New Recipe - Lemon Bars

There are a few special people at work that I especially like to share my cooking with. One of those people has a milestone birthday tomorrow, but I decided to bring his treat today since we couldn't celebrate tomorrow. I asked him several weeks ago what he would like and he requested lemon bars. Ask and you shall receive!


Luscious Lemon Bars (Southern Living, May 2010)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottom and sides of a 13- x 9-inch pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper, allowing 2 to 3 inches to extend over sides; lightly grease foil.

2. Stir together 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

4. Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a large bowl until smooth; whisk in granulated sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Stir together baking powder and remaining 1/4 cup flour; whisk into egg mixture. Pour mixture over hot baked crust.

5. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Lift from pan, using foil sides as handles. Cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes). Remove foil, and cut into bars; sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Apparently everyone that tried these really liked them but me. I thought the crust tasted a bit like raw flour even after cooking the crust until it was nicely browned. With such a simple crust, I guess it can't help but taste like flour. I think lemon bars are just not my thing. I would make them again for a party or another event, but I won't be dreaming of eating these tonight.

Busy Season and Food

On Wednesdays during busy season, my office offers an afternoon snack. Usually, these options aren't too healthy and today was no different. We have had chips & cheese dip from SATCO, Aunt Anne's soft pretzels and this week we had cupcakes from Gigi's.

When we received the email that this was our snack and the limit was TWO cupcakes per person, you better believe all the ladies of the office were talking about how someone could eat one entire cupcake, let alone TWO. As it turns out, the cupcakes were mini cupcakes and it was definitely possible to eat two (as I did in about 10 bites total). This is not good for trying to lose weight for a post-busy season trip.

Of course, the only healthy things I've eaten today have been my breakfast and the diet green tea (the only diet thing I will drink) I've been sipping on all day. I was too tired when I got home last night to take the time to pack my meals for the day, so consequently, I left the house with nothing to eat this morning. I ran out for lunch and dinner, so today is a lost cause diet-wise. I bet tomorrow won't be much better since I'm celebrating a colleague's 50th birthday at lunch tomorrow and then we are having breakfast foods brought in for tomorrow's dinner including bacon and chicken biscuits. Just what I need! :)

Fair warning to anyone that I see post-busy season...if I'm as wide as a house, please don't look too shocked. Sitting at a desk for 12-14 or more hours a day plus eating junk all the time is not figure-friendly.

Election

It's weird to live in a state where the primaries actually seem to matter. When I got home tonight, I looked at my answering machine more out of habit than actually expecting a message. To my surprise, I had more messages than the machine could hold. After listening and deleting them, I determined that Mitt Romney cornered the market in telephone messages since over half of my 10 messages were from his campaign-including a message from Former First Lady Barbara Bush. I didn't know the Bush's had endorsed a candidate.

I wonder how bad it will be in the months leading up to November?

Home Early

I've actually been home for almost an hour! It's ridiculous how excited I am to be home an hour earlier than typical.

I'm going to take advantage of the extra time at home and pick out my clothes and pack my lunch for tomorrow. We have dinner brought in to work on Tuesday and Thursday, so that's one less meal to pack.

Being home early has also given me the time to practice for my home church's Easter Cantata. I doubted if I could learn the music well enough without practicing with the choir, but it's coming along much better than I anticipated. Still, I'm glad to have several weeks left to practice!

Night!

Where did the weekend go?

It's bedtime on Sunday night again. I don't know where the weekend went! Actually, I do, but it was still too fast. I can't wait for relaxing weekends to come back after mid-April.

Friday, I left work very early fir this time of year--6 o'clock. I needed to run some errands that I couldn't take care of when I usually get off work between 9 and 10. I was too keyed up from anticipating the storms all day and the the actual time spent in our safe room after being told a tornado was apparently tracking toward us. We were lucky since there was awful hail downtown, but we were spared. I've never been in a truly bad storm, but all the recent ones have shaken my nerves a bit. Going home and going to bed was the best thing for my exhausted mind and body.

I worked most of the day on Saturday. Then, I went to Publix to pick up a few things for lunch this week at work. I get so tired of boxed, microwaveable things, so I stocked up on a few more palatable options. At home, I tried to catch up on unending housework. How can there be such a mess when I only sleep here? I do pick up after myself, I promise!

I went to bed quite early last night and thankfully am now somewhat caught up on sleep. I also had an unexpected visit today from Mom and Dad on their way home from out of town. I know they have been worried about me with the long hours I'm working and because i was pretty under the weather a few weeks ago. Sweet Mama folded some laundry I hadn't had time to deal with while Daddy fixed a problem with my upstairs heat. Emma was with them, of course, and it was wonderful to snuggle with her for a few minutes. It was so nice to have a few hours with the people (even four-legged ones) I love most!

I attempted to make cinnamon rolls tonight, but unsurprisingly, the dough did not rise. This is the fourth time I've tried to make something with yeast and I haven't gotten any of my dough to rise yet. This is so frustrating because I think I have properly proofed the yeast and followed the recipe to the letter. I've always found cooking so easy and I've never had such trouble with any recipe, so this is especially frustrating. Somehow, someday, I'm going to master this since I desperately want to taste my Grandmother's yeast rolls again. It's been more than a year and my mouth won't stop watering. I think she would be pleased I'm trying to keep her recipes alive.

Now it's time to go to bed and prepare to start another week of busy season. 44 days to go. I can't wait for it to be over!

Real Food

I've gotten some strange looks at work when I say I eat "real food" on the nights I don't work. What I mean by this is I cook the entire meal from scratch without anything premade or prepackaged.

Tonight, I made mashed potatoes as part of my made-from-scratch meal. When I was little, we only had mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. Now that my meals are are all up to me, I could eat my weight in mashed potatoes. Tonight, I seriously contemplated making a meal out of loaded mashed potatoes!

Now I'm so full of carbs that I'm soon going to take advantage of the opportunity to sleep and head upstairs.

Sleep

I left work extremely early (6PM) last night. I was too tired to think straight and too keyed up from the storms that had come through earlier in the day.

I ran some errands that I'd been putting off for a week since these businesses are always closed before I leave work. After I ate some dinner and turned on my tv for the first time since last Sunday, I decided that 8 o'clock was a an appropriate bedtime. 11 hours later, I could definitely go back to sleep, but I feel so much better than I have all week. My body just can't handle day after day of too little sleep. One day every once in a blue moon is ok, but not on a frequent basis.

Off to work. Six more Saturdays (I think). 45 days sounds better to me. It's going to be a long day, but, if I'm lucky, I can get away with taking tomorrow off.