Lemon is a frequent ingredient in the cuisine at both the Stein and Leson households. Nancy says "It's a rare day when I don't use one or three of them when I'm cooking." I like lemons, too but my wife (The Lovely and Talented) Cheryl DeGroot believes there's nothing they can't improve.
In fact when I told her that if I marinated a hockey puck in lemon juice DeGroot would eat it, Nancy thought I was joking.
Recently Nance attended a cooking class at the Tom Douglas Hot Stove Society. The topic of the class: Cooking with lemons.
"We had roasted lemon chicken with a lemon salsa verde, lemon green beans, fresh pasta with a lemon cream sauce, there was a lemon vinaigrette-dressed salad," and "We had an incredibly buttery lemon-polenta cake."
Nancy says the lemon green beans "....Would be perfect for Easter Sunday.
Blanch some green beans in boiling salted water... take 'em out while they're still crisp..put 'em on a platter, let cool and then drizzle with some good olive oil, sprinkle with kosher or sea salt and the zest of a lemon." Topped with shaved Parmesan or minced parsley, Nancy says it's "Easy-Peasy."
Once DeGroot gets wind of this Food for Thought episode I know she'll demand I make that lemon-centric dinner, too. And I will.
"This hockey puck could use more lemon."
– The L & T
