Recipe: Lemon Popovers with Pecan Honey Butter

Since I was packing up to move, I was trying to use up random things in the kitchen so I didn't have to pack them up and take them with me. I knew I had flour, chopped walnuts (same as pecans, right?), and lots of butter, so when I found this popover recipe from Taste of Home, all I needed to buy was a lemon. And only three steps? Easy enough!

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons finely chopped toasted pecans, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk until blended. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth (do not overbeat). Stir in 3 tablespoons pecans, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

2. Generously grease a 6-cup popover pan with nonstick spray; fill cups half full with batter. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 350° (do not open oven door). Bake until deep golden brown, 10-15 minutes longer (do not underbake).

3. Meanwhile, combine butter, honey and remaining 2 tablespoons pecans. Immediately remove popovers from pan to a wire rack. Pierce side of each popover with a sharp knife to let steam escape. Serve immediately with pecan honey butter.

I've never made popovers before, and I didn't have a popover pan, so I had to improvise using cupcake tins. I think that works okay, except that the dough does stick to the papers (even though I did spray the papers). Perhaps if you REALLY greased the cupcake tins and forwent the papers, that would have worked better. And I didn't have a wire rack for cooling, so I just used a random grill-like thing. Welp.

Since we were packing, I didn't have all the usual tools at my disposal. I didn't have a large bowl, and I used a fork instead of a whisk, so I don't think everything incorporated quite as nicely. I also didn't have a zester, so I just used a serrated knife to cut tiny pieces of lemon rind. Luckily I still had the juicer, and I only needed half the lemon (the other half could be used for cocktails!). 

How much butter do you need?!

Also, this makes A LOT of honey butter, much more than you need. You could easily halve the recipe and still have enough (you could also disregard this completely and eat them on their own or just use regular butter). 

I didn't poke the sides of the popovers (I missed that step), but I think they turned out okay. Sticking to the cupcake wrappers is certainly not ideal. But the flavor was yummy. I couldn't taste much of the lemon, but maybe that's because all I could taste was the butter! Maybe a lemon-flavored butter could be better? (Say that three times fast!) I'm not sure I would make these again (I don't see myself investing in a popover pan anytime soon), but it was worth a try. 

PS: In the end we threw away most of the butter, and my husband let some of the pop-overs go moldy before we could eat them. Too bad!

Brooks & Dunn at Merriweather Post Pavilion

I had hoped to post this MUCH earlier, so sorry for the delay!

My family saw Brooks & Dunn at the Delaware State Fair the summer of 2003, but I didn't get to go because I on vacation with my grandma in France (not that I'm complaining!). I've been wanting to see them myself, and I was excited they were coming to Merriweather Post Pavilion before I moved from the DC area!

I didn't know who the openers were, but I was happy to see ERNEST again (I saw him open for Chris Lane at the Fillmore Silver Spring in 2022. Read that blog post here.), and I was psyched to see David Lee Murphy for the first time. 

This was my favorite of the night from ERNEST:

Did It for the Story

My friend knew right away that David Lee Murphy sang "Dust on the Bottle," which is probably his most famous song. Of course he saved it for last to end his set!

But Murphy is also an incredible songwriter. He performed several songs which he wrote for other country singers (just like Old Dominion did when I saw them in 2019. Read that blog post here.):

Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not by Thompson Square

Anywhere with You by Jake Owen

The More I Drink by Blake Shelton

And a few Jason Aldean songs:

Big Green Tractor

The Only Way I Know

Murphy has worked with Kenny Chesney a lot, too. Along with "Here and Now" and "Pirate Flag," the two event made an entire album together called "No Zip Code," which is pretty neat!

Here and Now

Pirate Flag

Everything's Gonna Be Alright (This song was actually added to the album at the last minute!)

Then it was time for Brooks & Dunn! I did not realize that they are 69 and 67, respectively. Good for them for still performing! But, their age was showing, or at least Ronnie Dunn's was. My friend commented that his voice was a little pitchy, especially during the harmonies. But that was the least of our worries. Throughout the show he walked off stage, and later he explained that he was in a lot of pain and had a steroid shot to help, but he still was feeling it. You could tell how stiff he was, especially by the end of the show. So sad! I think this impacted the set list, with Kix Brooks singing more of his own songs and just jamming with the band. But they still sang a bunch of the hits, so I was happy with that!

Red Dirt Road

Ain't Nothing 'Bout You (my personal favorite!)

Brand New Man

Cowgirls Don't Cry (not quite the same without Reba)

Only in America (During this song, a few Marines in uniform came on stage, so that was pretty cool!)

Boot Scootin' Boogie

Put a Girl in It

They sang a few songs that I didn't recognize, but maybe I just know more of the really famous hits:

She Likes to Get Out of Town

We'll Burn That Bridge

Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothin'

But they didn't sing some of their best hits, which was too bad:

My Maria

Neon Moon

That Ain't No Way to Go

You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

How Long

I still had a great time, despite the issues and some of the songs missing. I'd even see them again if they continue to tour, even at their ages!

Recipe: Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a random can of sweetened condensed milk that I didn't know how to use. I'm pretty sure I've mainly ever used it in pumpkin pie, and that's only at Thanksgiving time! I found this recipe on the blog A Pretty Life in the Suburbs, and it looked pretty easy, so I thought I'd try it. 

It IS very easy! I pretty much melted ALL the butter (since I started with it frozen; and there's A LOT of butter), and you easily mix everything together. It takes a little bit of time to roll the balls for the cookies, but if you had one of those little scoops, that would make it even faster! And they only bake for 10 minutes, so you've got really soft, yummy chocolate chip cookies in just a short amount of time!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Mix in the sweetened condensed milk.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Roll the batter into 1-inch balls.
8. Place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets about 1.5 inches apart and flatten the dough balls slightly.
9. Bake for 10 minutes. The edges should only be slightly golden.

I do think this recipe could be improved as far as lay-out goes. Putting parchment on the baking sheets should be one of the first steps so that the pans are ready to go once the dough has been made. The recipe also doesn't say how long to leave the cookies on the sheet once they're done, or if they should be transferred to a cooling rack at any point. I left them on the sheets for 5-10 minutes, and then transferred them to a cooling rack. I figure it couldn't hurt anything!

I would definitely make these cookies again. They are so easy, and I love how soft they are. And they are tiny, so the recipe makes a lot! I actually doubled the recipe, and some of the cookies were a little too big (I did notice they start to crack on the top if they're bigger), and I had plenty of cookies to share with colleagues and friends. A fan favorite for sure!