Luscious Lemon Bars

These are rich with the perfect blend of sweet and tang with lemon on top of a shortbread crust.
 I hope your family enjoys these as much as ours does.




Crust:
1.5 c. flour
1/2 c. powdered (confectioners) sugar
3/4 c. cold butter

Place ingredients in a medium bowl, and cut in butter until crumbly (use a pastry blender or two knives).
Press into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13" pan.
(It will be very floury (is that a word?) but the little pockets of butter will melt while baking to form a fantastic shortbread crust.)
Bake at 350* for 15 minutes.
When it is done, it should look something like this:

Filling:
4 eggs slightly beaten
1.5 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 c. lemon juice

Place eggs in a medium bowl and slightly beat.
Add sugar, baking powder, and lemon juice.
Mix thoroughly.
(After doing this several ways, I recommend doing this by hand rather than by mixer - it doesn't need to be super frothy or bubbly)

Pour over baked crust.
Bake at 350* for 20 -25 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool, then cut into bars and sprinkle with powdered (confectioners) sugar.
Cover and refrigerate to store, but serve at room temperature.

Sweet Potato Muffins

I hit the $1 section at our local Target the other evening - just browsing around.  There I found a couple of simple cookbooks, and as I thumbed through them, this recipe for Sweet Potato Muffins caught my eye.
(It could have been because I'd roasted some sweet potatoes just the day before, but they weren't as sweet as usual, and I was trying to think of some way to use them). 
These came out very moist and flavorful, with a nice crunch due to the advent of pecans.

3 C. flour
1 T. baking powder
1.5 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground nutmeg
1.5 - 2 c. cooked mashed sweet potatoes or yams
1.5 C. sugar
3/4 C. milk
3 eggs
1/2 C. butter (melted) (or 1/4 c. chia)
1/2 C. chopped pecans

In a mixing bowl combine sweet potatoes or yams, sugar, milk, and eggs. 
Add dry ingredients, then butter or chia. 
Mix until well blended.
Stir in pecan.

Fill greased muffin cups half full.
Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
Yield - approx. 4 dozen

Hershey's Chocolate Cake - made with Chia

As I've been experimenting with chia - I decided to try it out in a chocolate cake earlier this week.
Here's what I found -
1.  No one could tell
2. The cake was very moist
3. The chia was a WAY better substitute for the fat - MUCH better than the applesauce substitute
4. No one had any idea that 1/2 of the fat had been substituted
5. Everyone loved it

                                

Here's a link to my Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake with chia recipe