Sweet & Sour

I came home from work Friday afternoon to find a box on my front porch (a box from my friend Winavie, who has the blog Lemons & Chambray).

Winavie has a lemon tree in her back yard (hence the name), and she sent me a box full of fresh lemons!

with a cute little origami heart!

So sweet!!

(Winavie, not the lemons.  The lemons are sour, as lemons should be.)

And when life hands you lemons, you make Starbucks Lemon Cake Copycat Recipe.

(Obviously.)

Ingredients

1½ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons lemon extract

⅓ cup of lemon juice

½ cup oil

zest of one lemon

GLAZE:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, combine salt, baking soda, flour and baking powder and mix well.
• In a medium bowl, combine eggs, vanilla extract, lemon extract, butter, sugar and lemon juice with a mixer until well mixed.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.
• Add the oil and lemon zest and mix again.
• Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Towards the end of the cooking time, put your glaze ingredients in a small bowl and wisk together until blended.
• Remove cake from oven, pour glaze on top and let cool.

I wish I'd read this part sooner...

Notes

I like my glaze to stay a little thicker so I let my cake cool slightly before I pour on the glaze.

In spite of the fact that most of my glaze melted down the sides of the pan, this cake was delicious!

And luckily I have a lot more lemons, so I can try a lot more recipes (or a lot more cake!).

Thank you Winavie!

Bittersweet

One of my neighbors recently asked if I liked bittersweet.

"I've never tried it", I replied.

"You don't eat it."

Oh.

(Sounds like something you'd eat, though, doesn't it?)

The next day I came home and found this on my front porch...

Pretty...

I added a (very) little to a wreath I picked up for $1 at a flea market last weekend (it needs more, I know)...

Also Bittersweet...

Hint:  If you ever see "Big Head Todd" somewhere, don't tell him he was your favorite band in college.  He doesn't like that.

Late Night Service

I met up with a former colleague last night for dinner and drinks (and then more drinks).

To get home, I had to take two different trains. So I got off the first train, which was on the local track, and walked across the platform to catch another train, which is express.

But then I heard a noise...

I turned around, and saw a man, waving his hand at the express track, and shaking his head 'no'. Then he walked over, and pointed at the sign hanging above the tracks.

I realized that he was deaf, and was trying to tell me that during late night service, the express train runs on the local track (and it was really late...).

I smiled at him and said 'thanks' and he smiled at me, turned and walked up the stairs to leave.

He didn't have to tell me the train was running on the local track - I would've figured it out when the train arrived at the stop.

But he did.