Lemon Bars Lost

A couple of months ago, I made some lemon bars that were exquisite.  They were perfect blend of melt-in-your-mouth sweetness and tart.  My husband and I cleaned off the entire pan together and swore we could never eat another lemon bar again.  Of course, when it comes to decadent desserts, my husband is a weak, weak man……and he asked for me to make them again a few weeks later.

Guess what?  I lost the recipe.  It’s gone.  I’m not sure if I found it on the internet or in my extensive collection of church cookbooks.  I looked and looked.  I found some that seemed like they might be “the one”, but after trying out FOUR different recipes, I had pretty much given up hope.  All was lost.

And then….in a magical moment of Googling, I came across a recipe that was different, yet held some promise.  I quickly ran to the store to buy more lemons and real butter.  This HAD to work.

I greased.  I grated.  I pulsed.  I pressed.  I whisked.  I poured.   And when all was baked and cooled, I had found a lemon bar recipe that might have surpassed the superbness of the first recipe…and Microsoft Word says that the word supurbness doesn’t even exist.  That’s how good they are.  Enjoy!

(PS.  I am still on a quest to find the first missing recipe.  If you have any good ones, let me know!)

Lemon Bars
Adapted from Ina Garten May, 1998

 

 

Ingredients
The Crust
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar — plus extra to
decorate finished bars
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter — (1 1/2 sticks) at
very cool room temperature, cut into
1-inch pieces, plus extra for greasing pan
The Filling
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Note:
The lemon filling must be added to a warm crust. The 30-minute chilling and 20-minute baking of the crust should allow plenty of time to prepare the filling. Also, the bars must cool completely before cutting.  It will end up more like a lemon bar cobbler, vs. bars if they don’t cool.
Directions
1. For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and line with one sheet parchment or wax paper. Dot paper with butter, then lay second sheet crosswise over it.
2. Combine flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add butter and mix into a coarse meal (like sand), with a mixer. Sprinkle mixture into lined pan and press firmly with fingers into even, 1/4-inch layer over entire pan bottom and about 1/2 inch up sides. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
3. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Dust with Confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares.

Wordless Wednesday : 6-8-2011

linking up with Angry Julie !

Swim Like A Stingray

It was a goal of mine to make it past this last weekend.  My week was packed with entertaining the mother-in-law, the fifth grade graduation slide show from hell, and volunteering my time and talents (like telling people, “No you can’t go down that hallway!”) for our base running club.  But by far, the highlight of my maniac week/weekend, was the final swim meet of the season.

Abbey and Allie are both on the Yokota Stingrays swim team.  Back in September when we they first tried out, I didn’t know how it would go.  I sent them both happily into the pool and when they came back out they were both crying.  Hysterically.  

The coach assured me that they just weren’t used to the 50 meter pool and the intensity of the practice.  We definitely weren’t in the neighborhood swim club back in Texas anymore.  The girls continued to cry.

At home, I somehow convinced them to keep on trying.  Maybe it was the once-in-a-life-time-opportunity speech I came up with.  Or maybe it was the heart wrenching story I told them about me giving up the swim team in ninth grade, only to wish I was still on it my senior year.  Sigh.  Most likely, it was the promise of Subway every Thursday night after practice that motivated them to keep on trying.

And try they did.  Five days a week for the last 9+ months Abbey and Allison have become swimming machines.  (Ooh, and I became the wet towel toting, goggle adjusting, Speedo buying queen!)  I am so proud of how hard they have worked and all they have learned.

Hopefully, they will look back one day and be proud of accomplishing what they thought they couldn’t do. But deep in my heart, I hope they don’t just say, “Geez.  Remember when mom MADE us be on the swim team in Japan?  That sure sucked.”

Great job girls!  Stick with it.  Your hard work and commitment will take you anywhere you want to be in life.  Mama loves you.

Now all we have to do is inspire Amber to be on the swim team too.  This one’s not going to be so easy.

Some Gave All

"We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led,

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies."

...~Moina Michael, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae (1915)…….where the tradition of wearing a red poppy to honor the war dead began.

If You Send Me Fire, I'll Send You Rain



I will get to the details of this swap soon but first I must tell you, that the rainy season has started here in Japan.  It started raining yesterday and with typhoons Chedeng and Songda headed towards the island, I’m thinking it isn’t going to stop raining any time soon.   

