Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff

Not sure why I was cruising cyber-space the other day when I came across this recipe and it just sounded good.  As followers of this blog know, I'm not a huge beef eater.  But, it does sound good to me every now and then...and this is a crockpot recipe...and we are having the winter that seems like it will never end.  Why not have this?  Secretly I had hoped that planning a hearty meal like this would usher in spring....you know, just to prove my meal planning wrong:)

This was a nice hearty dish and needed minimal work on the end of the day.  Note my mish-mash of noodles...just using up some odds and ends from the pantry.

Hibiscus Flank Steak

Flank Steak recipe from Pati's Mexican Table

Different and unusual recipes intrigue me.  When I see a show about cooking with hibiscus, I'm on board.  It's something outside my comfort zone and has the potential to be excellent.  That's how it was when I watched the TV show Pati's Mexican table and she showed a number of recipes using hibiscus.  I had purchased some when I made some enchiladas and had never used the 2nd package of what I bought.  In fact, I had a bit of a scratchy throat after eating them so I was fearful of an allergy.  After realizing that they are in a tea that I have in the pantry, I carefully tried a few sips (with an Epi-pen ready).  Having no reaction, I realized that I could try this recipe.

I made the hibiscus syrup as directed on the website linked above.  It was fabulous.  So good, that my plan will be to have some of this concentrate with fresh lime juice in my refrigerator most summer days.  As usual, I cut down on the sugar quite a bit.  Instead of using 1 1/2 c for the concentrate I used 1/2 c figuring I could add more.  I have to say, the 1/2 c was perfect for us.

Sadly, I didn't take a picture of this recipe.  So, when I repeat it I will do that and update this post.  Until then, I encourage a peek at the link above.

Bilimbap

OK....just to start right from the beginning of this post, this is not something that can be whipped up with ingredients on hand.  Nor can it be made for a really quick and effortless dinner.  But, with a bit of preparation ahead of time it would come together quickly.  And, it was delicious so it was worth the work (even with my shortcut).  So, I would make this again.  I made it on a Friday night after work....starting around 6:15 and we were eating by 7:30; however, that was with a bit of assistance.

This was in the January issue of Bon Appetit; however, I wasn't able to find it online to link to this post; possibly that will be out in the future.  Then you can see some really nice pictures.  I just didn't have time to take pictures along the way since we were all hungry (some of us had done a double swim practice).

Here's my shortcut.  I had the meat, bulgogi, in my freezer from Trader Joe's.  It was a great use for it....if there's a TJs near you I would recommend doing that as well.  There was an unusual ingredient found in a number of the vegetables (although I will explain what I did a bit later), guchujang.  Bon Appetit recommends a "recipe" to make a substitute for that using miso and rooster sauce, so that was my plan until Paul told me he had gotten some guchujang sauce at an Asian market in the Twin Cities last year.  Really!  That worked out well.  Like I said, this isn't likely something to just make with ingredients you have on hand.  It falls into the category of adventurous cooking.  Follow the link above for a recipe for bulgogi, if you're even more adventurous than I am.  I can't speak to anything about the recipe linked other than it looks like mine did.

Having never had bilimbap in my life, I had no idea what it was and the headline in the magazine to "make it at home" was lost on me.  But, now I have done it!  Some of the portions of items in the original recipe were a bit too large so I used 1/2 for most of them.  My approximate portions are listed below. I also kept the chili sauce out of the vegetables, being the crowd pleaser that I am:)

