Lovely Lemon-Filled Coconut Cupcakes

These are not your everyday, quick-cooking cupcakes. These are for special occasions and worth every minute of effort! These are pound cake-like in density, and part of the lemon flavor comes from a liqueur called Limoncello, which is really lovely. If you "Google" recipes using this liqueur, you'll find it in everything from pasta to chicken. I hope you'll make these cupcakes for someone's birthday, Father's Day, Mother's Day, a bridal shower... and I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!


Yield: 1 dozen

For the cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons Limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur)
1 tsp. coconut extract (optional)
½ cup milk or buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice
½ c shredded sweetened coconut
Zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until light and creamy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the Limoncello, coconut extract, milk and lemon juice, and beat an additional minute. On low speed, add flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the coconut and lemon zest and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Divide the batter between 12 muffin tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.


For the lemon curd:
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

In a heavy medium saucepan, stir together the lemon zest, juice and sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Whisk a small amount of the lemon mixture into the eggs to temper them. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking constantly until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.


For the cream cheese Limoncello frosting:
½ stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon Limoncello
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
Coconut for toasting, for decorating top of cupcakes
*you can also add a little coconut to the frosting itself if you're a big fan :)

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the Limoncello and beat for an additional minute. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

Toast about 1/2 C additional coconut for topping the cupcakes if desired. You can easily toast the coconut in the oven while it's coming up to temperature for the cupcakes, or you can do it on top of the stove in a small skillet. Always watch very carefully when you toast coconut or nuts as they get away from you so quickly!


Assembly:

1. Cut a cone shaped piece from the top of each cupcake. Cut the point off of the cones so that you won't be displacing too much filling when you put these cones back on top of the filling.

2. Fill the cavity with the lemon curd.
3. Replace the trimmed cones on top of the filling, and don't push down too hard. If it sticks up a little or if a little filling squishes out the top, it's fine since the frosting will cover it up.
4. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle on the toasted coconut. Then have someone with willpower hide some of them, so you don't finish them off in one night! Actually they're so rich you won't be able to finish them quickly unless you have the world's biggest sweet tooth!

Fruited Rice and Lentil Salad with Chicken

This is another recipe which started with a recipe in Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special cookbook. The biggest difference is that you won't find chicken in the salads in this cookbook! I certainly don't mind a vegetarian salad, but this is one example of a way to make a more hearty dinner salad by adding a little grilled chicken or shrimp.

1. You will need about 3 C of cooked rice, and 1 c cooked lentils for this salad. This is approximately 1 C uncooked brown rice, and 1/2 C dry lentils. When I made the salad, I had leftover cooked rice and therefore simply cooked up the lentils. If you cook either the rice or lentils from the raw state, follow the package cooking directions and add a bay leaf and a clove of garlic to the cooking water for both.

2. Adding chicken to this salad is optional. I used two grilled, chopped chicken breasts, and added it at the same time that the fruit and vegetables were added.

3. To the cooked rice and lentils, add the following:
1 apple, unpeeled and chopped - toss with a little lemon juice to prevent browning
1 1/2 C seedless grapes (black preferred), sliced in half
1 large red or yellow pepper, medium dice
1/2 C celery, chopped
cooked, chopped chicken if using

4. Dressing:
1/2 C olive oil
1/3 C white wine vinegar
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tsp. dried tarragon
1/4 tsp. dried mint
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Add about half the dressing, or as much as you need to make the salad moist enough for your liking. You can offer more of the dressing when you serve it. OR...I made this salad the day before, tossed half the dressing into the salad the first day and then added the other half of the dressing the next day before I served it.

Greek Pasta Salad

This recipe was inspired by Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special cookbook. I put in a few changes of course - can't help myself! I highly recommend this cookbook - salad, soup, and bread combos - what could be better?

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil to cook pasta. Once water is boiling, add 1/2 pound pasta such as rotini, bow tie, or elbow macaroni. Cook until just tender and drain.

2. Whisk together:
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. ground fennel seeds
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Then add:
1 1/2 C cooked chickpeas (or 15 oz. can, drained). Set the chickpeas aside to marinate.

3. Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil over low heat. Add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic and cook just until the garlic is tender, probably less than a minute.

Then add:
1/2 C celery, sliced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 C diced tomatoes, or when out of season use 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes with liquid
1 1/2 C green onions, sliced

Simmer the tomato mixture for 8-10 minutes, stirring often. Then add in the chickpeas with marinade and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

4. Toss the warm tomato/chickpea mixture with the pasta, then add the following ingredients:

1/2 C your favorite olive, sliced
1/3 C chopped parsley
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1/2 -1C crumbled feta cheese - depends on how much you love it!
1 small can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

Serve warm or chilled. Serves 4-8 depending on whether or not it's a main dish or a side.

Pear Salad

This has been one of our daughter's favorite salads for some time now. We tried it out for the first time a number of years ago on some died-in-the-wool Mainers and they loved it! This photo shows the addition of fresh blackberries, which we don't always have available, but it's a wonderful compliment. It's simply a composed salad, one you layer on a plate. We use one whole pear for each person, but that can be changed of course.

Here's a list of the ingredients:
spring salad greens
ripe pear, cored and sliced
thinly sliced red onion
fresh black raspberries or another berry if in season
toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
blue cheese crumbles or soft goat cheese bits
raspberry vinaigrette - homemade or purchased

Watermelon Salad - Hawaiian style

For my 50th birthday, we went to Hawaii and for my actual birthday dinner, we ate at a wonderful restaurant that is known for their watermelon salad. We didn't get the recipe, but recreated it by listing the ingredients on a scrap of paper that actually made it home with us! I either compose each person's salad on a small plate or layer it on a large platter to pass. It's colorful and delicious!

Here are the ingredients:
greens of your choice
watermelon cut into chunks
very thinly sliced red onion
carrot curls
toasted macadamia nuts, chopped
Roquefort or Blue cheese crumbles (the cheese crumbles aren't pictured here since I passed them separately when I last made this - we had a non blue-cheese eater in the mix!)
Raspberry vinaigrette - homemade or purchased