When life gives you 24 oz. of ricotta cheese, make lemonade and lemon cookies

For the few and far in between that read my blog, my apologies for the sparse posts. I am a lazy butt that doesn't like to post on time, as I rarely use my laptop when I'm at home since I sit in front of the computer at least 8 hours a day at work. I am in fact a good little chef that cooks (nearly) every week, with last week being the exception. It was one of those surprise busy weeks, which are normally fun but leave you exhausted. Probably why I overslept this morning, I must be still recuperating. 

Anyways, this is a very special post, as I baked instead of cooked. I had about 24 oz of ricotta cheese left over from my ravioli escapade a few weeks ago, and after a few moments of googling "stuff that can be made with ricotta cheese" I came across a recipe for lemon ricotta cookies. This particular recipe on the food network website has 703 reviews and 5 stars, so I knew it was gonna be worth the time and effort to make it. I  only had to get lemons, a stick of butter, and baking powder, as I already had other baking essential ingredients. My sous chef Jim was kind enough to pick up these ingredients before he visited my abode. The cookies themselves are a bit bland, but the frosting paste made to coat the cookies really added some lemon pang to the taste. Because of the incredible humidity we've been experiencing this week, after leaving the cookies out for the frosting overnight, they turned into the consistency of muffin tops. Not entirely a bad thing, just not ideal. Baking in 90 degree weather is not ideal either. Whatevs.

zesting the lemons

We also made lemonade from the two lemons, a considerable amount at that! The lemonade isn't as sweet as my taste buds would like it, but at least it's made with 100% juice!

August is the month of cleaning out my cabinets to prepare for a big move, so there will be periods of the month where I will be eating nothing but pasta. All of this cooking I've been doing has made me realize that there is more to the world of cheap food than pasta and canned soup. I guess this darn blog has turned me into a little chef after all! So ready to take on more difficult cooking challenges, and so ready to buy more cookware. I went into a cooking store the other day and got giddy with excitement of all the cookware I could buy. I guess I really am growing up :(