Better Home Cooking Basics: #19 Roll Citrus Fruit on a Hard Surface Before Squeezing Them for the Most Juice

I use a lot of citrus - mainly lemons & sometimes limes when I cook. In order to get the most juice out of them I do a quick roll on the counter (or whatever hard surface is around) before I juice them - which is sometimes with one of those clamp like hand-held squeezing gadgets, a manual wooden reamer or sometimes just my hands.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here.

The Perfect Pie Crust

When I was a little girl I helped my mom make lots of pie crusts. She was no fool, she'd put me to work. Before I knew it I was making several batches of piecrust that my mom would freeze & use later (no doubt when I wasn't available to make them!). I can't blame her & actually I thank her for showing me that it really isn't that difficult & makes a world of difference when you're actually eating the pie.  In a pinch I've definitely used the store bought dough but if I have the time I make this pie crust.

I found Giada's recipe for pie crust in her crostata with dried apricots & taleggio that I've made a couple of times but what I really love is the crust!!! So I use this recipe for most pies that I make since first finding the recipe. What I really liked about this recipe is that it doesn't call for crisco. Exactly, what is crisco? That white goopy stuff that you can keep in your pantry probably forever without it going bad. Yeah not exactly what I want hanging around in my body.  This recipe calls for marscapone cheese - hello cheese! can't go wrong with that!  Marscapone cheese is kind of like a buttery Italian cream cheese. It's a delicious fatty spread & is leaps & bounds more yummy than crisco in my book. 




PS: Happy Birthday to one of my favorite ladies ever, SUZIE! Love & miss you ;) Cheers to a fabulous day & year! xx

Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies

A co-worker made these cookies for my team & I long before I'd even tasted the original famous Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was instantly impressed & needed the recipe.  Since then I keep a stained piece of paper  in my mini recipe binder (that I've had since I was 12 ) with just the ingredients written down. I've made these cookies so many times that I have the process down pat, but I still need to double check my measurements - this is baking we're talking about after all.

There are four things that make these cookies as good as they are (besides the obvious chocolate chips & butter):

1. ground oats
2. cinnamon
3. lemon juice
4. the fridge/freezer

There is probably some kind of chemical reaction that happens - but I'm not going there because I'm not going to even pretend to know.  What I do know is that these cookies offer the perfect thickness & the right amount of yum to keep you making them over & over again.

Without further adieu, per Ms. Lindsey Barton's request, please click through to get the official recipe!