12 Days of Meyers - Meyer Ricotta Cheese Skillet Cake

I first met Elizabeth a couple years ago at the Tech Munch Conference here in Austin. We were sitting next to each other and I originally thought she was a model. Tall, gorgeous and owner of an amazing smile, I wanted to break the ice and introduce myself so I went to the complimentary snack table and loaded up on several pieces of Miles of Chocolate Brownies. When I sat back down, I offered her some and we have been friends ever since. It’s no surprise to me that Local Savour's following reaches far beyond just Austin. She has a passion and desire to take local, in-season ingredients and create easy and tasty dishes with them. Her success and reputation grows with each award she wins, e-books or videos she produces, or story she posts. To me, this recipe sums her up completely. It’s fresh, light, easy and beautiful. Enjoy!

When we first bought our current house, one of our good friends (that happens to have studied horticulture) gave us some great advice. "Plant fruit trees," she said, "It's the one regret that I have from when we bought our own house." Our friend eventually planted fruit trees in her yard but not until after they had lived there for over 10 years. "We could have been enjoying fresh fruit from our yard all of that time," she continued, "They are just now producing fruit." SO ... one of the first things we did was plant fruit trees in our new yard. We have only seen a few fruits develop over the last couple of years and I am eagerly waiting to see if this is THE year for our trees but for now we are lucky to know a few folks that are already enjoying the fruits of their labor (ha!) and are willing to share their delicious produce with us. One such friend is Kristina from Girl Gone Grits. Her backyard Meyer Lemon trees have been bearing a healthy amount of fruit for a few years and she has graciously shared a large basket of the sweet and tart yellow spheres along with her sinfully delicious Limoncello recipe.

What's a girl to do with copious amounts of lemons? Host a 12 Days of Meyer Lemon Recipe Event of course. Visit Girl Gone Grits for more amazing recipes with Meyer Lemons.

And in the meantime, I really can not think of a better way to ring in the new year than with a good slice of an easy-to-bake cake. Not everyone enjoys tasting lemon in their desserts but I have always adored a little zest in mine. The combination of tangy lemon blended with creamy ricotta cheese has long been one of my favorite blends when it comes to the classics and this warm Meyer Lemon and Ricotta Cheese Skillet Cake doesn't disappoint  –– it's going to be a great year.

Meyer Lemon and Ricotta Cheese Skillet Cake

Ingredients

• 2 medium Meyer lemons - zest and juice
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter - melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (I used 2%)
• For the glaze:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 medium Meyer lemon zest & juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Use one Tablespoon of butter to coat a heavy duty or cast-iron 10-12" pan and set aside.
3. In a large bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and stir together well. Next, add milk, egg, ricotta cheese, lemon zest and juice, and remaining melted butter and continue to stir together well until the batter is formed.
4. Pour batter into the buttered pan and then sprinkle with remaining Tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until outer edges are slightly golden and center is cooked through.
5. Remove from the oven and make glaze.
6. Add powdered sugar, lemon zest and 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and stir well until it becomes honey like in texture adding a touch more lemon juice if needed, 1/4 teaspoon at a time. Drizzle glaze over cake and serve

12 Days of Meyers - Spicy Hummus

When the Austin Food Blogger Alliance was first created back in 2011, we had an open cocktail party to not only introduce this new group to the local food bloggers, but also to give the bloggers a chance to meet each other and to hopefully get them excited about joining this one-of-a-kind alliance. It was at this event that I first met Hilah.  She was standing at the bar and I was instantly drawn to her as I was already a fan/follower of her online cooking show.  I went over and introduced myself as I wanted to see if she was that same wicked-cool chick in person as she was on her show. I was very happy to learn that she was. Everything you see on her wildly popular show is exactly how she is when y'all are just hanging out with her.  Along with her producer and husband Christopher Sharpe, the couple have created a strong following for their show. As wildly popular as she is, I'm impressed that she has not let stardom go to her head as she is still grounded, funny and adorable, and all while cooking up a storm in her cool orange kitchen. Did I mention she was just voted #1 of the top 10 Austin Food Blogs by the Austin Chronicle?  I'm happy to be able to share her recipe here for yummy Meyer Hummus as today's guest blogger.  And if you have not had a chance to check out her site, please click on her link below for a fun cooking 101. Or go here for a list of her cookbooks to order.

Hummus was one of the very first video recipes I posted. It's a staple in my house because it's quick and cheap to make, it's high in fiber and relatively low in calories (at least the way I make it, it is) and is a wonderful snack with some celery sticks and even a decent stand-in for dinner when you're rushed or lazy or home alone with no one to judge you for eating hummus on crackers in your undies on the couch, sprinkling crumbs amongst the cushions as you yuk it up with the TV. In the years since publishing the original recipe, I've gotten innumerable comments to the effect of: I never knew hummus was so easy to make.

And that is how I wreak my vengeance upon manufacturers of over-priced, store-bought hummus!

I'm kidding, what kind of insane person would take personal offense to a hummus company?

For this spicy variation on hummus, I used plenty of sweet-tart Meyer lemon juice and cut down on the olive oil by, like, a whole lot. This makes it thrifty for the change purse and lower in fat and calories, duh, so maybe it will help out with those New Year resolutions, too. If you like the buttery texture of traditional hummus, feel free to add another 1/4 cup of olive oil to the mix. 

