pinterest wednesday

Last night was the first time I have cooked in a couple of months. Let me tell you...it was a BIG deal. I have been craving almost anything lemon-sour-fruity. So I looked on pinterest to find some inspiration, and I found these... They were fantastic, especially if you're pregnant and love a little sour. It was so good,  want to share the recipe with you...

[Lemon Crinkle Cookies]


Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

And remember when I said I would branch out from sweets on pinterest?! Well I kind of did. I also made dinner last night- crazy right?! I never make dinner, even in non-prego-state. Matt is just a way better cook, and he actually likes cooking. But I made potato-apple-gratin. Oh my, so delicious. Here in Idaho its still scorching out, you couldn't tell fall is right around the corner. But this dish made me feel like it's autumn.

It happens to be gluten free- if you care, I don't. But I did have all of the ingredients on hand, minus the cream, so it was rather cheap and fun to make. Here is my adapted recipe, the original website I think is blogger from France? maybe Canada? anyways- it said cook at 180 degrees. So I started to... then realized it was probably Celsius, for that would take about a day to cook in Fahrenheit. Totally dumb. So don't do that!

[Apple Potato Gratin]

1 apple
10 little white potatoes (that's what I had on hand)
4 oz heavy whipping cream (7 tablespoons)
3.5 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup green onion, washed and finely sliced
1/2 cup grated cheese (I chose cheddar and jack pre-shredded)
butter
salt + pepper, to taste
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 deg F and grease a glass dish with butter.
Wash the apple and potatoes (their skin contains the best nutrients to its better to keep it on!) and slice thinly with a knife or mandolin. I used a Cuisinart slicer for apples and potatoes- took about 5 minutes.

Layer the dish... really in whatever fashion you like or not at all... I did it like this...
potatoes [bottom]
apples & onions
cheese
potatoes & apples & onions & salt & pepper [top]

Whisk together the cream and milk and pour over the top. Cover with foil and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Remove foil. Add a light layer of cheese and a little butter on top and bake for another 15 minutes or until cooked through. Cool slightly, cut and serve.

...now I just need to get enough energy to do these...

[cookies and gratin picture from pinterest recipes, dishes picture is unfortunately mine]