Did you know?

Did you know that if you microwave a lemon or a lime for 10 seconds and then apply pressure with your palm while rolling roll it back and forth on the counter a few times you will get more juice out of it? 

Did you also know that the most intense flavor of citrus comes from the pretty intensely colored skin?  This is called the "zest."  The tool pictured above is called a microplane.  Hold the plane with one hand and the lemon with the other.  Then run the lemon across the plane.  You only want to use the bright part of the skin as the pith, or the more white part of the skin can be bitter.  Give the tool a tap on the cutting board to loosen the flavorful bits from the underside.  You can get a microplane at http://www.cooking.com/ or most any kitchen store for around $10.  This tool can also be used to finely grate hard cheeses like parmesan or romano.

Try zesting a lemon, then juicing.  Add the juice as part of the cooking liquid for rice and when the rice is done,  add the zest at the very end.  You will have a delicious lemon rice to serve with the Crunchy Baked Cod recipe I posted  a couple of days ago.  You can add this to most any sugar cookie recipe, quick bread, or scone for an intense and delicious citrus flavor.

More to come!

Thank you so much for visiting.

Angie