making me hungry!

Since I spent New Year’s making over 250 pounds of mochi, I haven’t had a chance (or need) to make any at home. So this bag of sweet mochi rice has just been sitting here. Staring at me. I thought a good use of it would be to make a meatball, kind of like the ones called ‘porcupines’, just think of these as Japanese PORKupines. HAW! Ok, not that funny.

ingredients:
1 cup mochi rice (soaked for 2 hours)

1 pound ground pork
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin (Sweet Rice Wine“>sweet rice wine)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
dash of pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped

Put the mochi rice in a bowl of water and let sit for 2 hours. This will soften it up and get it ready for steaming. When you start to make the meatballs, drain the rice well, and set aside.

Combine the pork and all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix together until incorporated. Form little meatballs, say 1″ balls or so, then roll them in the drained mochi rice.

Place them in a steamer and steam for approx 20-25 minutes.

The mochi rice makes these a little sticky, but very tasty!