December 2007 – Page 3 – Myfrenchkitchen

Whenever I make these lemon squares, I think of my sister, who is quite a few years older than me. The day she got married and took off with her husband, leaving me as the last one behind at home, felt like the end of the world to me at 15 years old. Then I got to visit them and it all changed when she served up a plate filled with these delicacies. From then on, I couldn’t wait to go visit. She always had something new and interesting and exciting going on in her house and life and her tins were filled with lemon squares and cookies of all sorts and the most delicious dried peaches straight from the farm….sounds like perhaps the main attraction for visiting! At some stage I inherited her recipe and it has become a favourite in our family too and of everybody else that “inherits ” it along the way.

It is a non – baking cookie/biscuit and can be kept in the fridge for a long time, if you’re so lucky to have any left to last that long.

Trudie’s lemon squares

2 packets of butter biscuits (Petit beurre)
250 g butter
1 can of sweet condensed milk
250 ml desiccated coconut
lemon juice and zest

Lemon icing:

About 20g butter
450ml icing sugar
lemon zest and juice to taste

Melt the butter over low heat and add the condensed milk.
Stir in some lemon zest and juice to taste and mix well.
Add the coconut.
Break in the biscuits and mix well until the biscuits are finely broken up en well coated.
Press into a greased lamington tin, 24 x 34 x 2cm.
Leave to cool down completely or place in fridge.
Combine the ingredients for the lemon icing and mix to a smooth icing.
Cut in squares and decorate with some candied lemon and lime zest.

Serves about 48 squares

This is an entry for Christmas cookies from around the world 2007, here at Susan from Foodblogga.

I’ll eat soup any day. A consommé or creamy, spicy, rich, hearty, chunky, nutritious…nothing more satisfying than slowly sipping a hot soup spoon by spoon.

A quick, nutritious vegetable soup for an ordinary week night. Or for that time when you’re alone at home and feel like snuggling in front of the fireplace with a book or an old movie. And you make a big enough quantity, because tomorrow it will be even better.

Chunky vegetable soup.

No quantities are given. Just open up your veggie basket and throw a peak in the fridge, fiddle in the pantry and put together what you have available or feel in the mood for. I can tell you what I did.

I sauteéd some chopped shallots and leeks. I then added the chopped vegetables I dug out of the pantry – 2 tomatoes, 2 carrots, a handful of green beans, 1 sweet potato and a few mushrooms. I boiled about 3 large cups of water with 2 organic vegetable stock cubes and poured it over the vegetables, leaving it to soflty simmer for about 45 minutes.

Then I decided to give some substance to the soup, by throwing in a fistful of quinoa, a tablespoonful of sundried tomato bits. I also found some spinach leaves which I couldn’t leave behind and added them at the last minute. After some 10 minutes more, I tested for seasoning and drizzled lemon juice, wine vinegar and salt and pepper to my taste.

The fire was ablaze with invitation and I quickly cleaned the dishes, lit my tealights, called the cats, served myself a a generous helping of soup, drizzled some olive oil and cuddled up to watch “Fiddler on the Roof”, while sipping my soup spoon by spoon.