If you’ve read my blog for more than uhm… 3 minutes… you’ll know I’m seriously addicted to lemons. Period. Dot. End-of-Story. But wait! Maybe “addicted” is too strong of a word… maybe all I really have is a burning love for the flavor, scent, color and beauty of lemons! It sounds so much better when you put it that way ;-) Last weekend I posted a recipe for lemon bars saying they were very good… but not tart enough, which, yes, is a continual refrain. So many people contacted me to say that I really MUST try Ina Garten’s lemon bars. To the point where I finally caved in and made them! LOL. Peer pressure… what a dangerous thing! Again, these are very good – but not tart enough. However, this post really isn’t about Ina Garten’s lemon bars… it’s about something much more important. And if you read on, I can’t wait to share it with you… I’m bursting with exicitement over this!
Oh yeah… that’s right… guess who got HER VERY OWN Meyer Lemon tree? Uhhhh yup… that’d be me!!!!! Not only that but I went hog wild in the nursery this morning and got a total of four fruit trees…
Along with a Meyer Lemon I also picked up a Kaffir Lime. My friend Janice talks up Kaffir Limes all the time as well as Meyer Lemons. I tell ya, one day that woman is gonna get me in some serious trouble! All she has to do is rave over something and there I go following her off the cliff! LOL
I think I’ve mentioned a time or ten how utterly envious I am of my neighbors down the way who have an incredible lemon tree in their front yard… and how I covet the beautiful fruit… and how I just can’t bring myself to offer to help them out by harvesting their crop and, uh, oh, uhm, taking those beauties home with me just to help them out of course… cuz… well… yanno, fruit shouldn’t stay on the tree like that, it needs to be put to good use… good BAKING use ;-) So now I once again have my very own lemon tree :) Our backyard had a nice lemon tree when we moved in 5 years ago but about 2.5 years ago we had a very very bad frost. Extremely unusual for our area. We lost a lot of the plants and quite a number of the trees had severe damage. The lemon tree survived but it stopped producing fruit. And we tried moving it from the spot it was in, to another more suitable location in the yard. But sadly the lemon tree promptly died… and I’ve been in mourning ever since. Today we finally have a replacement that will soon be planted in our yard where I will fawn over it and take incredible care of it and (im?)patiently wait for it to begin bearing fruit.
And last but not least I got a seedless lime tree too. I just couldn’t resist since the tag said this variety has a strong lime flavor and is the bartender’s favorite!
I can’t wait for our trees to begin bearing fruit. The Meyer Lemon and Kaffir Lime will remain in pots so we can easily move them from the patio to inside once the weather gets cold. But that’s a long way off and right now I’m like a proud mother hen waiting for the eggs to hatch :) The Eureka Lemon and Bearss Lime will be planted along the side of our house… near the herb garden that DH built for me. I took tons of pictures when he was building that, but for some reason I never got around to posting about that project. This is a good reminder that I still need to do that because the herb garden is AWESOME!
So before I forget, here’s a link to Ina Garten’s lemon bars… they’re good – very good… and I will make them again! But I will decrease the sugar by 1/3 and see if maybe THEN they’ll be tart enough for me :)
But for now… I’ll leave you with a shot of the buds on my Meyer Lemon tree… I’m confident this baby is gonna produce some beautimous and delicious fruit! Rest assured as soon as it does I will rush right here to show and tell you all about it! hahahahahah :) Oh yeah, I am one excited woman today! Woohoo!!!
Have a delicious day!
YAY!!!!!! I am so happy for you!!!!!
WOW, that first photo is AWARD WINNING!! It is so clear and crisp I swear I could taste lemon by looking at it LOL.
Well, these lemon bars look totally delicious. I mean, they look AWESOME. And I’m so excited about your fruit trees. Now, all of your neighbors are going to be jealous of you!
Oh how I love Ina’s lemon bars. Yummy!
And happy early Mother’s Day to you! How exciting!
You have to let me know when you figure out the perfect recipe for really tart lemon bars — I too have tried making a bunch of different recipes and they never come out quite tart enough for my liking!
Congrats, Em!! I agree with you about Ina’s lemon bars needing to more tart. Ooooh…kaffir lime leaves are awesome for curries & soups!!!! BTW…just made your snickerdoodle muffins…mmmmm mmm GREAT! THANK YOU!
I’m terribly happy for you and all of your citrus trees. There is nothing more exciting than going into my yard to see the new ones sprouting (I have three at the moment). The fourth is my dwarf Meyer lemon tree, which is sadly taking too long to do anything. Maybe next year!
These lemon bars look like they have a lovely layer of lemon curd in there- so thick and creamy and lemony. I’m a lemon-lover too!
I too have searched for that perfect balance of sweet and tart in citrus recipes. Pretty much every recipe fell short (some much more than others) and my neighbors seem tired of receiving my "failures" until I happened upon citric acid at a bulk food store. It takes some trial and tasting ;~) to get just the right amount depending on the amount of sweetness/lack of tartness of the fruit but I have found it to be the only way to perfect citrus recipes. I wonder if the tartness we crave was long ago bred out of citrus crops in favor of sweetness? Just a thought. Wonderful blog by the way!!! Thank you.
Both the lemon bars and the fruit trees are beautiful! Congrats on your purchase :)
Good luck with your fruit trees!! I’m very jealous. :o)
Yum. Lemon bars. I love them. I love all your citrus trees.
Ah, man! I’m sooooo jealous! I want one or really all four sound awesome!!! Living in the sunshine state there’s no reason I couldn’t have some success with them, re, not kill ‘em! :)
Between the this recipe and the previous lemon bar one which would you recommend? I promised one of the twins I’d make him lemon bars this week. Like you we like our lemon desserts lemony (tart & tangy).
Post your herb garden photos. :) My 9 yr old loves to dig in the dirt, so, I’m thinking a garden would be perfect for her.
~ingrid
Your photos look beautiful… I am so jealous of your new trees!! I wish I lived somewhere warm enough to grow my own fruit.
Sooooo jealous. I want a house with citrus trees! I love lemon too, and my dad LOVES lemon desserts, esp. lemon bars. What is your favorite lemon bar recipe?