One result of my recent obsession with citrus has been my discovery of Meyer Lemons. How have I missed them for this long? Sure, I’d seen them in the grocery store and on labels on fancy lemon pastries but it wasn’t til last week that I finally realized what they actually were. You probably know this by now, but they are a lovely cross between a lemon and a tangerine. This means they are amazingly fragrant and have a sweeter, less tart flavor than your average lemon. In addition to baking with them, I am looooving squeezing the juice into my sparkling water.

My sister Lauren is a big lover of lemon curd and I remember hearing her mention lately how much she’s been craving it, so I decided to make some for her today along with some yummy scones (recipe to come!). She has recently given birth to the cutest baby on earth, so I am finding every excuse to go visit and get some quality cuddle time.:) I’ve adapted this recipe from marthastewart.com, tweaking the sugar content slightly so that it wasn’t quite so sweet. I think the result is a nice balance of sweet/tang. If you were to use regular lemons instead of Meyer, you may need to add more sugar as regular lemons aren’t as sweet naturally. Little jars of these make for lovely gifts (I just used some of my little old grey poupon mustard jars), and the curd goes great with pancakes, scones, crepes, or as a filling when baking muffins and cakes. The curd will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.

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Well, as you may remember, I went apple picking this weekend in Flat Rock, NC at Skytop Orchard. It was a great success and we bought lots of delicious apples! Thanks so much to those of you who gave wonderful suggestions and recipe ideas for my apples, I’ve been really excited to try them out.:) Baking Midwife had the great suggestion of making homemade apple sauce using some of my apples along with apple cider.

I LOVE how this recipe uses the natural sugars found in the apples to sweeten the sauce! Most all of the recipes I’ve seen in the past call for cups of sugar, and even the “sugar-free” options tell you to substitute it with Splenda (gross). Of course the sweetness of the applesauce is dependent on the sweetness of the apple you use, so keep this in mind when you’re picking your apples. I used Blushing Gold and although this apple tends to be more tart, the workers at Skytop said that they’ve been sweeter this year. I found that the result was a perfectly sweet applesauce! This recipe would also be delicious with some cinnamon and other spices if that’s what you like, but I really love the pure taste of this without them.

I’ll have a few more apple recipes to come in the next few days… so stay tuned!

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