Start planning ahead now… many cookie recipes can be made ahead and frozen, which makes things easier when the season gets more hectic. Plus, that leftover halloween candy you’ve been trying to get rid of is great for replacing chocolate chips in your fave chocolate chip cookie recipe!

• 12 Days of Ass Friendly Christmas Cookies from The Novice Chef… Some really tasty looking treats, and under 100 calories… I love the Chocolate Hazelnut Pinwheels– They can double as an edible ornament! (though I think I’ll make some with Jam inside instead)
• From Tip Junkie: Semi-homemade food gifts – from peppermint bark, to ‘ready to make’ rice krispy treats.
• Also from Tip Junkie: A roundup of peppermint treat ideas… lots of good ones.
• Chocolate-Hazelnut Spritz Cookies at La Mia Vita Dolce
• Norwegian Sand Cookies at Pam’s wonderful site: Gingerbread Snowflakes
• Candy Cane Cake pops at Hostess with the Mostess (and check out these Rock Candy Trees!)
• Gingerbread houses and More at Crafting in a Green World – and here’s some great ideas for a Gingerbread house party from Chica & Jo
• Chewiest Molasses Cookies at Can You Stay For Dinner – I LOVE molasses cookies.
• Almond Joy Truffles at Duhlicious. These are so pretty.
• Chocolate Crinkle Cookies at Little Brown Pen. Easy and Pretty!
• Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares at Pink of Perfection
• Super Easy Last Minute treats – Holiday Pretzel Kisses at Little Birdie Secrets
• Cookie Tree ideas at the Kitchn (Dabbled’s own Cookie Trees are at Foodwhirl — pictured above!)

• On Foodwhirl today, pick your favorite recipe for a chance to win an $80 gift certificate!

Go ahead… I’ll wait. OK, you entered the contest? Good. Now, on to some recipes!

More recent recipe yummies on Foodwhirl:

Spotlight: Pork Ragu

Over at Talk of Tomatoes, Janelle has a tasty looking recipe for Pork Ragu!  This looks like a wonderfully simple ‘go-to’ meal…
“I am in love with ragu. Shall I marry it? I made this ragu recently for lunch, and my eldest son says to me: “mom, this is the only thing I am willing to eat the rest of my life.” His way of saying: make it again and again and again and again and again…”

Don’t fear the Quinoa! Crunchy Quinoa Salad.

Quinoa. Pronounced “keen-wah”. What the heck is it? It’s a grain-like seed from Peru that is incredibly healthy (high in protein, and full of amino acids) and quite tasty too! You basically can use it as a healthier substitute most places you would use rice or couscous.

Spotlight: Rhubarb Cream Pie

Reader Allison, from the delightful newish blog, Radishes and Rhubarb, does her first actual rhubarb related post… And it’s a sweet one, dedicated to her mom, with a delish looking recipe for Rhubarb Cream Pie.  The recipe is her mom’s, and thanks to Allison for sharing it!  (I must admit, I have never tried to cook with rhubarb… although those gorgeous red stalks always look tempting.)

Chicken & Spinach Enchilada “Lasagna” Casserole

The other night I was brainstorming on dinner, and my eyes feel to a bag of tortilla chips we had opened the other evening when we had friends over. “Hmmm…” Dot thinks. “What can I do with those?” (Because Dot is inherently cheap and knows that the chips will just end up going stale and being throw away…)  This fabulously easy and tasty enchilada casserole was the result.

Vegetable Stir Fry with Orange Ginger Sauce

“All of these vegetables need to be eaten before they go bad!!”  Sound familiar?  We went to visit my man’s parents for Mother’s Day and had just gotten my organic produce box the day before we left.   I contemplated taking the whole box with me, but it wouldn’t have fit in the overhead compartment… I love my organic produce, and I really hate it when I let it go bad!!    I was determined not to let that happen this time!

Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken is one of my loves, along with chocolate, mint juleps and David Tennant’s Dr. Who.  However, like most things I love, it’s something that I can only have in small amounts. Why is that?  Why do we love that which is bad for us?  Why can’t fried chicken be a HEALTHY meal? That plaque on my arteries should be good for me – some added structural basis to weakening coronary vessels!

Spotlight: Potato Gnocchi Tater Tots

I ran across this recipe the other day at Deliciously Organic, and had to save it into my ‘to post’ folder! I love this updated take on that old favorite (and guilty pleasure), tater tots.
“What a blast kneading the fluffy potato with a little flour and arrowroot, rolling it into tiny logs, boiling then frying them to golden brown perfection. They taste way better than the tots you find in a bag.”

Simple (almost) Summer Salad

As much as I really wanted to try out Dot’s frank-and-burger loaf recipe for dinner tonight (I mean, yum, right?), I opted to go a slightly simpler and (more than slightly) healthier route. I received some lovely avocados, tomatoes and corn in my produce box this week, and all of them were in need of being used, so I decided to throw together this quick and tasty salad as a side with my stuffed poblano peppers for dinner.

Recently on Dabbled:

• Knight Costume for dress up fun!
• Star Wars, Pancakes, Goldfish and other mostly geeky links
• Interview: Debbie Does Cakes

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Agent P (Perry) Costume

Reader Nina used the Perry the Platypus costume idea from October to create this fun Perry costume for her daughter. I love how she made the one piece Perry body (since she couldn’t find green sweats) using a sweatshirt and sweatpants of hers for the pattern. According to Nina: “We cut a line down the back so she could get in it, and used strips of matching fleece to make two ties to hold it closed. We followed your directions for the beak, feet, and tail, and it came out fabulously. She loves it and wears it as often as she can.” The Boy still wears his all the time too! All hail Phineas & Ferb!

