May 8, 2012

Get Your Chef On: Lemons

Maybe you can relate?  Sometimes you assault yourself with ideas for beautiful, classy food (ahem...hello, Pinterest).  Food you'll most likely not make.  Your cookbooks have over half the pages marked because something seemed like a good idea at the time.  And time...time is exactly what's missing.

Maybe you have a manila folder crammed full of magazine clippings.  Because the pictures made you say, "Oh, look.  Shiny."

Maybe not.

And maybe, despite all of this, when the time comes to answer the "what's for dinner?" question...you got nuthin'.  That's a story for another day.

Today's story is about my feelings on clutter.  Piles make me cringe.  Stacks disgust me.  (Unless we're talking stacks of chocolate chip pancakes.)  I just know those hoarding shows would make me pass out.

Every so often the stacks and piles, crammed and jammed, really get to me.  Crossing things off a list and purging files make me crazy happy.

But.

I'm at a crossroads.  Old enough to know I should learn my lesson about throwing things away willy-nilly.  Yet still young enough to not actually do anything with this knowledge.

Except this time.
A recipe torn from a magazine survived several rounds of "I'm never going to make this."  I've held on to that page for a few years.  There was just something about it.

And that something is

Lemon & Thyme Syrup.

Syrup that's not only great coating fruit, but syrup that adds wow to iced tea.  Syrup that, I think, would be awesome drizzled over pound cake.  Any cake.

Sweet with a punch from lemon peel and juice.  Subtle, herby, woodsy flavor from the thyme.
So glad I didn't throw that page away.

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This post is also a part of Get Your Chef On: Lemons
hosted by
White Lights On Wednesday
Four Marrs & One Venus
Look here for a listing of participating bloggers



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Melon-Berry Salad w/ Lemon & Thyme Syrup
adapted from Woman's Day Magazine, July 2009

1 scant cup sugar
1/4 c water
peel and juice from 1 large lemon
1 handful fresh thyme sprigs

1 cantaloupe
1 container strawberries
1 container blueberries
thyme leaves

Place the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove from stove and allow to steep for 30-40 minutes.  Strain to remove lemon peel and thyme.  Allow to cool before using.

While the syrup cools, wash the fruit.  Cube the cantaloupe; cut the strawberries.

Place about 1/2 cup cubed cantaloupe in each bowl.  Toss in a small handful of strawberries and about 1/4 cup blueberries in a bowl.  Drizzle about 1 TBSP syrup over the fruit.  Stir gently.  Garnish with thyme leaves.  Repeat with remaining fruit and syrup, or store (separately) in the fridge.  When using from the fridge, warm the syrup for a about 5 seconds in the microwave to make it spoonable.

Linking with:
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 Hearth and Soul blog hop at Premeditated Leftovers PermanetPosies.com
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17 comments:

  1. Manilla folder crammed full of recipes? Check. Countless recipe books? Check. Magazines? Check. Yep, sounds like we are in the same boat. With recipes all around me, I still fall victim of, what's for dinner?" ; )

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  2. OH yummy! This sounds like the perfect touch to that melon salad! I bet it adds a great lemon zing to it! Thank you so much for playing along in the Challenge! Hope to see you next round! You did a great great job! Looks perfect for Summer time! YUM!

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  3. MMMmmm, I agree this would be good on just about anything! Glad you kept the recipe, because I'm bookmarking it, LOL.

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  4. Haha! I'm totally and "Oh Look! Shiny!" girl too. I had to make myself go through my recipe binders and pull out anything I hadn't made and mark recipes that were mingled within family favorites that had never been made. I've put all those unmade recipes into my blog binder now for inspiration. Now I just have to remember to make them.

    Major props for breaking out this awesome sounding syrup. I can totally see is soaked into some pound cake and then added to whipped cream to top the cake. Thanks so much for joining GYCO. We hope you'll be back for round 2 in July!

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  5. I can so relate to the piles of clutter and the disgust with them, but you can't just toss everything because they may contain a treasure like this recipe! I usually make a plain fruit salad for large events, but I am going to try this one for my daughter's graduation party next week.

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  6. Haha yes I know about the purging need too. No need to have an enormous house just so I have more storage space. Just be organized, but still the stacks accumulate! sigh - I'm glad though that this one survived because it sounds like it was worth keeping. :)

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  7. Ha ha ha! You should see the stacks of magazines on my living room table right now. I literally can't figure out what to do with them because I'd tear nearly every page out and then that would be just as bad (or worse) than keeping them. I'm hopeless.

    I love that this syrup survived the purge over the years. I have no doubt this was delicious with fruit and tea. I made a basil syrup that went over peaches once and it was super addictive. I think I ate the whole batch myself.

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  8. I had that folder at one time but after retirement, I scanned all of them into my computer and now I have everything just a search away. (but I still ask myself "what's for dinner?") LOl. Just dropping by to invite you to my first ever blog hop and would love it if you linked up. Hope to see you there.

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  9. I hear you on the manilla folders, HA! And you know, now that I'm really going through mine I'm wondering what on earth made me save some of them. This clipping you saved looks fabulous and sounds so refreshing! It's breakfast time here in Dallas and I think I'll get me some fruit!

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  10. I have post it stickers in all my cookbooks and a bag full of recipes from magazines. Too many recipes, not enough time.

    Great post. Thanks for sharing with Simply Delish.

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  12. Thank you for linking up to Freedom Fridays! I always love to see what you are cooking:) See ya in the Gumbo!

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  13. Every once in a while I'll have time to make something super fancy...but those times are few and far between. This syrup sounds like a great way to fancify some fruit salad!

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  14. I love your syrup recipe, lemon & thyme are amazing together. I have lemon thyme in my herb garden this year and smells so refreshing :) Pinning this for future use!

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  15. This is such a gorgeous fruit salad! The lemon thyme syrup sounds just amazing. What a beautiful flavour combo!

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  16. Thank you for participating in Show Your Stuff Blog Hop, You are invited to come back:
    http://juliejewels1.blogspot.com/2012/05/show-your-stuff-24-bread-machine-banana.html

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  17. Mmmm, I need to try this syrup next time I make fruit salad and sweet tea! Thanks for sharing again this week, Michelle :o)

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Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments.