Love lemon? Tell me about it

For my column this week, I wrote about how much I love dishes with lemon. It even makes ice cream better. And I asked for your favorite ways to use lemon.

How's this for a deal? In exchange for your suggestions, I'll share a recipe. When I interviewed Dale Richardson of East Mecklenburg High School about bargain cooking recently, she shared a couple of good, frugal-cook recipes. But she also sent over a dessert plate that included these little cookie/cakes, part of a project her class was making when our photographer was there. The cakes didn't fit with the frugal-cooking series, but it was such a simple and tasty recipe, I had to share.

Lemon Blossoms From Dale Richardson, East Mecklenburg High School.

1 package yellow cake mix
1 small package instant lemon pudding
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
4 cups powdered sugar
Grated zest from 1 lemon
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray miniature muffin tins or coat them with pan coating.

Combine and blend the cake mix, pudding, eggs and oil. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Fill each muffin cup about half-way. Bake 12 minutes.

Make glaze while cakes are baking. Sift the sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil and water. Mix until smooth.

Turn lemon cakes out and glaze while warm: Dip tops of cakes in the glaze or spoon the glaze over the warm cakes. Place on wire racks over waxed paper to catch drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, at least 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

One Great . . . asparagus and avocado salad

This spring has turned weather on its side. Chilly one morning and hot that afternoon, it barely feels like we've gotten a winter at all.

Even though it has felt like spring off and on since January, it's finally time to get in the mood for the real spring. In honor of a year that's been turned on its side, I'm going to offer a salad that turned my world on its side.

Jim Lahey's Co. in New York is a pizza restaurant. And it certainly makes fine pies. But when I went there with a friend a couple of years ago, what really blew me away wasn't the pizza, it was the salads. One taste of this combination and I never looked at asparagus the same way again. I've made a few stabs at trying to re-create it, with some luck. But even more lucky: Lahey's new book, "My Pizza," just came out and it includes the recipe.

The window is short for having all the ingredients right at the same time -- asparagus, avocado and mint. But if ever there was a spring when crazy things happened at once, this would be it. If you grow mint, check your mint patch -- mine never really stopped this winter.

Asparagus and Avocado Salad
From "My Pizza," by Jim Lahey (Clarkson Potter, 2012).

4 or 5 thick asparagus spears
1 avocado, halved, pitted and peeled
16 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/2 lime
About 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of fine sea salt per serving

Cut away about 2 inches of the base of each asparagus spear. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, shave the entire asparagus from bottom to top, reversing your grip and turning the spear as needed to shave as much as possible.
Divide the asparagus shavings among 4 salad plates. Cut each avocado half into 4 sections and place 2 wedges on each plate. Sprinkle with mint leaves. Squeeze lime juice over the salads, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with salt.

Yield: 4 servings.

Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend gets closer

February and March are flying by in such a blur that April will be here in just a few minutes. The every-other-year Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend always feels like that, too: The last one barely seems over when it's time to get ready for the next one.

There's a flurry of news to report:

• Restaurants are pairing up for the April 19 wine and food dinners. There are 20 dinners planned, each matching a visiting winemaker with a local chef. E2 has already jumped in with Domaine Serene and Morton's is paired with Silver Oak. Go here to find the list of dinners and ticket prices. But don't wait -- these dinners sell out quickly.
• You don't think wine is your thing? The official opening event this year is a tequila dinner hosted by Paco's Tacos on April 18 and featuring Don Julio tequilas. It's $75. Go here for details on that.
• This year's Vintner Tasting is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 21 at Founder's Hall. This is a great entry-level event for people who want to experience and learn but aren't ready to tackle events like the 1,000-Point Tasting. For $40, you get to experience all the wines featured during the weekend, many poured by the people who make them. I never miss this one and I always experience something that makes it worth my time. Buy tickets here.
• The weekend ends on Sunday with a new one, The Burgers, Bloodies and Brews Brunch from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. April 22 at The Green on Tryon. Tickets are $50. Go here for that.

As always, the Wine & Food Weekend is a charity fundraiser. This year raises money for the Council for Children's Rights, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, Charlotte Community Health Clinic and Pat's Place Child Advocacy Center.

Take a beer break with Guinness brewer Fergal Murray

Fergal Murray, the brew master for Ireland's famed Guinness, came into Ri Ra in uptown Charlotte at 3 p.m. on Thursday tossing back a Starbucks espresso as dark as one of his company's stouts.

The man admitted he was a wee bit tired: During March, "your Guinness month," he makes repeated trips across the Atlantic to America to talk about the brand. In Charlotte in one day, he was meeting with two corporate clients (Harris Teeter and Delhaize), visiting Ri Ra and the Galway Hooker in Cornelius, and attending a five-course beer lunch at Dandelion Market.

