Summer time brings an abundance of lemonade stands on neighborhood street corners run by ambitious children looking to earn a few dollars. The site of children waving poster board, jumping around trying to get neighbors to drop a few quarters always brings a smile to my face as personal childhood memories come to mind.

When you think of lemons you may think of warmer climates here in the United States like California, Arizona or Florida. But did you know that lemons originated in China? Lemonade was a favorite drink of the Chinese Emperors before it became such a popular summer time beverage. Lemons were brought to the United States by Catholic missionaries who planted them in California and Arizona. Now the United States produces about one third of the worlds lemons.

There are many used for lemons. They are used to flavor food, to garnish plates and for a variety of household purposes. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your lemons.

How to Store Lemons:

Lemons will keep at room temperature for about two weeks. Store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to six weeks. Or to get the most out of your produce dollar you can freeze them.

Freeze lemons by washing and drying them well. Cut them into quarters and place on a cookie sheet. set in the freezer until frozen. Remove them from the cookie sheet and store in a freezer bag taking them out as needed. Do not freeze lemons whole as they will turn mushy. You can also freeze the juice in ice cube trays if you prefer not to save the whole lemon.

Additional uses for lemons:

Here are a few ideas for using lemons.

You can add a twist of lemon to water in ice cube trays before freezing to add a little extra zip to beverages.

Combine lemon and salt to treat rust or clean copper.

If your having trouble getting whipping cream to stiffen add a few drops of lemon juice.

Remove funky odors like fish or onions from containers or the fridge by rubbing them down with a fresh lemon .

Tip:

To get the most lemon juice out of a fresh lemon, place it in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Then roll it firmly on the counter before cutting it open.

Just a quick reminder about the fabulous party we will be having tonight!  Come join us to learn more about THRIVE foods!  (And, yes, there will be fabulous food to eat!)  .

Rachel, one of our Thrive Reps will be sharing lots of fun food storage ideas, door prizes and giveaways, and you will get to sample the wonderful variety of Thrive long-term food storage products.

Even better?
You will get the lowest prices available on all Shelf Reliance products by attending the party!  That includes THRIVE, Food rotation systems, and their entire line of emergency supplies!  This is pricing that cannot be found online!

You will also learn just how you can join our team of Shelf Reliance consultants and earn income and free food while working from home! We are looking for reps across the nation to help us spread the word about this great product!

This event will be TONIGHT, May 23rd at 6:30 pm at the Hyde Park City building at 113 E. Center in Hyde Park.

RSVP to thrive@pinchingyourpennies.com

As I’ve said before… I have the taste buds of a 6-year-old. Because of this I am on a constant quest for ways to trick myself into eating vegetables. Imagine my complete and utter shock when I found a way to eat cauliflower. One of the grossest of the gross.
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I had seen the idea of a cauliflower pizza crust floating around the blogosphere and I finally decided to give it a try. After a recent beet smoothie incident (where I spit it out almost as fast as I put it in my mouth), I admit I was skeptical and a bit nervous.
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The first thing I noticed was how very simple it was to make – easier than any homemade pizza crust ever. That was a plus for sure. Then, as the crust was baking, all I could think was how delicious it smelled. What? Cauliflower smelling delicious? Well, it smelled like pizza crust, not like cauliflower. And then it was just plain delicious and there was no weird texture at all. It was just… pizza. I admit that there was a teeny tiny slight aftertaste type smell or something when I took the first bite – but it may have been psychosomatic because after a couple of bites all I could think was how delicious it was.
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There are a number of recipes online… I combined a few and this is what I did:
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Cauliflower Pizza
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Ingredients
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1/2 Head of cauliflower (mine was a smallish head)
2 C shredded cheese divided (I used mozzarella, but any medium/hard cheese will work)
Italian seasonings (I used oregano, parsley, fresh garlic and some onion)
Pizza sauce or marinara sauce of your choosing
Toppings (we used sausage, black olives and pineapple)
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Instructions
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Grate your cauliflower. I used a food processor with the grater blade (cause you don’t want it to become pureed, just shredded). Place the grated cauliflower into a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 6-8 minutes (depending on your microwave). You want to make sure the cauliflower is soft but not mushy. Do NOT add water or anything to the cauliflower.
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While the cauliflower cools off (I put mine in the freezer to cool it quickly), preheat the oven to 450* and prepare a cookie sheet or pizza pan by spraying it with cooking spray. This is also a good time to prepare your toppings – cook your sausage, cut up your pineapple, whatever…
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To the cauliflower add 1 C shredded cheese and spices and combine. Add egg and mix well with your hands. Press the crust onto a pan and shape into a 9-12″ pizza (depending on how thin you want the crust). I did mine closer to a 12″ and it worked great! Spray the top of the crust with cooking spray (to help brown) or brush with oil.
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Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes (or until golden brown). It is really important to get it nice and brown so that it has a crispness to the crust otherwise, the texture isn’t a convincing pizza crust! When you pull out the pizza, turn your oven to broil.
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Add your toppings (we did 1/2 sausage and 1/2 pineapple/black olive) including 1 C cheese and put pizza under the broiler for 3-5 minutes. Just broil it long enough to melt the cheese and caramelize the toppings a bit.
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Seriously delicious! My husband will eat cauliflower, but doesn’t love it. I am one of the pickiest eaters on the planet. My daughter is another one of the pickiest people on the planet. We ALL loved it!! I made this Sunday and they are already asking for it again!! Cauliflower! Who knew??