I’m not too thrilled about six or so straight weeks of rain, but I am excited about all the Japanese umbrellas!

Japanese umbrellas are traditionally made of rice paper, wooden spokes, and often have artsy designs printed on them…..like one you might imagine a Geisha would carry around. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE, all the spokes…..don’t you?  Lucky for me, I found a more practical version of a Japanese umbrella in a local department store called Joyful Honda.  (No, this place doesn’t minimize my mourning for Target.)

Twenty-eight spokes. 

It is delightful and brightens any rainy day.  I love it.

So here’s the deal.  I need someone to send me 3 bottles of Cholula Hot Sauce.  Yeah, you heard me…….hot sauce.  I need it for my Salsa and Sweet-N-Spicy Garlic Dill Pickle recipes.  If you agree, I will send you an umbrella like mine. (Any color you want though.)  I’ll also send you some $$$ for the hot sauce.

Sure, I could have my mom send me some, but this is a lot more fun, don’t you think? 

All you have to do is comment on this post and I will randomly select a winner next Monday (June 6) from the thousands and thousands who will enter.  Or it could be like my first giveaway, and only four people will enter.  Surely I have become more famous in the past 6 months…don’t you think?

If not, Mom……could you please send me some Cholula Hot Sauce?

Update:

The winner of the umbrella is Ashley and she told me she’d send me some Cholula.  So Ashley, the umbrella is on the way and I am looking forward to adding extra spice to my life!

Enter a lower limit:
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Random Number:

Linking with Army Tankers Wife , Carrie With Children

I Want To Be A Photographer When I Grow Up

You might have once or twice heard me complain on this blog, about wanting/needing a new camera.  You will be happy to know that it finally happened!  For Mother’s Day, my husband pulled out all the stops and got me a new Nikkon D3100 with a bunch of extras.  The camera wasn’t exactly here on Mother’s Day though.  It showed up in the mail about 15 minutes before we left for Kyoto, Japan on a little trip. (Which again is why, I haven’t been blogging that much.)

I quickly figured out that 10 minutes alone with the owner’s manual, isn’t quite enough time to learn to be a professional photographer.  Regardless, I am addicted and I have found my new hobby.  Now I can be one of those, drummer, hairstylist, jewelry-designer, clogging, photographers.  Yay me!

I have so much to learn about lines and leading the viewer's eye…….

Slowing the shutter speed…….

Finding things that are visually interesting…….

Portraits…..

Portraits……

And more portraits……

Not perfect.....but much better than my old camera! I am so excited I might just cry my pants. (That’s when you don’t know whether to pee your pants or cry.)  Thanks baby for the new camera.  I love it!  I love you too….even though you are weird sometimes!

Why I Haven't Been Blogging.....Biber Fever

I just wanted to tell everyone who is emailing and facebooking me about my blog posts……or lack thereof, that I PROMISE there will be more.  I have just been so busy lately.  I won’t go into details on exactly what I am doing, but it includes my mother-in-law coming and staying with us for FOUR weeks.  So you understand, right? 

Just kidding Sandy, I am totally thankful that I have a mother-in-law that I can tolerate for four weeks!

The real reason I haven’t been blogging much is because all three of the girlies have been sick.  We went to the movies a couple of weeks ago and just haven’t been the same since.  The symptoms the girls have been having are jumping up and down, squealing/screaming, and ringing of the ears.  The squealing sound is similar to the sound I once made at a New Kids on the Block concert, and the ringing is this “eenie-meenie-miney-mo-lover” sound….over and over and over.

I took them to the doctor yesterday to see what was up, and it turns out that they have a Japanese form of what the US calls Bieber Fever.  In Japan, I guess they call it Biber Fever.

The only way to cure the girls of this Biber Fever is to take away their iPods, don’t let them hang out with their friends or go to school, and keep them far far away from the May 17 Justin Bieber concert in Tokyo .  It’s going to be rough.  Grandma Sandy has been known to buy the girls things….and I wouldn’t put concert tickets past her.  Especially since the room we are letting her sleep in is covered with posters like this…..

So there it is.  We are gravely ill at the Three Girlies household.  I promise I will give my blog the proper attention it deserves over the summer.  I miss it and I miss the compliments, attention, praises, and love I get when I write in it.  I hope you, my faithful readers, understand.