Next week, he'll be in Washington to preside over a Perfect Pint competition with members of Congress (last time he did it during the Bush administration, the Democrats were in power; now it's the Republicans. He admits he's curious whether their beer skills will be different.)

For St. Patrick's Day, he'll be in New York to ring the bell for the New York Stock Exchange and answer the usual questions about green beer and how the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's (they don't -- like Cinco de Mayo, it's really just an American bar event).

After Murray downed some well-earned caffeine, we grabbed a table and a pint of the new Guinness Black (a half-pint for me -- I had a deadline). He jumped right into talking about Guinness Black: Despite the name and the dark color, it's not a stout, it's a lager. It's lighter, with a creamy mouthfeel. It's part of Guinness' push to improve summer sales, which tend to drop off.

Before we moved on to the craft beer movement, I stopped him and insisted he take a minute to drink his beer and rest. He took me up on it gratefully: "You're all right, girl."

OK, on to craft beer: Has the explosion of American microbrews and craft brews been tough on Guinness? They used to have that market almost to themselves here.

"We're not a craft beer, we're a global brand. But you're right, we've been perceived as higher quality. We've been on the pedestal." Still, the change in the American beer market is good for Guinness, he says.

"Craft is brilliant here. It's waking up the beer industry in America." He thinks American consumers always knew there was something better and now they have a chance to get it. And as they read up and get educated about beer, they appreciate Guinness even more.

The only drawback to his trips to American every March is that he's so busy talking about Guinness, he doesn't get to explore American beers. He admires Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Anchor Steam, he says. "Worthy lads, established guys."

His advice for craft brewers: "Focus on trying to improve your quality, don't just throw out new things because they're trendy."

His advice to Americans with St. Patrick's Day coming up (besides skipping that whole green beer thing):

"Drink responsibly, take it easy. Savor the pint in a nice way, please."

Who won "The Pioneer Woman" giveaway?

When a copy of the new Ree Drummond cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier," landed on my desk last week, I offered a giveaway over on the Facebook page for The Observer's Facebook page. The book is officially on sale March 13, from William Morrow.

This morning, we're picking a winner using the random generator at www.random.org. Who gets the book, which continues Drummond's style of familiar, family-pleasing recipes with step-by-step pictures and lots of snaps of life on the ranch? Go on over to Observer Food Page on Facebook.

If you haven't checked us out on Facebook, I use that space to post food news all week, from links to our own stories all over The Observer to interesting food news that I spot while I'm roaming around the Internet. If you like it, "like" us. Thanks.

Bloggers: Win $2,000 for a sweet potato recipe

This spiffy image of a picketing sweet potato may be your ticket to $2,000. The N.C. Sweet Potato Commission is offering money for the best sweet potato recipe, in the "No More 'Mallows" Blogger Recipe Contest.

To enter, you have to post the picketer and a sweet potato recipe that isn't sweet or topped with marshmallows. "We're talking sweet potato burgers, chili and falafel, not sweet potato pie, muffins and casseroles," according to the commission's announcement.

You have to post the recipe, the picketer and a picture of the recipe on your web site anytime between March 1 and 31, and send an email with a link to sassysweets@lewis-neale.com. Six finalist recipes will be made and judged on taste, originality and the importance of sweet potatoes to the preparation. Winner gets $2,000 and three runnersup get $500 each.

Details: ncsweetpotatoes.com.

One Great . . . mustard sauce recipe with cold seafood

A supermarket near my house has started running Friday afternoon seafood specials. Not cheap, mind you, but I'm willing to spend a few dollars for something really good in the shellfish category.

My husband and I both have strong Florida roots, so it was a shock when we birthed a child who had an absolute aversion to anything encased in a shell. If he didn't look so much like me, I'd think there was a switch at the hospital. I keep thinking he'll come around, but he's grown now and still won't look at a shrimp.

Since he's out of the house at the moment, we've been grabbing the chance to catch up on our seafood. So when I saw a sign announcing a shipment of stone crabs arriving on Friday afternoon, we were ready to snap up enough of them for two.

Here's the trick on stone crabs: You have to serve them cold. If you try to heat them, they may spoil and get an awful ammonia smell. Since they are chilled, you can't dip them in melted butter and lemon, the way you would with most crab. Instead, you need a sauce that works cold and highlights their sweetness.

Enter mustard sauce. It's an adaptation of the dipping sauce served at the famous Joe's Stone Crab in Miami, and it ran many years ago in one of the "Desperation Dinners" books by Alicia Ross and Beverly Mills. It's really simple. In fact, if you ever find yourself at the beach and you need something easy to dress up a shrimp salad or smoked fish -- even chicken salad -- you can almost always make a version from the barest cupboard.

Cold-Seafood Mustard Sauce

Makes 3/4 cup.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Colman's dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon A-1 steak sauce
1 tablespoon cream or half-and-half

Whisk all the ingredients together. Chill for 30 minutes or so if you have time. Serve with cold seafood.