Recipe: Lemon Curd

My lemon tree is a little skimpy on fruit this year. Not sure why. I usually have a mountain of lemons and sadly we end up wasting a lot of them.  While we wait for fruit, let's explore some lemon recipes.

This year my lemon inspiration list includes: lemonade, lemon cake, lemon muffins, lemon sorbet and most importantly lemon curd.

Here's a lemon curd recipe from Martha Stewart. It's easy to make, although I would double or even triple the recipe. I find that one and a half cups is hardly enough. Try it on toast, on ice cream or with soft cheeses like ricotta and goat cheese.

• Yield Makes 1 1/2 cups

 Ingredients

• 3 large egg yolks, strained
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Directions

1. Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
   
2. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
   
3. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour.
   

Project Idea #1

Posted by ReadyMade Styling by Rational Beauty

Jill and I both fell in love with this project idea published in Ready Made. The design comes from Sofie Sausser (simplysofie.com) of Agoura Hills, California.

If you're interested in making your own planter at next month's meeting, here's what you need to do:

1. Start collecting your plastic recycled food containers. Match up a similar large mold with a smaller mold. They use the example of an 8 oz. yogurt container with a 32 oz yogurt container.

2. You need to bring your containers, gloves and 9x12-inch piece plexiglass (one for each container you plan to make.) You can get plexiglass at Lowes or Home Depot.

3. We will provide the cement and water.

To check out the complete project, visit http://www.readymade.com/projects/rm100_cement_planter

The Inaugural LGG meeting

Becky takes home an okra plant for her container garden

     Thanks to all the wonderful ladies that showed up for the first-ever Ladies Gardening Guild gathering. It's exciting to hear about all the gardening adventures — Becky's backyard container garden, Jennifer V.'s inherited garden plot, Arielle's composting success and Tall Jill's peaches. I think we convinced Jennifer R. to start a herb garden and nearly begged Erica to bring her dad for a guest lecture. 

     For those of you that couldn't make it, don’t stress. We compiled a list of project ideas and topics of interest for future meetings. The group is interested in possible field trips — Queen Creek Olive Mill, Maya's Farm, Schnepf Farms and the Botanical Garden.  In the next few months, we plan to explore companion planting, pests, composting, seed starting and herb gardens. 
     Check out Baker's Nursery, located at 3414 N. 40th Street, and pick up one of Gregory's Gardening Guides. He puts one out every month, including one specific to growing tomatoes. His monthly newsletter is specific to gardening needs in the desert. 
     Next month, we will see you at Jill McNamara's house. She promises to make strawberry caipirinha cocktails. Hopefully, I will have some zucchini to share with you all.

Caprese salad, with tomatoes from Farmer's Market & pastry puffs with homemade lemon curd

Arielle works her composting magic on Jill's compost bin

Jennifer V., Becky and Jennifer R. — meetings are serious business

Jill M. will be hosting next month's meeting

We thank Erica for inviting Jennifer V. We love meeting new people.

Getting down to business — Jill M., Arielle and Erica

Want your garden to grow? Just leave town.

I admit that every morning I go outside to see if something new has bloomed in my small garden plot. I check how tall things are getting, how healthy the leaves look. It's hard to see the many changes when you inspect it every hour. Apparently, if you want your garden to grow, you just need to leave town for a few days. We returned last night from a 5-day trip to Tennessee and I barely recognized the overgrown veggie garden in my backyard. There are blooms and fruit. These are some happy plants. Thanks so much to the fabulous Erica Brooks for keeping everything watered.

Japanese eggplant & cherry tomatoes

Bibb lettuce & spinach

Tomatoes, summer squash, winter squash, onions & beef steak tomato

Summer squash bloom

Bell pepper & Armenian cucumber

Invitations are in the mail

The Ladies Gardening Guild may "not be your grandma's gardening club," but at least we can borrow some ideas from grandma — like frilly invitations typed on a groovy old typewriter. I'm not sure how the search for a typewriter began, but I found one and I'm kind of in love with it. It's imperfect, but it's a helluva a lot better than the chicken-scratches I make with a pen.

Ain't she a beauty!

Be on the lookout for your invitation.

I hope our invitations pique your interest in the gardening guild. We're exciting to be hosting our first casual gathering. This will be a great chance to meet some fellow gardeners — almost all of whom are newbies. This is also the time to talk about projects, brag about successes and curse the failures.

Feel free to contact us regarding questions, ideas or if you're interested in hosting a future gathering.

See you soon.