• So, saute the meat.
• In my rice cooker I made the rice.  I got this going right away since it needs to be crisped in the skillet before eating.  It took about 15 minutes for the already cooked rice to crisp in the skillet.
• I didn't make the eggs until the end.  I used the method in Bon Appetit of baking them in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 minutes.  
• Sesame Carrots:  Shred carrots(about 4 carrots) in a food processor and saute in sesame oil (1 tsp) for a couple minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Sesame Bean Sprouts: Cooked 1 c bean sprouts in boiling water and drained.  Tossed with 1/2 tsp sesame oil and sesame seeds. 
• Garlicky Spinach: Cook 10 oz fresh spinach in boiling water for a couple minutes.  Drain and transfer to a bowl of ice water.  Drain.  Heat 1 tsp sesame oil in skillet.  Add 1 clove minced garlic.  Add spinach, 1 T soy sauce, 1/2 t rice vinegar, dash each of salt and pepper. 
• Soy glazed mushrooms:  Bring 1 oz shitake mushrooms, 1/4 soy sauce, 1/2 T brown sugar, and 1/2 c water to a boil.  Cover pan and simmer for 15 minutes.  Let mushrooms cool slightly and thinly slice.  Transfer to a small bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Sauteed zucchini: Cut 1 medium zucchini into matchsticks.  Saute in 1 tsp-2tsp sesame oil until tender. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Scallion slaw: Cut 2 bunches scallions into 3" lengths and slice lengthwise.  Put in ice water to crisp.  Drain and add 1 T rice vinegar, 1 T sesame oil.
• Gochujang Date Sauce:  Place 5 pitted dates in a bowl and cover with water until softened (10 minutes or so).  Drain and put in food processor with 3/4 c guchujang sauce and 2 T sesame oil.
• Wakame:  I did not make this recommended condiment.  But, I did make all the others.

So, if you don't happen to have gochujang sauce in your pantry, the article recommends 3/4 c yellow miso with 1/4 c Sriracha sauce.  Even if you don't have those items in your larder, at least they may be easier to get than the Korean hot pepper paste I happened to have!

So, I went all out and made this since it was our 21st wedding anniversary and it was fun to have something a bit special; however, I think that next time I will use the TJs beef, make the rice, fried eggs, whatever vegetables I have on hand, and the date sauce.  Oh, and maybe the mushrooms.  This would be a great way to use up vegetable odds and ends. 

Steak and Bleu Cheese Roll-ups

Bleu Cheese Steak Roll Ups 

I'm not a huge red meat kind of gal; however, I do think there is value in having this bit of protein on occasion, so this recipe sounded good.  It just sounded like something a bit outside of what I usually make....and it's made in the crockpot, so it seemed like a good plan for it to be on the menu at our house!

Let me just say, this was about the most un-photogenic thing I have ever made; however, it tasted great.  I used about 3/4 pound flat steak and pounded it flat.  It was in the crockpot for an entire long time day....I'm talking probably 12 hours, so it just fell apart.  It tasted good though!

Brisket Taco

I have to say, I'm feeling a bit let down on this one.  Nicole of preventionrd.com had not let me down until this one.  The brie was good and the mango barbeque sauce was good; however, the meat seemed a bit bland to me.  Perhaps it ws my substitution of Coke for the Dr. Pepper.  We aren't big soda drinkers around here, and I somehow had a can of coke in the pantry.  I'm willing to admit that may have been the reason for the lack of flavor, but I don't know that I will try this one again! I do think that with some tweaks and adding a little something for more flavor this could be really good...and I think I'll make the mango barbecue sauce again...but it just didn't do it for me the other night:(

This one kept giving since I ended up with leftovers that no one ate.  That's unusual since we're pretty good at eating the food that we buy; however, it just wasn't that good.  I put the leftovers (about 1 1/2 c or so) down the garbage disposal.  Umm...bad idea.  Garbage disposals are not really to be used for disposing garbage, I guess.  I ended up with a clog (Paul was out of the country), so I washed dishes in the washtub in the basement until  he came home and  got it down the pipes.  I tried re-setting the garbage disposal, removing the J pipe, and snaking the drain.  I even called a friend and asked for help.  Still...the great clog of 2012.  Paul installed a cleanout (where there should have been one anyway) and quickly got rid of the clog.

So, this was not may favorite recipe, and I probably won't repeat it.  I love the source blog, so we'll try another one from there soon.

Beef Satay Skewers

Grilled potatoes with Bangkok seasoning +

Grilled sweet potatoes +

Tomatoes from the Farmer's market +

Beef from Paul's friend of a friend "Kobe" beef farm +

Peanut Satay Sauce +

= a great Sunday night grilled dinner

Ever since I had sweet potato fries at Cafe Hollander with peanut satay sauce, it has been a flavor combination I love (with the exception of the pumpkin sweet potato peanut butter soup I made a few years ago...clearly an anomaly).
Satay Sauce (this is the blobblish thing in the middle of the plate above)
adapted from Weber's Big Book of Grilling
5 chives, chopped
1/3 c ketchup
1/4 c soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
lime juice freshly squeezed from 3 key limes (about 3 T)
1 t fresh ginger, minced
1 t garlic, minced
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
Mix all of the above together and heat on stove until blended.  Remove from heat and add:
1/4 c creamy peanut butter
Paul sprinkled the Bangkok seasoning on the meat before skewering and grilling it.  I did the same to the par-boiled potatoes before grilling.  Ah...sweet potatoes...no seasoning...just par-boiled and grilled. And nothing beats a locally grown tomato in the summer!
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Beef Stew with Butternut Squash

