A year ago I was getting all excited about my first trip to England.  It just so happened it was around the same time that all the flights were canceled because of the volcano in Iceland.  We had to postpone our trip for a week, and in doing so lost out on our train tickets to France.  Then when trying to go back home, they canceled our flights again and we got a couple more days more to enjoy Roland's family.  I had a great time. The only time it rained was when we were actually in London.  Touring isn't as fun when you are cold and wet, but we still made the best of it.  Roland couldn't believe how fast the time has gone.  But that's the way it goes when you're having fun!

Ok time for Lemon bars!  When I told my friend that I made lemon bars she was not very impressed.  I then mentioned not from a box.  It was from scratch, I went out side and picked lemons from the tree  kind of scratch! She then had the reaction I was expecting, from a girl who loves lemons as much as her. I tripped this recipe today for our party tomorrow!  I found if you take the  lemon mixture and  increase by half again it's super  yummy!

For the crust, it's just a short bread recipe. This can be used again later for Christmas cookies of  make a few and  cover in chocolate. There is a lot you can do if you get this basic recipe.

1 cup of flower
1/2 cup icing or powder sugar
100g of butter (US 1 stick)
1/8 tsp of salt.

The butter should be right out of the fridge.  We placed ours in the freezer for about 8 mins because it was so hot out today.  Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix till its small and pebbly. The flower and sugar should be well incorporated into the butter, but not smooth. The butter should still have clumps.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F 180C.  Grease and flower your backing pan then press the dough into the bottom of the pan. Try to press the sides down as much as you can. Also try to make it even. This will help evenly distribute the  lemon mixture. Bake for 10-15 mins or till the edges are slightly golden.

I may have over done it a bit, but it's still ok.  This is what happens when the oven is taller than you!  I can never see in to check!

Lemon stuff. (remember our ripe lemons are green we don't know why.)

1 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs
2tbs of flower
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp of salt
2 or so tbs of lemon zest (yellow is a better color than green for this recipe... sigh)

Mix it all together and pour over the short bread crust. It's ok for the crust to still be hot. Give it a shake to get it all over the crust and then  right back into the oven for another 15 mins. Once finished the lemon mixture should  be still when the pan is shook.  Now the hard part is DON'T TOUCH IT!  It has to cool before it can be cut or dust it in powder sugar.  It doesn't cut very well other wise.  Mine took about 20 mins to cool, but it was a hot day.  After all the waiting is done cut into squares move to a cooling rack, that is sitting on top of wax paper. Take a sieve or a spoon and just dust them with powder sugar. If you want to be fancy and have a paper doily or cut outs you can make shapes on them as well.  Be creative!

Mmmmm this is using the half again on the lemon mixture.  I am really happy with how they turned out, but not as happy as Roland's dad!  Enjoy!!

Muwah