Harissa is a spicy condiment from North Africa made from ground dried red chiles, caraway, cumin, coriander, garlic, salt and enough olive oil to bind them together. It's divine. I happen to have a tube of it (pictured) that I got from World Market, but if you can't find it, it's very easy to make your own and it's delicious in this and as a rub for grilled meat or fish, or an addition to salad dressing (especially grain salads). If you've got a modern copy of The Joy of Cooking, there's a recipe in it that I use and is the best recipe I've tried for homemade harissa. 

Spicy Meyer Lemon Hummus

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 Meyer lemon (or 2 standard lemons)
1/4 cup water
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons harissa (or less for less heat)
1/2 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt (reduce or omit if using canned chickpeas)

Instructions
Drain chickpeas (and rinse if using canned) and place in blender or food processor.
Zest the lemon to get 1/2 teaspoon zest and add that; juice the lemon to get 1/4 cup lemon juice and add that, straining the seeds out.
Add all other ingredients and pulse a few times to get started, then blend to a smooth puree. You may want or need to add some more water or olive oil for a thinner hummus.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to a week.

Yield: about 2 cups

Check out more of Hilah below.
HilahCooking.com

Find me on Youtube! http://youtube.com/hilahcooking

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hilahcooking

Check out my cookbook! http://learntocookbook.com/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/HilahCooking

And sometimes I use Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hilahcooking/

12 Days of Meyers - Limoncello

When it comes to Meyer Lemons, without a doubt, I have been blessed beyond words.  While we only have a single tree, it has for years produced the most wonderful lemons and more often than not, more than we could ever use in a single season.  We had to pick a little earlier than normal this year due to an early season freeze, but it didn't really hurt because this year's crop ripened a few weeks earlier than year's past. I was concerned that we did not have as many as last season (over 1,000), but as always our sweet little tree provided enough for our needs (Limoncello) as well as more than enough to share - I also believe that when life gives you lemons, you should bless others.  I'm convinced a whole blog could be devoted to the beauty of Meyer lemons and it seems that there's no end to recipes, so because of that, I have decided to put a sightly different spin on this year's 12 Days of Meyers series.  I've invited some of my friends and favorite local food bloggers to write guest posts with their favorite lemon recipes. Naturally, I let them know up-front that I would provide them with as many Meyers as they needed for testing their recipes. So, over the next two weeks, I am super pleased to introduce some truly lovely bloggers and some pretty awesome friends that know how to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of these sweet little orbs.  But before I do, I'm going to handle Day One with our Limoncello recipe, along with a little history about our tree.

We brought it to Austin when we moved here over 12 years ago from California. The tree originally belonged to my Grandmother and it spent about 15 years in a pot before we received it, and another 4 or 5 before we moved. The one question we get asked often is "How can one tree produce so many lemons here in Texas?" Honestly, we don't have any secrets. Its got good roots and three walls of protection from the elements. In the past we have wrapped it in Christmas lights to give it a trace of heat in the winter and soaked it good during those hot Texas summers. All in all, a lot of prayer went out over that tree every time the elements tried to swallow it up. We thought we came close to losing it one winter during a particularly hard freeze - one of the few years that we did not get a crop.  Luckily, my little brother mailed us lemons from his tree back in California so that we could make our annual batch of Limoncello.  This year, my sweet tequila guy braved the cold and picked almost 500 lemons before the freezing arctic air swept in overnight. We left another 300 or so on the tree as they were still a few weeks away from being ripe and thought it would be worth the risk to leave them on the tree to see if they would survive. They did and we are still picking them a few at a time for our daily needs.

Since  Limoncello is something we have been making for years, I thought it fitting to post our recipe for Day One of this year's 12 Days of Meyers. It's a little different from other recipes out there as we zest our lemons instead of peeling them, use a combination of Everclear and Vodka, and we let ours sit longer then most. But I promise the flavor is well worth the effort. Come Spring when it starts to get warm you will find us sitting on the back porch sipping this ice cold elixer, reminding us how blessed we are to have such a beautiful tree.

My Tequila Guy picking this year before the freeze. 

Limoncello

1.5 Cup Lemon Zest (15-25 lemons, depending on size)

1 Liter Vodka (80 Proof)

500 ml Everclear (190 Proof)

1 Liter Simple Syrup (Ratio: 1 cup water/.75 cup sugar)

Thoroughly wash lemons with cold water and dry.

With a microplane, zest lemons.

Put zest in sterile, sealable jar.

Add vodka and Everclear, seal, and let sit in a cool, dry, dark place for 30-45 days. Add simple syrup, seal and let sit 14 more days. Strain and filter (cheesecloth and coffee filters do the trick) and place in freezer overnight. Filter again for clarity. *NOTE: It should go without saying, but Everclear is EXTREMELY flammable. Please take appropriate precautions when handling

If 190 proof Everclear is not available in your area, substitute with 151 proof Everclear and use 750 ml Simple Syrup instead of 1 liter.

This will result in almost 2.5 liters of ~70 proof Limoncello