 Beef Stew with Butternut Squash
Another one of those library finds, The Way We Cook: Recipes from the New American Kitchen

This seemed like just the thing to make for Paul on his return from Asia....I figured he has had his fill of fish and other ocean delights and will be ready for a beef/squash/pepper meal.  It does have rice in it, so he doesn't have to stop his Asian diet cold turkey! Stew is always better the next day, right?  So, if he isn't hungry when he gets home this should work for the next day/week as well. And our Wisconsin stew season is coming to an end as we're possibly getting to spring and lighter meals take over the menu.

I turned this into a slowcooker recipe by adding only 1 quart water to the slow cooker to the browned onion and meat mixture.  I had roasted the peppers and cut the squash a couple days prior to making this to assist in it coming together quickly.  I added the squash and rice when stopping home about 3pm...eating this around 7:30pm.  So, it probably isn't good for a day when no one is home to throw those ingredients in part way through the day.   Since the squash was cut, I measured the rice and oregano  before leaving in the morning so it took just a few seconds to throw it in....'cause that's all the time I have (time to let the dog out and change into Y clothes).

Let's see.  I adapted this recipe by putting the stew in the crockpot...and decreasing the water.  I decreased the beef a small bit too.  Also, I roasted a red bell pepper with the poblanos and added that.  They were on sale, so I bought a couple red peppers and thought the red would be a pretty addition to this stew.   I used an entire butternut squash which I suspect is more than a pound and cut the chunks a bit larger since I didn't want it to be too squishy after being in the crockpot. Oh, and I used brown rice. It needed a bit of salt and pepper at serving time...but it was tasty.

Sadly enough, as spring in the midwest can be, the day I made this was better suited to grilling than to serving stew; however, it still was cool enough outside that it was tasty.  It is a bit hard to eat stew when smelling neighbor's grills!  Ah, next week will probably bring different weather. I am starting to feel a cooking/planning slump coming on, so I'm hoping I can get out of it quickly!

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Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

I guess I was making too many meatless meals because Paul was noticing this recipe in a recent Bon Appetit magazine. The deal was clinched when he opened a bottle of wine he brought back from Mexico and it.....just wasn't good. Not a vinegary/bad sort of way but more in a way that we didn't like it. So, he started this on a Sunday and I just put it in the oven on a Monday afternoon when I was home.

He made a few changes to the recipe linked from the title.
After his discovery that short ribs are expensive he decided to change the meat a bit. Instead he used 2 bone-in short ribs, a beef shank, and some stew meat. He did not use the celery called for in the recipe and decreased the onion to one. Instead of those veggies he used one parsnip and one leek. He used dried herbs instead of the fresh parsley, thyme, and oregano. He omitted the rosemary. The funny thing about the vegetables is that he bought a leek, onions, and carrots....all things I had already but not celery. That's the reason for the vegetables used.

Paul did buy some fresh horseradish root and grated that on his stew. I had eaten mine by the time he remembered that he bought that, so I'll have to try it on the leftovers.

I had a large bunch of leeks from the CSA this week, so I cleaned them thoroughly and sliced them. I placed them on a cookie sheet until frozen...then threw them in a plastic bag. I'm sure that they'll come in handy for a recipe sometime over the winter.

Eleanor had a spaghetti dinner the night we had this, so we don't have her vote on it. Paul and I both liked it....but I'm ready to go back to a bit more of a veggie-based meal for the next few nights. Our dog, Miss Dorothy, probably would vote for this again. She's pretty happy with the bone.

Paul bought some hard cider that we thought would go well with this.....but...ugh....it was the fall version so it had a cinnamon-y and nutmeg-y flavor. Hmmmm...that part wasn't so good. I bet he makes the stew again this winter:) That sounds good to me!



