L is for Lemons: Lemon Ricotta Pancakes (Jennifer)

Dearest readers,

When I was younger, my dad used to make our family a big breakfast every weekend. It happened with such regular recurrence, my sister and I could almost count on these big breakfasts being made every weekend, on either Saturday or Sunday, but most often, on Sunday. My dad would wake up early, before everyone else in the house, and quietly begin preparations for our big weekend breakfast. Slicing potatoes for hash browns, shredding cheddar cheese to melt into lightly beaten eggs, mixing up pancake batter. No kid wants to wake up early on the weekend, but once my nose caught smells of sizzling bacon and pancakes being cooked to perfection, I couldn't help but wander to the kitchen where breakfast beckoned.

To all of our readers I hope that fun memories of times shared with family and loved ones bring smiles to your faces in the coming days, weeks and months. May these memories come as frequently as big stacks of pancakes on Sunday mornings.

L is for Lentils: Lentil Soup/Stew/Mush (Jessica)

Hi all,

I'm sorry to be so late in posting this recipe. I was thinking about all of you though, and didn't mean to ignore you!
Alas, sometimes things happen that are completely beyond our control. So when we finally can move back into the kitchen (an area where we do have some control), it can feel very nice.  I won't say much more at this point, so it's on to the recipe!

L is for Lemon Panna Cotta with Lemon Marmalade (Jennifer)

Hello world!
A big hello to all of our new readers this week! It makes us so very excited when new people mention that they stumbled upon our humble abode of a blog. Thank you for reading and following us along on this fun journey!

This week's post is inspired by lemons. Sweet, tart, sunshine-hued lemons. Thoughts of lemons conjure up wonderful memories of long summer days filled with lemonade-sipping, lemonade-selling, and my personal favorite, lemon meringue pie-eating. While originally I had planned to do a lemon meringue pie (I've never actually attempted one on my own before), something about this recipe for lemon panna cotta with lemon marmalade caught my eye and I couldn't stop thinking about it all week. Whatever the reason, this recipe had me at hello!



If you enjoy cold, refreshing treats in the summertime, I hope you'll give this dessert a try!

L is (also) for Lemon Garlic Hummus (Jessica)

Hello there!

This week, I actually made TWO recipes that start with L. Something about vacation, a big kitchen, and so many kitchen helpers all combined to bring you this second recipe! How exciting and delicious.

On a more serious note, both the recipes for L are totally gluten free. Why, you ask? Well, one of my family members was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. I had heard of celiac disease (also called celiac sprue) before, but didn't know much about it until about a month ago. After doing some research, I found out that celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder, not a gluten allergy (as is commonly thought). The small intestine is damaged when gluten is present in the body. This damage prevents the body from absorbing the nutrients it needs to stay healthy (for example: proteins, vitamins, and minerals). There is no medication to repair the damage done to the intestine, the only way to treat this condition is to completely remove gluten from your diet.

As you can imagine, this radically changes how a person eats. Especially a person who loves pasta and bread. Gluten is in wheat, malt, rye and a number of other grains. Eating out becomes a challenge, special provisions must be made to ensure a meal has not been contaminated with gluten in the kitchen. Oh, and baking your typical cake/muffin/cupcake requires some serious alterations.
In light of all of this, we'll be tagging our gluten-free recipes and making more of them!

If you'd like to know more, here are some good links to read about celiac disease:
http://www.celiaccentral.org/
http://www.celiac.org/

And now, on to the recipe...

L is for Lime Chicken Tacos (Jessica)

Dear readers,
Happy 4th of July! I hope you had a great long weekend celebrating summer. And what better way to do this than with some darn good grillin' on the barbecue.  This week's recipe took advantage of the easy access I have to a barbecue at the moment. I am lucky enough to be on vacation with my family at the Cape! (that's Cape Cod, in Massachusetts...for those not from New England).
In fact, I'm writing this to you from the patio of our lovely rental house looking out on the bay and the ocean. What a spot! And gorgeous weather. Oh, there's a sailboat going by!

Ok, back to food...we chose this recipe because of the limes, the fact that it would feed a number of people, and the use of the BBQ (as mentioned before); it's a great recipe. I highly recommend it. But now I'm getting ahead of myself...here's the recipe: