Lemon Squares with history

I have actually never made lemon bars or squares, whatever you wish to call them before. I love eating them so I am not really sure why this was my first time.

These are a little special though, they have a history lesson with them. Stick with me here it won't be like sitting in a  high school or college history class. So pop quiz time! Do you know who the 36th president is and what his favorite sweet treat was? Well if you said Lyndon B. Johnson and lemon squares you are correct!!

Now you are asking why in the world does she know this?? Well I have this cool cook book called Presidential Cookies  that has the favorite cookies/sweet treats of the presidents George Washington to George W. Bush. Its  fun book and some of the recipes have a picture from the white house cook book at the time. Here are Lady Bird Johnson's Lemon squares that she made for the president.




Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter cold but soft (2sticks)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the crust items together. Press in to a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.

Filling
2 cups sugar
1tsp baking powder
3 beaten eggs
Juice and grated rind of 2 lemons
powdered sugar for dusting

Mix the ingredients in the order given leaving the powdered sugar to the side. Poor over the baked crust. Bake 20-25 minutes or until set. Cool the pan and dust with powdered sugar.

Beer Battered Fish Tacos

I have oh just a few things on my mind these days. But more on that another day, one thing that for sure tops the list as I am sure yours as well is that fantastic season called SUMMER!! That's right its almost here and this past weekend we had some fantastic weather and I wanted something yummy to go with it. We decided fish tacos with coleslaw!!  I went online to find a recipe and i took a little from many different sites to get the following.

Fish sticks

1 lb cod or tillapia

1 cup flower plus a little extra

2 tablespoons cornstarch

salt

pepper

egg 

1 cup beer

Coleslaw

1 package slaw mix 

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1/4 cup Mayonnaise 

1/4 cup (for me this ended up being a little too much I would start with half of this and as you see fit)

1 tablespoon honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

Start with the slaw and let it sit in the fridge while making the fish. Its very easy mix all together in the bowl and adjust flavors to your taste buds.

For the fish mix all the dry ingredients. Cut the fish into strips that will fit nicely into a corn tortilla. After cutting the fish use the little extra flour and dust the fish to make dry them up a little. Now mix together the beer and egg then poor quickly into the dry mix, there will be some lumps.

Heat your frying oil about a quart to 375. Dip fish sticks into batter and fry until lightly golden and crispy about 3-4 minutes.

Now if you just wanted some homemade fish sticks these are yummy just as is, but we put them in some warmed corn tortillas with the homemade slaw. The only thing I want to do different next time is add some homemade pico. 

These were great for a Sunday night dinner after a beautiful day. We finished it off with a easy strawberries and cool whip on angel food cakes! 

Whats everyone else enjoy eating ones the weather starts getting so pretty out??

Cinco De Mayo Dinner

I should know better than to ask my husband what he wants for dinner when I am planning meals. He has two answers.
                    A. Food
                    B. Mexican
So since its Cinco De Mayo today, yes I made Mexican. But I wasn't feeling up to what I might normally make. So I went to pinterest earlier in the week, isn't that what we all do now for new ideas? And I found these Mexican stuffed shells. They look good but were just so close to tacos which we have those or taco salads all the time. So I decided to Make them with a chicken enchilada twist.

You will need
 About 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 small cans green enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cup shredded mexican blend cheese (this is that mix that comes pre-shredded)
1/4-1/2 a round of queso fresco
Half an onion largely chopped
1 box jumbo shell noodles for stuffing


To cook my chicken I boiled it with the chopped onion and seasoned my water with my favorite spices. This took about 15 min after the water came to a boil. Drain the chicken and shred with to forks and use a knife to chop the onions a little smaller. Mix with 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese. and half a can of the enchilada sauce.

 I know not the prettiest picture but I want you to see that I use lots of seasoning so the water has some color and flavor

 drained

And mixed.

While shredding your chicken start your shells. Cook them just under the cooking time on the box. They will finish cooking in the oven. Once your shells have cooked drain them and rinse with cool water so they are easy to handle. I also suggest laying them out on a cookie sheet or cutting board as does the other recipe so they don't stick together. Fill with the chicken mixture and lay in a 9x13 baking dish.

 Cover with the green enchilada sauce and add cheese!

In case you don't know this is what queso fresco packaging looks like (here at least).

Bake at 375 for 15-20 min till cheese is melted and the chicken is warmed.

We enjoyed ours with a nice watermelon margarita!

Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone!!

P.s. please feel free to use those great already roasted chickens that you can find in all stores now! Thats what I usually use for enchiladas on weeknights.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with rolo centers

Who loves a good home made chocolate chip cookie? Actually maybe a better question would be who doesn't? Now when I handed these out I was asked "Do you use a family recipe? These are the best ever" I answered "Sure its called Toll House". Its true I always just very simply follow the directions on the back of the chocolate chips bag. But this time I added a surprise center..a Rolo candy. Now I have seen these cookies with Oreo centers and Snickers centers but I wanted to try Rolo because I love caramel!

Now if you buy other chocolate chips (which is totally fine!) you can get the cookie recipe here. You need all the ingredients for regular chocolate chip cookies plus Rolos of course. My other change is cook at 350 degrees for 10-20 min all depends on your oven mine was at 15.

On a side note who hates cooking in other peoples kitchen? I made these at my bosses house and I felt lost the whole time even though I know their house as well as mine. I missed my cookie sheets and my oven.

Take a heaping tablespoon of dough and form a crater in the dough. Place the Rolo in the crater and add a small amount of dough on top roll in your hand to make a ball and cover the Rolo

These cookies will be larger than normal so fewer to a cookie sheet is necessary.

This will sound weird but when cooling turn up side down.

Or your caramel will leak out the bottom and leave a hole as seen here

Now enjoy! I think I will go have one now!