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Bool Kogi

As I was coming out of my recipe funk I stopped at Trader Joe's to grab a few staples. I love the soy chorizo, chicken, apple sausage, and salsa and needed to stock a few of those items to assist with quick meals.

I found this, bool kogi, in the refrigerated section and thought it would be a good thing to throw in the freezer. I had a head of cabbage from the CSA box, so I was thinking an Asisan-y kind of taco may be a good dinner some night. Typically I would buy the ingredients and marinate this myself, but I do like to have a couple nearly ready made items for the nights they are needed. I have thoughts of being so organized that I don't need things like this but I have found no matter how well I plan, a well stocked pantry and freezer can save the day.

I have already blogged about eating Korean barbeque in LA, so I won't repeat that story, although that is what I think about when making and eating Korean food. My sister's med school roommate, who I saw in Chicago recently makes Korean barbecue...and I had meant to ask her how she makes it. Well, since I forgot, I'm just going to go with this for now.

We're pretty light on the beef meals in this house having it very occasionally (that's a bit more than rarely but still not often), so a couple beef recipes may take me a long time to use. I like to eat a bit of everything though being a person who believes the moderation way of living.

I wasn't sure when the package was opened if this was going to be a roast type thing or not. It was in thin strips that grilled very quickly. Paul must have mentioned how good this meal was three or four times. I think that has to do with the meal....or it may be his high level of physical activity that day.....I'm not sure. I think I will grab another one of these packages when I am at Trader Joe's next time and see what we think when we have this again.
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Steak and Bleu Cheese Pizza

Another fun meal on a crust.

Carmelize the onions, grill or bake the steak. I pulled a steak out of the freezer when Paul was grilling pork tenderloin and had him throw this on as well. That way I could freeze the cooked steak only to pull it out of the freezer again to make this pizza for a quick weeknight meal.

Top the pizza with both.....add some bleu cheese...and sliced tomatoes....bake....and serve.

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Crockpot Beef Bourguignon

 Recently I spent a good part of an afternoon searching for new recipes...with both kids in High School, I am finding it more and more difficult to maintain "family dinner hour", so I am trying to maintain a cooked meal each night. The crockpot is a great solution to this so that everyone can eat a great meal when they get home.

The recipe I used for this is Beef with Red Wine Sauce. I followed the recipe almost perfectly except that I added a bit more wine(end of the bottle, not worth saving) and I decided to thicken the finished product by adding about 1 1/2 T of flour to the recipe at the end. I mixed the flour with water to form a thin paste, added some of the liquid from the crock pot to it to bring it closer to temperature and then slowly whisked the mixture into the crockpot.

I was pleasantly surprised at the results! This is a dump everything in, cover and serve 6-7 hours later and it was delicious! As you can see, I served it over egg noodles with spinach on the side.  It was another swim meet weekend, so we had this for dinner Friday and it was lunch leftovers for Jack and Brian Saturday and Sunday!

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Grandma Fiorenza's soup

I have seen a version of this called Italian Wedding Soup...but...in our house...this is known as Grandma Fiorenza's soup. Even after she was a great grandma and was called GG the name of the soup remained. My grandma didn't have much variety in what she cooked...and she really didn't like vegetables too much. In fact, when she would come to visit me she would bring a can of spam and a couple slices of white bread in her purse so she wouldn't have to eat something like...hmmmm....vegetable and shrimp pasta with fresh dill from the New Basics Cookbook. There wasn't much a person could say to her about this...she was healthy into her 90s, so her diet worked for her, obviously. BUT, something she enjoyed eating and making was this soup. I remember going to her house and having sugo one night with her homemade meatballs (the large meatballs were served with that) and Italian sausage and this soup (with the small meatballs) the other night. Both nights were good meals!!

I make this soup exactly as I'm blogging about it. There may be some shortcuts, like I'm not really sure why the meatballs aren't cooked directly in the soup. I can't vary it...but you may want to try. I just need to make this so it tastes exactly like my Grandma (and my mom) make it. I don't think that anyone should substitute any other kind of cheese for the imported Pecorino Romano.

I'm not a big beef eater, but there are a handful of recipes I don't think I could ever give up that contain beef. This is one of them!

