Cilantro Couscous Salad

I just love summer!  If you are like me you will be attending or hosting lots of cookouts/picnics with family and friends.  This salad is the perfect side dish for summer!  It can be prepared in 7 minutes and tastes wonderful.  The cilantro, red pepper and green onion combined with the light texture of the couscous is super.  If you have never had couscous please give this recipe a try!  Couscous is so much fun and even easier to make than boiling pasta!  Just heat your water to boiling, add your couscous, pop a lid on the pot, turn off the heat and wait 5 minutes.  Easy, easy, easy :)

Cilantro Couscous Salad  Source: Good Cheap Eats

Ingredients:

1 cup couscous (measured before cooking)
1 1/4 cup hot water or chicken broth
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup garbanzo beans (I used great white northern beans)1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped green onion
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the water or chicken broth to boiling.
2. Add the couscous and stir to combine. Cover the dish completely with a lid or plate to allow it to “cook”. Let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff couscous with a fork.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
4. Toss the ingredients lightly to combine.

Lemon Pie

This picture turned out a little darker than I had hoped for, but the pie itself was perfect!  Wonderful lemon flavor and the meringue topping was so good.  When I was looking for recipes to frame on the kitchen wall my mom had told me that I needed to use my great-grandma's Lemon Pie recipe as one of them.  I can't remember ever having this pie growing up so I figured it had probably been a while since my mom had had it and decided to surprise her with it. 

Sometimes it amazes me how much I still need to learn about cooking and baking.  For the meringue on top I thought I could just whip the eggs with a fork!!  Ha!  Good thing my husband has more common sense than me and suggested I use the mixer on high :)  You will definitely need to use the mixer!

Lemon Pie  Source: My great-grandma

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 C + 6 tbsp sugar, divided

1 tbsp lemon zest

3 eggs, separated

1 1/2 C boiling water

1/4 C lemon juice

1 (9") baked pie shell

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the corn starch, 1 1/2 C sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.

2. Beat egg yolks and add to cornstarch mixture.

3. Gradually add egg yolk/cornstarch mixture to the boiling water.

4. Heat the entire mixture to boiling over direct heat.

5. Once boiling, lower the heat and boil gently for 4 minutes stirring constantly.

6. Pour into pre-baked pie shell.

7. Using a mixer on high power, beat the egg whites and 6 tbsp of sugar until stiff but not dry.

8. Spread carefully over the top of the pie, making sure to spread all the way to the edge of the crust to seal in the filling.

9. Bake at 425 F for 4-5 minutes or until the meringue begins to brown.