Steamed Lemon Pudding

The other night I was in the mood for a lemon flavored dessert, it seemed the perfect thing to eat on a hot summer day. I found this scrumptious recipe on www.nymag.com  (via google) and made a few modifications to it; the lemon pudding turned out wonderfully. The pudding also called for a berry compote which was perfect since there were two pints of berries in the fridge just waiting to be eaten. I made the desserts in my little Fire King ramekins that I bought at the market a month ago, and I am glad to say that they held up to the test and did not crack in the oven.

Steamed Lemon Pudding With Berry Compote

Pudding
Softened butter for ramekins
3/4 cup granulated sugar plus additional for ramekins
1 cup buttermilk (I did not have buttermilk; I substituted plain yogurt)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 lemons, finely chopped (I used zest of one lemon)

Berry Compote
2 cups blueberries
2 cups raspberries (I used strawberries)
1/4 cup sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Pudding
Grease the insides of eight 4-ounce ramekins with butter and coat with granulated sugar. Combine in a mixing bowl the buttermilk, lemon juice, and the egg yolks. Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, and lemon zest in another bowl. Whip the egg whites in a third bowl until soft peaks form. Whisk the dry ingredients with the buttermilk mixture, and fold in the egg whites gently, a third at a time. Ladle the batter into the prepared ramekins, filling them almost to the top. Place the puddings in a roasting pan, and pour warm water around them until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover with foil, and bake for 18 minutes or until puddings begin to rise slightly. Remove the foil, rotate the pan front-to-back, and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until pudding is golden and springs back when touched.

Compote
While the pudding is baking, place the blueberries in a saucepan with the sugar and cook over medium heat until berries just start to burst. Remove from heat and fold in raspberries. Serve puddings at room temperature, or reheat in a warm-water bath before inverting onto plates and surrounding with compote.

The recipe says that it yields four, but I was able to fill five ramekins.

I will definitely be making this recipe again, they were good the next day too; cold out of the fridge.

Summertime Lemonade

These past few weeks I have found myself patronizing the local library quite a bit, using the online library catalog to request items from neighboring county libraries. I checked out a Martha Stewart DVD full of summertime ideas, one of which was a recipe for homemade lemonade. Dearest d. and I made a large pitcher of lemonade to accompany our homemade sweet potato fries. Mmmm, yum!

Summertime Lemonade (from Martha Stewart)

Makes about 2 quarts

1 cup sugar syrup (recipe follows)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about six large lemons)

 In a large pitcher, combine 2 quarts cold water, sugar syrup, and lemon juice. Add ice, and serve in tall glasses.

Sugar Syrup
Makes 1 cup

2/3 cup sugar
4 two-inch strips lemon rind (yellow part only)

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, 1/2 cup water, and lemon rind. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and cool.

Jantzen Heritage Collection

Today while I was getting a much needed pedicure, I read an article in May's In Style magazine about Jantzen Swimwear's 100th Anniversary Celebration and their new Heritage Collection. The collection has bathing suits inspired by the 1920's-1970's. The suit the magazine highlighted was so cute, I had to find it online. Well not only did I find the ruffled little number from the magazine I also found a plethora of other goodies. My favorite bathing suit is the following one, complete with the cape and swim cap. I found that most of the collection can be purchased at Dillard's, but I did not want to shell out over $250 for the ensemble. Not to mention I would feel a little foolish parading around the beach wearing a "swimming cape". I did manage to find a red Jantzen "Vamp" bathing suit on Overstock for a fraction of the price. I decided with summer just around the corner, and the fact that it has a perfect retro and classy vibe that I should just go ahead and buy it. After all, it is incredibly difficult to find a cute one piece swimsuit, usually they are some horrible muu muu looking thing with an ugly print and a little floofy skirt and no one wants to be caught wearing something that awful. I'm quite happy with my find.