Lemon Bread

In part because of a small brunch I'm having for the parade tomorrow, and in part to get the taste of sour grapes out of my mouth, I'm baking lemon bread.

The recipe came from a big book of Bed and Breakfast dishes that was a Christmas gift a long time ago. I've since sold the book (I prefer to go out and have someone else make my breakfast for me, as opposed to actually cooking early in the morning), but kept this recipe.

Jameson's Lemon Bread

Bread:

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 each egg -- slightly beaten
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup nuts -- chopped fine
grated rind of one lemon

Glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
juice of one lemon

Cream the shortening and sugar; mix in eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to shortening mixture, stirring constantly. Mix in the nuts and lemon rind.

Bake in a greased 5 x 9 loaf pan in a 350 oven for 1 hour. Combine 1/4 cup sugar with the lemon juice and pour over the top of the loaf when it comes from the oven (poke a few holes in the bread top with a toothpick so the lemon-sugar mixture is better integrated in the bread - the glaze is great!).

In addition to the bread, we are having a crustless chicken and broccoli quiche. It's a bit more substantial than a typical breakfast quiche. There will be fruit, and possibly bacon. Brunch is a strange time of day; eat breakfast, and you are not hungry for brunch. Eat brunch but no lunch, and you are starving by dinner.

The parade starts at ten, and passes along the street in front of my place about fifteen minutes later. As parades go, it's not huge - three bands, half a dozen color guards, a Coast Guard boat and an air conditioned bus carrying a dozen or so vets - but we get a good turnout to honor those who have given their lives in service for us.