The story below is from our January/February 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photo By Becky Ellis
It’s easy to brighten up winter meals with a just a little squeeze of lemon. This sunny citrus fruit gives zest to savory dishes while adding zing to sweet desserts.
I’ve always been a summer gal. Sippin’ lemonade, churning ice cream, making sun tea, that’s me. So it’s only natural that I get a little blue in the dreary winter months. A simple way to snap me out of my temporary funk is to bake lemon tea cakes. This sweet citrusy tea cake recipe was popular when I was a child and these days I make them with Meyer lemons, which are sweeter and less acidic than regular lemons. The tea cakes are bite size, the perfect taste of tart and sweet, so expect them to disappear quickly!
Meyer Lemon Glazed Teacakes
48 tea cakes | 350˚F | 12-18 minutes
Spray mini muffin tins with vegetable oil spray or line with paper cupcake liners.
Tea Cakes:
- 1 box yellow cake mix (I like Pillsbury Golden Butter cake mix for this recipe)
- 1 (3 1/2 ounce) instant lemon pudding mix
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and vegetable oil in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer or wooden spoon. Using a teaspoon, fill the muffin cups two-thirds full with batter. The tea cakes will rise during baking, so do not overfill the muffin cups. Bake for 12 – 18 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Take the tea cakes out of the muffin tin and place on cooling rack.
Meyer Lemon Glaze:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
- Zest of 1 regular lemon
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons water
Topping (optional):
- Yellow sugar crystals
Place the powdered sugar in a bowl. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, vegetable oil and water. Mix with a wire whip until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
While the tea cakes are still a little warm, dunk each one into the glaze and then return to cooling rack. After the glaze has set, drizzle a little more of the glaze over the tea cakes. Top the cakes with yellow sugar crystals.
These teacakes are easy to make but if you’d like to make them super easy and maybe even engage your children in the process, you can use a lemon pound cake mix (I like Krusteaz Meyer Lemon Pound Cake Mix) that includes the mix for the glaze.
Another thing that lifts my spirits in the winter is cooking meals in my slow cooker. I love the aroma of dinner cooking when I walk in the house from the cold outdoors. This slow cooker Lemon Chicken Caesar recipe has become one of our family favorites. The creamy Caesar salad dressing in the recipe has Romano and Parmesan cheese in it so the chicken tastes creamy and cheesy.
Lemon Chicken Caesar
6 servings
2 hours
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
- 16 ounce Classic (creamy) Caesar salad dressing (I like Kraft brand for this recipe)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 18 Peperoncino and 1 cup of the juice from the Peperoncino jar
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- .87 ounce package chicken gravy mix
- ½ cup marinated roasted red peppers, chopped
- Parmesan cheese, capers and thin lemon slices for garnish
- Rice or angel hair pasta for service
Melt butter in slow cooker that has been set on high heat. Add Caesar salad dressing, lemon juice, Pepporncini and juice, chicken gravy mix and marinated roasted red peppers. Stir to combine these ingredients. Add chicken. Spoon sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or until the chicken is completely cooked and tender.
To serve: Place chicken covered with sauce in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and capers. Garnish with some thin lemon slices. Broil to melt the cheese and lightly char the lemon slices. Serve over rice or angel hair pasta.
Gremolata
Makes 1 cup
- 1 small bunch fresh parsley, washed and dried, chopped fine
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Zest of one small lemon
- 21/4 ounces pine nuts browned in 1 tablespoon melted butter
- ½ teaspoon prepared horseradish (or more to taste)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Good grind of freshly ground black pepper
Place all ingredients in mixing bowl and stir to combine. Take a pair of kitchen scissors and chop the mixture with the scissors in the bowl to make sure that the mixture is very finely chopped. Cover bowl and chill until service.
And now to the juice of the matter.
A little squeeze of lemon is perhaps the quickest way to zest up your meals this winter. Here are some tips to make your meals zesty:
Purchase an electric juicer. It so much easier and less messy than squeezing juice by hand. I like the Juiceman juicer. It also makes fabulous juice from fresh oranges.
Freeze fresh lemon juice in ice cube trays. One frozen lemon cube equals 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
Before you juice the lemon, zest it and freeze the zest in a small plastic bag for later use.
Drizzle lemon olive oil over pasta and salads for a little extra zesty flavor.
Make Gremolata, a zesty Italian herb that brightens up dishes with citrusy flavor. Keep it in the fridge to serve with wintery stewed dishes such as Ossobuco and lamb shanks (add mint to the Gremolata to serve with lamb), roasted vegetables, grilled fish or any dish where you’d like a burst of fresh flavor. Reminds me of a zesty pesto.
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