My mom would make this for us if we were getting colds. I guess it was the Italian version of chicken soup.

Our Sendik's store didn't have acini de pepe pasta, the really tiny pearls of pasta. I got stars instead. But, I will have to run to an Italian grocery store, like Glorioso's, and get a stash of the really tiny pasta. For me, tiny pasta is part of this soup.

Here it is:
Broth:
1 or 2 meaty beef shanks
1 large (28 oz) undrained whole tomatoes
carrots/celery (amount varies....I used 4 large carrots and 4 stalks celery), cut into 4 inch to 6 inch long pieces
onions, small preferred (I used 4)
potatoes, quartered or halved (I used 4)
Cover beef shanks with water in soup kettle. Let it simmer until the meat is tender (about an hour). Skim off foam if necessary.
Add 1 can undrained tomatoes. Add potatoes, celery, carrots (as many as you want). Cook (not boiling) until potatoes are almost cooked through.

Then add onions and cook until tender.
I used a couple cans of beef broth as well.

Meatballs:
You can mix meatballs at any time during this process.
1 lb grd chuck
Italian seasonings, especially parsley(dried)
2 eggs
bread crumbs...about 1/4 c or as needed to form balls
Pecorino romano cheese (about 1/4 c)
Mix and form meatballs. Add meatballs to a pot of boiling water. After the meatballs are cooked, add them to the soup broth.
Pasta:
acini de pepe pasta (tiny pasta)
Cook in boiling water in another pan for approx. 5 minutes. Drain. Add soup broth to pasta through a strainer to keep it from sticking together.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Add some pasta and top with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Pull some vegetables and meatballs out of the soup in put in large serving bowl and let everyone take the vegetables they want. Top each serving bowl with additional Pecorino Romano and some salt and pepper. I don't usually use much salt and pepper at the table but this soup needs it.

Eleanor is not a very big tomato fan, but she doesn't like this if I omit the tomatoes. I tried making the meatballs with ground turkey one time (since that's what I had in the freezer), and that got a thumbs down. Maybe your family will work with substitutions on this recipe, we don't!

There really isn't too much time involved in making this soup. The time it takes to prepare is while it is on the stove, so you do have to be home but can be doing other things for most of the time. I will make this (including the meatballs) before swim practice and come home and just cook the pasta and warm the broth and vegetables.

Smoked Beef Brisket

My husband wanted to go camping over Labor Day weekend, but I wanted to stay home after the crazy month of August at our house. I thought about how I could get him to buy into the at home weekend....and meat smoking was my idea! We're not huge red meat eaters at our house, so the opportunity for him to smoke a large hunk of beef was appealing to him and made him "forget" about the camping expedition.

Now there are packages of smoked brisket in the freezer for us to last awhile. I do have to admit that I like this too; although I don't think I'll need to eat red meat for quite awhile after a couple of these sandwiches. After smelling smoking meat for a number of hours I do like a sandwich with the freshly smoked meat and barbeque sauce. He did a great job...every time he does this (usually Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends) he gets better at it.

I asked him to type out how he did this since I wasn't involved at all......and here...is our first guest blogger!


Smoked Beef Brisket

The Meat:
Fresh 8 to 12 pound beef brisket. Look for a good amount of marbling in the meat as well as a fat cap at least 1/4” thick covering one side. A good amount of marbling in the meat will keep if tender when finished.

The Rub:
Garlic Powder
Shore Lunch: Garlic & Pepper Grilling Rub (ours must be old because I can't find this online link at all..salt, pepper, garlic and dextrose).
Penzeys Spices: BBQ3000
Penzeys Spices: Bangkok Blend
Pepper grinder: Tellicherry Black Pepper
Salt grinder: Mediterranean Sea Salt

The Hardware:
Cooler
Ice Pack
Plastic Wrap
Aluminum Foil
Smoker - Charcoal fired vertical water smoker
Mesquite Wood Chunks
Hickory Wood Chunks
Bucket – 2 gallon
Royal Oak Charcoal
Roasting Pan w/ Grate
Oven
Meat Thermometer
Electric Carving Knife

The Time Line:
T=0 hours - Organize the following: Meat, Rub Spices, Cooler, Frozen Ice Pack. Place the meat in the cooler, liberally sprinkle the meat with each rub spice on all sides. Rub these well into the meat evenly. Toss in the ice pack and close cooler. Let rest for 12 hours.

