Lemon Bread - Recipe

Hey! So here is the recipe for the lemon bread I make.  It's the only recipe I've ever used so I can't say in certainty that it's the "best recipe out there" but mmmm, it's good.:)  Big Thank you and shout out to my friend Amber who first gave me some of this bread one day a few years ago, with the recipe attached, just because she knew how much I would like it.  So nice.

(Note: I double the recipe which requires 2 lemons if you're going to squeeze them for the lemon juice.  The recipe also notes you should shred the lemon peel first and then squeeze it.)

1 3/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 c milk
1/4 c cooking oil
2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel (set aside)
1 Tb lemon juice

For glaze:
2 Tb lemon juice
1 Tb sugar

1. grease the bottom and 1/2 up sides of loaf pan
2. stir together dry ingredients, make well in center
3. mix wet ingredients separately and add all at once to dry mixture
4. stir just until moistened - will be lumpy
5. pour into pan
6. bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 min
7. meanwhile, stir together 2 Tb lemon juice and 1 Tb sugar.  While bread is still in pan, brush mixture over the top (I poke holes with a fork so glaze gets down into it).  Cool for 10 min.

Yum yum yum!!!

yesterday was a good day



I know I post a lot of doom and gloom around here.  Things are just . . . hard.  And it just happens that some of that spills out into here, as I am prone to share just about anything and everything, as long as I feel well enough to do it.  haha.

 

But - yesterday was a good day.

 

And just what constitutes a good day in my life these days?!  Let me tell you.;)

 

1. I woke up to find that my profile was featured on an Instagram group called NothingIsOrdinary.  They do a Meet New Friends Wednesday and if you post a self portrait with an introduction they might choose you to feature.  And they picked mine as one of them! So, throughout the day I had dozens of nice people liking my photos and leaving sweet comments and encouragement and introducing themselves to me.  Silly to say, perhaps, but it completely made my day. 

 

 

2. I scored these impressionist painting prints (from the National Museum of Art) from an online yardsale site.  That painting on the left is Child in a Straw Hat by Mary Cassett and is my very favorite painting.  So I am very very happy about that.

 

3. The date of my high school reunion was confirmed so I can start looking at plane tickets to fly back to my beloved VA this summer.  Kind of excited about seeing some of my friends again that I've known since kindergarten (they better be there!!!). :)  And, despite the crazy awful traffic and oppressive summer humidity, I always love and crave a chance to be back in my homeland.  It's still home.

 4.  I stayed awake all day long.  That never happens.  I usually start to lag around 11 am and am struggling to stay awake at least by 1.  I nap every day.  But yesterday, although I did rest in bed for awhile, I didn't sleep!!  It was kind of amazing.

5. It was the First Day of Spring and I made lemon bread to celebrate.  It is sooo good.  I've also started counting my calories these last couple weeks and it was absolute torture to realize how many calories are in this stuff and to tryyyy to have self control.  That was hard.  But I managed to make my cake and eat it too, or stay within my goal anyway. Phew, that was difficult!!

(I will try to post the recipe for this for a few of my facebook friends who have asked for it.  Really, I will try).

6. Speaking of which, I have also started making myself exercise (which I also did yesterday).  In fact I did my very own zumba routine at home.  I can mostly remember the routines, and I've collected a nice bit of a zumba playlist, so that was kind of fun.  Exercising hurts me.  Hurts my face, esp my eye. Sometimes my head.  It's not easy.  But I'm just making myself do it.  My muscles just need it, plain and simple (and this past year of meds and fatigue and pain and not moving have just not been kind to me, at all).  Ugh. 

7. The pain was bearable yesterday, which made everything else better.  Or vice versa.  Who knows. It is almost impossible for me to tell if medications are working or not. I've been stable on a dose for a while and the pain still kind of flares up worse sometimes than others.  I have a neurology appt next week so we'll see what the next step is.  But for a lot of the time this week, the pain has been at a tolerable level.  Hurting all the time, but lower level or with stabs and stings that come and go.  It's so hard to explain.  No migraine yesterday either.  That's always a plus, since I am averaging about 18 migraine-pain days a month.  Sheesh.

 

But there is a little bit about my good day.

Along with random photos I've taken and posted on Instagram.

Hope you enjoyed it.

:)

 

currently . . .

Just decided to do this little check-in I found on Pinterest once upon a time:

1. Listening - to Madness by Muse, Swim by Message to Bears, Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, and While I'm Reaching for You by Immanu El.

Also, listening to stupid Disney shows on the TV from the living room and various screams and noises from the 2 younger children.

2. Eating - today I had frozen pizza for lunch. ugh.

3. Drinking - water, water, water.

4. Wearing - my pink polka dot pajama pants and a t-shirt from The Shirt Shack in Ocean City, NJ.  I never got dressed today. Blah.

5. Feeling - a bit emotionally blah . . . worn out, physically tired today, slightly dizzy.  Pain has been spiking here and there.  It's not been a great day.

6. Weather - the few times I actually stepped outside the house today, the sky was overcast but it's been warming up so that's nice.  I don't know but I think it was in the 40's today?

7. Wanting - Spring, an organized house, to understand people better and be understood, a really good day.

8. Needing - comfort, hugs, a haircut I actually like, to exercise.

9. Thinking - about expectations and why people always seem to talk about them as a bad thing, about a trip to CA this summer for my sister's wedding and a trip to VA for my 20 yr High School reunion, about stupid disturbing dreams that are hard to get out of my head and haunt me all day, & about upcoming spring birthdays!

10. Enjoying - 1)Instagram.  Oh, instagram how I love thee.  Seriously.  2)A new app I got called Awesome Note.  It's for organizing all sorts of notes and lists, journal entries, recipes, photos etc.  It makes me happy. 3)Also sort of enjoying watching The Walking Dead - we're on Season 2 on Netflix.  And no, I never thought I'd say that.  Yes, I think it's disgusting and gross.  I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm sort of enjoying it.  But the characters are really interesting . . . .

11. (my addition) Reading - The Summer of the Great- Grandmother by Madeleine L'Engle, Anne Of Ingleside by LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables #6), and starting Michael Vey #2 by Richard Paul Evans.

That's it.  Maybe I'll check in every once in awhile, maybe it will help me ease gently back into posting more regularly.  Who knows.  Have a good weekend friends.:)