"LemonZest" news and stories

As the weather turns cold (and occasionally dreary), we'll take little bursts of sunshine wherever we can get them -- especially if they're soft and sweet like these lemon-loaded cookies from Brown-Eyed Baker.

Lemon is often the perfect companion for butter, poppy seeds and, of course, vodka.

Made with lemon cake mix, lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon extract (as well as a few of the usual cookie suspects, like egg and confectioner's sugar), these "lemon burst cookies" are, like the Brown-Eyed Baker herself said, literally "bursting at the seams with bright lemon flavor."

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Ever since an ethereal-sounding "daffodil" pasta stuffed with pear and four cheeses was featured in The New York Times last week we have been captive to a one-track mind: "Must create creamy cheese pouches in velvety sauce without making trip across town to specialty shop."

You can't always get what you want, as the song goes, but you sure can get close. With this writer's blurb as a guide, it was off to the local grocer in hopes of creating a dish that would ease our itch for rich, blooming pasta. The basics were easy -- cheese tortellini, cream and a sprightly marriage of pears, fresh mint and tangy lemon zest. Next up: cheeses to add depth while coating the tortellini with a creamy sheen. After considering mild Robiola and punchy Cashel Blue, we settled on nutty hard Gruyère and stinky, meltingly soft aged Taleggio.

The results and the recipe after the jump.

Source

Julie over at A Finger In Every Pie has a recipe for what her brother and sister-in-law call "the best cupcakes ever." And they do look good, don't they? They're Lightly Lemon Cupcakes. And they have blueberry and lemon in them, and they have the word "Light" in the title so you can eat 5 of them and still rationalize that you're eating healthy.

The full recipe for the cupcakes is after the jump. For the icing recipe, click on the link above.