Recent Recipes at Foodwhirl:

• Spotlight – How to make Sausage Rolls
• How to Chop an Onion
• Dirty Rice with Smoked Sausage
• Simple Ceviche

• Pretty & Easy: Asian “Stirfry” with Chili Sauce
• Spiced Pecan Butternut Squash Bread w/Yogurt Cheese Frosting
• Salmon, Spinach & Cannellini Bean Dinner
• How to make candied orange peel

Have you checked out Foodwhirl yet?  We’re getting quite a lot of great recipes and meal ideas, and it’s been a blast… So go drop in and say hi!  And spread the word to all your food loving friends!

What to do with Lemon Juice

Once you have zested a bunch of lemons, they will not stay good for very long, so you will want to go ahead and use them, or at least juice them. Ditto citrus ‘interiors’ left over from rind projects–you need to go ahead and do something with that juice! There are, of course, many options, but here are a few…..

• When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade!
• Freeze for later use (see below)
• Have a cocktail party, featuring cocktails containing lemon juice.  Lemon drops are one of my favorites, but you can also do lemon margaritas, or whatever strikes your fancy.  @rit on Twitter recommends his favorite lemon cocktail… just mix fresh squeezed lemonade + Cruzan single barrel estate rum– It is the only lemon cocktail you ever need!
• Invisible ink for your kids
• Make a recipe requiring lemon juice (but not zest)…This one from Smitten Kitchen for Lemon-Mint Granita would do nicely, but of course you’d have to serve it in regular bowls, not the cute little lemon shells! (thx SisterDiane!)
• Of course, many recipes which call for both juice and zest can actually be prepared without the zest, so if only a little is called for, you can always just try leaving it out.  We’ll have lots of lemon recipes tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

Storing Lemon Juice:

If you aren’t going to do anything with your lemon juice right now, you should store it for when you need it.  Lemon juice should keep several weeks in the fridge, so you can just bottle up some or all of your juice and use it over the next few weeks.

If you aren’t going to use it all, you’ll probably want to freeze some for future use.  I find the easiest way is to use the same method I use for chicken broth.  I freeze 1/4 cup portions in silicone baking cups (ice cube trays work for this as well).  Once frozen, remove from the cups and store the frozen chunks in a freezer bag.   Then it’s easy to pull out just the amount you need!

Tomorrow we continue Lemon Week with a bunch of Lemon Recipes… If you’ve got some you want included, be sure to let me know!

Lemon Week Posts

And maybe you’re thinking so is Dot? Where is she you ask? Um… she didn’t tell me?! I think she’s on a super secret mission? She promises to be back soon though? Maybe she’ll have additional robots for her collection.. ya think?? In the mean time… you’re stuck with me. Carissa. Mom/writer for 1 GoodNCrazy blog and chief craftster/boredom wrangler/mother to 3 kids. When Dot asked me to guest post for her.. I said oh girl.. I’ve got the perfect post…food, luv, chocolate, bananas… what could be better!?

I heart Bananas.

Join me at the smoothy store? Yes, I’ll take the bananaberryverydelicious option.{ Man I hate saying that out loud.}

Recipes that include bananas in them? Oh yeah baby, I’m all over ’em. Pancakes? (Cue the Jack Johnson song…makin’ banana pancakes…) I have a rockin’ banana pancake recipe that is more hearty than most people’s turkey dinner! In fact we often eat these for dinner! How about banana breads and muffins? Cakes you ask?

I do not discriminate! In fact if offered a flavor choice from LaffyTaffy to Lollipops.. even my kids already know the answer… ‘Are there any yellow ones??!’ They hand ’em over with no questions asked! A few weeks back I came across a friend’s Banana Icebox Cake with Chocolate Cream Frosting! Um? Hello… YES! I stumbled that post and begged her to mail me a piece of the cake… still waiting for that package in fact!? About that same time I was talking to my twitter posse of pals and one mention of my love for all things bananas and we were off and runnning! I had to create a hashtag to make it legit of course… #bananachat was born! (It lasted about 15 minutes.. but feel free to share your banana luv with the hashtag if you feel inclined!) Here’s one response to my call for a banana shout out:

THANK you Gina!  Grilled bananas? All over that. (Feel free to chat with her about all things lactating and apparently banana related too!) Here is the most fabulous banana recipe bustin’ link up list EVAH! {at least as created by me?} I plan to try out every. single. one. But I’ll share I promise!

Enjoy— Let’s go bananas together!

	Orange Spice Banana Bread My pal Katie from GoodLife{Eats} bakes up wonders so it was no surprise that she had a banana recipe spectacular when I asked!
	Frozen Banana Wonders! Another foodie buddy Chris from BlogWellDone never fails to amaze me! From Turkey Brining to kids cooking, basically whatever I ask for.. he’s got it! Kind of like a personal online chef! You’ll love his site!
	Triple Chocolate Banana Bread From Lobolita.
	Banana Flapjacks From Epicurean Escapism.. these look more like oatmeal bar cookies?
	Bananas as aphrodisiac? Okay with me! From Anne of Carversville.
	Monkey Bars! These are Gluten Free.. from Healthy Tasty Chow.
	A whole banana bunch of healthy recipes From Green Lite Bites.

A history of the banana? Whatever.. just be sure to check out the Best Banana Recipe Contest!

Gold Coast Banana Loaf Cake {Pictured at top of post} by Inn Cuisine