Spring Baking: Lemon Ricotta Cookies

With spring in the air and Easter in a few weeks, I thought I would share a cookie recipe that I recently tried that I think is perfect for spring.  I made these cookies back in February for my sister’s birthday. The cookies came out really well and the flavor of the lemon really stands out and was refreshing. The cookies are softer than an average cookie due to the ricotta.  The recipe is very easy but making the glaze was the tough part. It is a mix of powdered sugar and lemon juice but it was not easy to stir the two ingredients together into a glaze. I ended up adding more lemon juice than the recipe called for because the mixture was very stiff and ended up with a lemon flavor that was more than intended. Regardless, the cookies overall were great and I will be making them for dessert for Easter.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients for cookies: 

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Ingredients for glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookies: 

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the large bowl combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Rue Magazine & Kate Spade Bedding

I just went through the latest edition of Rue magazine and loved their spread on the upcoming bedding collection from Kate Spade.   Here is a fabulous video made by You + ME* & Trent Bailey Photo that showcases the photo shoot. (I really love the black and white bedding collection with the Mr. & Mrs. pillows and the gold accents throughout the room!)

Make Your Bed for Rue from You + ME* & Trent Bailey Photo on Vimeo.

Love this...

 

Photo via Etsy.

Vera Wang Collection at David's Bridal

Since wedding season is coming up, I thought I would dedicate this post to wedding dresses and focus on one collection that I recently saw. My sister had informed me of the Vera Wang line of wedding dresses for David's Bridal and when she told me about it I wasn't that excited because I personally feel that when high end designers try to design and make clothes for lower priced retail outlets their styles do not appeal to me and the materials used are never of the best quality (I guess that is why they are lower priced). But I was surprised when one night I was watching E! News and they had a feature on Vera Wang and her new collection of wedding dresses at David's Bridal. I must say that  I was impressed! I loved all of the dresses that were featured. The collection is called "White by Vera Wang". The dresses are affordable and range in price from $600 to $1400.  

Here are a few of my favorite dresses from the collection (as a side note, I really think that David's Bridal needs to rethink their choice of models, especially for this collection. She is too skinny and the makeup they used on her makes her look very pale and vampire-like. And a smile would have been nice since the dresses are for a joyous occasion...but that is just my opinion...)

Here are two of my big favorites. The dress on the right I love because of its Grecian style. The dress on the left, I love how its fitted on top with one shoulder and all the ruffles on the bottom.

I also love this dress, even though it is in blush pink.  Again, I love the ruffles on the bottom and the pink brings a different element to a wedding if a bride does not want to go the traditional route.

Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese

A few weekends ago, I decided to make a new pasta dish for my husband and I to try.  My husband is a vegetarian so its tough to find new recipes that we both like and don't involve pasta.  I am a huge Giada De Laurentiis fan and many of her vegetarian meals are pasta dishes.  I decided to try the Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese recipe from her cookbook, Giada's Kitchen. The recipe was very earthy because of all of the mushrooms used. If you don't like mushrooms, do not make this meal!  I found the recipe to be a bit bland but I think that is because of my use of spices, meaning I didn't use enough.  We had lots of leftovers so we ate them for lunch the next day and the meal tasted better with some added black pepper.  I think I would make this meal again and instead of using dry spices of thyme and oregano maybe I would use fresh herbs (like the recipe calls for). I would also maybe make this again without the carrots or use less of them as I didn't like the sweet taste of them.  This dish is great accompanied with a glass (or two) of red wine.

Below are the ingredients and instructions on how to make this dish (you can also find the ingredients & recipe on FoodNetwork.com).  

You will need:

• 1-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 ounces assorted mushrooms (I used cremini and shiitake), stemmed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• grated Parmesan cheese

Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with 1 1/2 cups very hot water. Set aside and let the mushrooms soften.

Place the carrots, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse the vegetables until finely chopped but still chunky. Place the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped vegetables, thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Strain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the porcini mushroom liquid. Add the porcini mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, and tomato paste and continue cooking, stirring to dissolve the tomato paste, until the mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the porcini mushroom liquid and red wine. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and stir just until the cheese is incorporated.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and add to the vegetable mixture. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid, if necessary, to moisten the sauce. Toss with Parmesan and serve.

Currently loving...Adele

My favorite song at the moment is Adele's single, Rolling in the Deep...it is just so good! I only heard about her a few weeks ago when I started to see her name on blogs and on TV and wondered who this woman was. I found out she won two Grammy awards in 2009 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and then last weekend I saw her being interviewed on VH1. This video was #1 on VH1's countdown and I instantly fell in love with the video, the song, and downloaded her album and fell in love with that too. Check out the video for Rolling in the Deep below.

Bee Gee Bags

Last year at this time I was planning my wedding and was looking for a cute clutch to store small items that I would need throughout the day (lipstick, mints, tissues, etc.).  I had seen an ad in Brides magazine for BeeGee Bags and I knew that I needed to have one for my wedding day.  The best thing about their bags are that they can also be used after the wedding - either on your honeymoon or a night out in the summer. The bag that I purchased was the perfect accessory to my summer outfits.   The company is based in Washington DC and all the bags are created by stay at home moms who are the  "BeeGee Sewers" (as they call themselves on their website).  The clutches come in many different colors and designs and are described on their website as  "classic and timeless". You can also place a custom order.

Here are my favorite bags from their website:

 Coco

 

 Orange Crush

 

Autum Teal

Fanny

Honey Bee 

(Love the name!)