Italian Recipes

Sweets

Italian Food

Wine

Liquores

The Eggs

A Tuscan Kitchen

An Amalfi Kitchen

Lemons and Lemon Branches

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Warming Eggs

Set the cold eggs in a bowl of hot water drawn from the tap.  Let them sit ten minutes at least to get the chill off them.

Warming Milk

I like keeping things simple in the kitchen:  little mess, few utensils, not much clean-up.  That's why I put the milk in a bowl, cover the bowl with a paper towel, and nuke it in the microwave for 1 minute.  

If the milk is then warm to the touch, add cold milk until you feel neither hot nor cold when you dip your finger into the milk.  It is then lukewarm.

Warming Butter

Set the butter in a bowl, cover the bowl with a paper towel, and nuke it in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds.  

If you want the butter melted, nuke it for 1 minute, then stir the butter with a spoon until the remaining chunks melt.  This will cool the melted butter so it is not too hot to add to the other ingredients.

Grating Lemon Rind

After ending up with bloody rind one painful time too many, I stopped using a grater and now use a serrated steak knife. 

Hold the whole lemon firmly, standing on end (the lemon, not you!) against a cutting board, then scrape it with the blade from the middle of the lemon downward onto a cutting board surface. 

Continue, turning the lemon as you go.  Then turn the lemon upside down, and scrape off the other half of the rind. 

You can also cut the lemon in half and scrape each half separately.

You end up with a naked looking lemon, and no cuts on your fingers.