Whether it’s for getting more veggies in your diet or the color – spinach pasta can’t be beat. The Baby proclaimed it “Slytherin” pasta and proceeded to eat the whole bowl. Hey, whatever works…

ingredients:
16 oz spinach penne
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup pasta water
1-1/2 cups rotisserie chicken, cooked

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Boil the pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of liquid before you drain it.

Toss the pasta in with the lemon mixture, then add the zest. Add the reserved pasta water a little at a time, you may not need all of it, you just don’t want the pasta to be dry.

Toss in the cooked chicken and serve!

Well, Lemon Fest week is coming to a close. Sad. Are you lemon-ed out yet?? I hope you enjoyed the lemon recipes here and on Food Librarian’s blog. What should I do next, artichoke week? Hm. I think not…
___________________________

I love the taste of fresh lemon, and this light as a cloud dessert is great for dinner parties or just to savor on a day when you deserve it.

ingredients:
3 large eggs, plus 3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Juice of 3 lemons or ½ cup
Zest of one lemon
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Fresh lemon juice is the best, but often FULL of pulp. So when I juice them, I do it over a strainer over a bowl, to catch all the pulp and seeds.

Whisk together the sugar, eggs, yolks, salt and lemon juice.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan. Start it off on low heat, then raise it to medium high and cook – stirring constantly until thickened. Be careful to not boil it.

Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in lemon zest. Pour the lemon mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap sits on the surface. Chill in the fridge until cooled.

In a mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until you get soft peaks.

Fold the chilled lemon curd into the whipped cream until just combined.

Spoon into serving dishes – it should fill about 8 parfait glasses. Keep in the fridge til you’re ready to serve.

It’s Lemon Week, still going strong! Check out the Food Librarian’s daily lemon posts too!
_________________

Bacon, LEMON and tomato. Yep. Hey it’s not lettuce week! These are some of my favorite ingredients and I think they come together really well in this dish – fresh lemon, salty bacon, it’s a great combination.

ingredients:
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup reserved pasta water

6-8 slices bacon
2 cups tomatoes, diced
one package of pasta

Cut the bacon in small pieces so that you don’t have to crumble it later. Cook it until crispy, let drain and set aside.

Boil the pasta according to directions. I like these tiny farfalle, they are too cute, and just the right ‘bite.’ When draining the pasta, set aside 1/2 cup of the hot pasta water. Using this later will help the dressing stick.

While the pasta is boiling, in a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Toss the dressing (you may not need all of it) with the pasta, adding the reserved pasta water. Add in the tomatoes, bacon and lemon zest. Toss and serve.

It’s Lemon Fest 2011! Day 3 – pucker up!
________________________

Sometimes I build entire meals around side dishes. This salad is fresh and crunchy and a great accompaniment to Root Beer Pulled Pork, a great summer meal. What. It’s still winter? Phooey.

ingredients:
1 bag broccoli slaw
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
Juice of one lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt
pepper

Sure you could make your own slaw, no biggie, but since I happened upon this bag from TJ’s I went for it.

Combine the brown sugar, mustard, lemon, olive oil, sesame oil and cider vinegar. Toss with the slaw, season with salt and pepper.

It’s Lemon Fest 2011, people!
Get your pitchforks, storm the castle and ask for lemons!
____________________________

One of my fave places is the Spice Station in Silverlake, they have an amazing array of sugars and spices that all make for great recipe inspiration.

The last time I was there I picked up some Blueberry Sugar. A nice large granule of sugar infused with fresh blueberry. Amazing! I thought it’d make a great topping for some lemon-y blueberry muffins. While not pretty, they sure are tasty. But hey, looks aren’t everything.

ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup 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
1-1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tablespoon flour
blueberry sugar

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

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

Add the oil, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until JUST combined.

In a small bowl toss the blueberries with the flour, that sort of helps keep the blue color from bleeding into the batter.

Add the blueberries to the batter and just fold until combined.

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

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

It’s LEMON FEST!! If you remember from years past, the Lemon Fairy drops a giant bag of lemons on my porch this time o’ year and then I cook and bake until they are allllll gone.

So I’m putting up a new lemon based recipe everyday and even the Food Librarian has joined me in Lemon Week, so check her blog daily too! Hopefully by the end of the week the bag will be empty. Fingers crossed. There’s a lot of lemons in there…
___________________________

I love fried chicken and this recipe is sort of my take on the Japanese fried chicken : chicken karaage, which they always serve with a little piece of lemon, so I thought it’d be nice to incorporate it into the dish itself.

ingredients:
3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 Tablespoon mirin
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
juice of one lemon
1 Tablespoon lemon zest

oil for frying

In a bowl mix together the mirin, soy sauce, eggs, cornstarch, baking powder, lemon juice and zest. Stir together well.

Add in the chicken pieces, cover and marinate for 2-4 hours.

Ready a large skillet or fryer with oil, and bring to temp. Fry the chicken pieces until golden brown, let them drain and cool on a wire rack.

I love this dish – the lemon gives it a little extra something that makes this a fresh take on fried chicken.

The Lemon Fairy stopped by this weekend so that means Lemon Fest is coming up very soon – a full week of lemon recipes! And this year the Food Librarian will be doing it with me. Whee! That’s double the lemon recipes! We should have an Iron Chef showdown. If only we had a Kitchen Stadium…

Here’s a rundown of the past year’s recipes:

2009:
Lemon Coke
Lemon Zest French Fries
Lemon Pineapple Sorbet
Lemon & Olive Oil Teacakes
Lemon Spaghetti

2010:
Lemon Sugar
Lemon Muffins
Lemon Chicken Stew
Lemon Berry Slush
Lemon Ice Cream Pie

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!
____________________

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!

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!
____________________

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!
____________________

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. Skim the fat off the top.

I served it with rice, but by itself with a nice biscuit is pretty great too!