Cornmeal Muffins with Three Lemony Herbs for #Baketogether

Lemon verbena, lemon thyme and lemon mint flavor these cornmeal muffins.

Sometimes, well, most of the time, I don’t like picking sides. That’s why these cornmeal muffins with three lemony herbs can walk the fine line between sweet and savory.

Abby posted her recipe for May’s #baketogether event, giving us two versions from which to choose. I tweaked the recipe just a little bit, kept a bit of sugar and used three fresh herbs — lemon verbena, lemon thyme and lemon  mint — that work well for any time of day.

For a sweet course, I’d serve these warm, sliced and topped with a strawberry sauce, a bit like shortcake, with some whipped cream on the side. For teatime: Warmed with a slather of butter, maybe a drizzle of honey.

In savory situations, put one of these muffins alongside a salad, perhaps making little crouton. I placed a small knob of goat cheese atop some of the muffins before they went into the oven. Goat cheese and lemony flavors are very compatible.

From left: Lemon verbena, lemon thyme and lemon mint.

My first tweak of Abby’s recipe juggles the ratio of flour to cornmeal. My family’s cornbread traditions have never involved wheat flour, only cornmeal, which means it’s a pretty sturdy bread. I kept the all purpose flour, just used a little less of it and a tad more cornmeal.

Seven Ways to Use Preserved Lemons and a Fast, Easy Recipe

Preserved Meyer Lemons

Ever since Patricia Wells made preserved lemons look so easy, I’ve kept a jar in the refrigerator. I love the sunny, salty, citrusy kick they add to dishes.

The important thing to remember about cooking with lemon confit is that you will need to adjust (and perhaps eliminate) any additional salt in the recipe. This is when you must salt to taste.

Lemon, Lime and Clementine Icebox Pie with Little Meringue Buttons

Lemon Icebox Pie with Lime and Clementine and Little Meringue Buttons

I’ve never met a man who didn’t like lemon pie. Especially Lemon Icebox Pie with its sweet and crumbly graham cracker crust, the very (very) tart lemon filling, and a topping soft meringue or billowy whipped cream.

And for those in charge of preparation, the recipe could not be easier. It’s the kind that you remember, with no need for written directions. Lemon juice, egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk. Mix it up, pour in a crust, and let it chill. That’s it.

Lemon Icebox Pie is usually thought of as dessert for spring and summer months, but I made one last month while I was in central Louisiana visiting family. My sister’s Meyer lemon tree yielded a dozen sweetly fragrant fruit and we used some to make a pie. What remained of the pie went home with our parents because lemon pie is Daddy’s favorite dessert.

So Splendid: Jeni’s Lemon Cream Ice Cream

Lemon Cream Ice Cream based on a recipe from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams opened in Columbus a few years after after we moved away.

My husband had gone back for a visit and was expected to bring home a few pints of Graeter’s (a Cincinnati institution whose Lane Ave. shop in Columbus was where I used to stand in long lines for scoops of coconut or blackberry chip).

He called and said, “Everybody’s talking about Jeni’s. I think you’d like these flavors. Should I bring some home?” He then rattled off half a dozen flavors and I couldn’t decide— which often happens when I am presented with too many choices. (Same reason I could never go to the movie store, but that is another story.)

We settled on pints of Wildberry Lavender and Coriander Raspberry, which were my first introduction to Jeni Britton Bauer’s splendid kaleidoscope of flavors.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home was published this summer and it features her secrets for the home cook. Food52 recently featured her Lemon Cream recipe in its genius collection—and for good reason.

One thing that has always bothered me about some ice cream recipes is the abundance of egg yolks, so many that I could taste the egginess. Not using a custard base, though, often resulted in something a bit more icy (un-scoopable really) and it lacked that desirable smooth mouth-feel of rich ice creams.

The genius move by Jeni is to use cream cheese and cornstarch. The cornstarch did not surprise me because many Italian gelatos use cornstarch to bind and smooth the mixture.  The cream cheese, though, is the real stroke of brilliance. Its fat carries flavor and adds a smooth texture. It is so perfect for lemon because the light tang of cream cheese echoes the citrus.

From Salad as a Meal: Lemon Zest Salt

Lemon Zest Salt

Patricia Wells’s learned but unfussy approach to food and writing has long appealed to me, and I have dreamed of attending a cooking class with her in Paris or Provence.

I’ve been following her on Twitter (@patriciawellsfr) as she tours the U.S. for a new book, Salad as Meal. A tweet about her friend Susie Kauck’s blog Return to Sunday Supper led me to discover Susie was giving away a copy of the book. (Turns out that Susie’s husband is the photographer Jeff Kauck, whose appetizing photos for Salad as a Meal so deftly convey a sense of place.) This is a book I would have purchased anyway, but what a thrill to win. Thank you, Return to Sunday Supper!

In Salad as a Meal, Wells offers a host of salads, all designed to be the stars of a meal, some with meat, poultry or fish, and some without. I often prepare salads as main courses during the warmer months, but choices for cooler weather are featured, as well. For completing a meal, there are recipes for accompaniments—simple breads, soups and salad dressings. (I love the lemon zest buttermilk dressing.)

Lemon Curd for the Easily Distracted

Microwave Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is a beautiful thing. Tart, sweet, smooth and just a little bit buttery. And it’s highly versatile, perfect for filling a tart crust, slathering on scones or melting into a warm bowl of steel cut oats.

There is no mystery to making lemon curd, and therefore no reason to stray toward store bought versions. The more transparent and gelatinous a jarred lemon curd appears, the worse it will taste—overly sweet, bitter and sticky.