As you may recall from my last post, this is my birthday month.  As such, I’m featuring recipes that are tried and true, ones that I grew up on.  A few of my favorite things, so to speak.

Which, unfortunately, makes me sing in my head that song from “The Sound of Music.”  I strongly dislike “The Sound of Music.”  Confession: I find it semi-creepy.  Not the Nazi thing, I mean that’s creepy but that’s for real.  The creepy part is the weird singing/dancing lining up to say goodnight type stuff.  So I really don’t want it in my head. 

Girls in white black dresses with blue satin sashes awesome green heels, snowflakes sand that stays on my nose toes and eyelashes.  Silver white  Unseasonably warm winters that melt into springs summers.  These are a few of my favorite things….

Annnnnyway.  Now that I have gotten that song stuck in your heads too 😉 I can continue on. 

My next treat is the traditional Lemon Bar.  (At least it was fairly traditional in our house.)  When I was little, my mom worked part-time in a coffee & tea shop before going back to work full-time.  Sometimes we’d go pick her up (because, I mean, in 1983 families surely didn’t have two cars!) and Lemon Bars were my second favorite thing to eat there.  My first favorite thing was rock candy.  What 7-year-old in her right mind would pass up crystallized sugar on a stick?  Yeah, not me.  So, dear Lemon Bar, you get the silver medal and rock candy takes the gold.

This recipe is for those Lemon Bars.  I’m not entirely sure how to make rock candy, but I imagine it’s a fairly simple science experiment.  But for the sake of dental health, I’ll pass on that (for now…).

Lemon Bars

2 c all-purpose flour
1 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c powdered sugar + more for topping
4 large eggs
2 c sugar
1 t baking powder
4 T lemon juice (yup, I used the stuff out of the bottle!)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix together flour, butter, and powdered sugar until crumbly.  Spread and press into a 9×13″ pan.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Beat eggs well.  Add sugar, baking powder, and lemon juice.  Pour over crust immediately upon removing it from the oven. 
• Return to the oven and bake for 25 more minutes.  It should be a little jiggly in the center but not too much.  If it’s really jiggly, return to oven for 3-5 minutes. 
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still hot.
• Refrigerate and cut into bars when cool.

serves: 24
calories: 212