Extra Tangy Lemon Bars

The table counterpart loves lemon sweets. More than chocolate, ice cream, or cookies (unless they are lemon cookies). The desert most loved is a lemon curd braided sweet bread. While I agree it's oh so good, our current living conditions do not warrant the space to make lemon braided bread or cook it. Regulated to a 9x9 pan and after months and months of looking, I found Ina Garten's Lemon Bars and the reviews stated it wasn't too sweet and it was adaptable to 9x9 pan. Perfect!

Modifications Made:
Powder sugar was only added when plated to keep the sugar from becoming sticky when stored in the fridge overnight.

Scaled for Likability: Good

This crust was dense and held together well with the lemon, however, the butter overpowered the bar. Neither the bar nor the curd was overwhelming sweet even with three cups of sugar in the curd itself! My favorite part was the layer form on the curd when cooking. Don't know if this was supposed to happen but it added a lovely color and texture element.

Edit July 19, 2020:

A week later Lemon Bars with Shortbread Crust was tried.

Modifications Made:

Zest was only used from the lemons it would take to make half cup of fresh juice. Powder sugar was omitted.

Scaled for Likability: Good

This was a great recipe and was super to easy to scale down to a 9x9 pan. It was tangy and not overly sweet, has a nice hard base to offset the soft curd filling. What a great combination. Addition of the vanilla and the extra flour really changed the way the crust cooked and tasted. Great served slightly warm or cold straight from the fridge.

Both lemon bars were good but they are still not what is envisioned. Next time, this shortbread recipe will act as the base to Ina Garten's curd. Lemon bars are sweet and tangy and everything summer. In fact, the only part I struggle with in wanting to make them again (all lemon bars really) is having to wait for the crust to cool before the filling is added and baked.

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender. Green be

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add potatoes. Cover and reduc

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese and did not contain enough onion, garlic,

Eating Waffles

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