T = 8 hours – place equal parts of the wood chunks in the bucket and cover with water. Let soak.

T = 11 hours – Clean & Prep the smoker. I use a charcoal fired water smoker. Get a chimney full of charcoal lit and burned to fully gray. Make sure to use a hard charcoal like Royal Oak because the briquettes burn longer and hotter. Toss into the fire pan in the smoker. Fill the smoker water pan with boiling water (Tea kettle). Add several damp chunks of wood to the fire pan.

T = 12 hours – Remove the meat from the cooler and place on the top rack of the smoker - fat cap up. Close the smoker lid. Periodically watch the amount of smoke billowing out and as it dwindles add more damp wood chunks. About every hour. If needed add additional charcoal briquettes and possibly water. The water pan should not become dry.

T = 18 hours – After 6 hours in the smoker there probably will not be further flavor penetration so we finish the meat in the oven. Remove from the smoker and place in the roasting pan on grate. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil – tightly sealing the foil to the pan. Place in oven middle rack with temperature set to 200 F.

T = 24 to 26 hours – Open oven and check meat temperature. Stick the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the brisket. Target is 180 F. Keep periodic watch (hourly) until internal temperature reaches 180 F to 185 F. For an 8 lb brisket plan on 6 hours in the oven before bothering to check the temperature. It usually takes 6 to 8 hours to reach target. Larger briskets can take 11 to 12 hours in the oven. Once the meat is to the desired temperature, remove from the oven, fully wrap in plastic wrap (not Saran wrap – it leaves a funny taste – get the commercial stuff!) then fully wrap in aluminum foil. Place back into the cooler and allow to rest for several hours.

T = 30 hours – Remove the brisket from the cooler, unwrap and slice perpendicular to the meat grain. Serve with your favorite BBQ sauce, buns, pickles etc...

Now that you have read his process would you like to guess his job? The choices are engineer or engineer.

Stocking the Freezer - Taco Meat

OK, I know you all know how to make tacos, so this will be a very short post and will not have any pictures...this is a "planning post".

Tomorrow is Sendik's 1 day meat and seafood sale, so I decided to take a freezer inventory. I have three freezers, two side by side "halves" and a stand alone freezer. I knew I was running low on meats and seafood, but wow, I really am running low! The only meat in my freezer was about 41/2 lbs of hamburger meat and 5 pork chops. I knew the hamburger had been in the freezer a while, so I decided to make a bunch of taco meat. I usually do turkey tacos or half turkey and half hamburger, but today we are going 100% ground beef!

I use Penzey's Taco Seasoning, it is a well balanced mix. Dinner is covered for tonight and I will be able to freeze three containers of meat for future meals so it is all good!

Thai Steak Salad

This salad was inspired by one that my husband raved about after a business trip to California. A number of recipes were combined...and a bit of creativity...and this was tonight's dinner! I was cycling tonight, so most of it was prepared ahead of time. Paul grilled the meat while I was gone and the meal was quickly assembled when I got home at dusk.

2 pieces beef tenderloin marinated in 2 T. canola oil, 2 T . ketchup, and 1 T. soy sauce for 4 hours or so. Grilled. Then cut into 1/4" slices against the grain.

Dressing: 2 T. canola oil, 4 T. fresh squeezed lime juice, 2 t. fish sauce, 1/2t. sugar, 1 t. minced ginger, 1/2 t. minced garlic, 1/4 t. salt

Salad: 6 c. chopped red leaf lettuce, 1/4 c. chopped mint leaves, 1 c. chopped cilantro leaves, 1/4 c. chopped red onion, 1 sliced tomato, chopped jalapeno.

The mint, tomato and jalapeno were from our container garden...but the cilantro (sadly) was not. The rest of the items were all from a grocery store expedition yesterday.

Here's the nifty lime squeezer we have. We saw Rick Bayless using it on his TV cooking show and knew it would come in handy. OK, we were thinking of using this for margaritas but it works for juicing limes for salad dressing as well! This really is a favorite kitchen gadget around here...if I had a lemon tree in my back yard I would get the slightly larger version of this in yellow. And, if I had an orange tree I would get the even larger version in orange:)