These Two Hands

I robbed my grandmother, the last time I visited her. Robbed her blind. Just look at the goodies I got.

Nine ginormous, fresh-picked, organic Meyer lemons.

Oh, of course I asked first and she said I could pick as many as I wanted.  But come on. She had no idea of the treasure out there in her back yard. I mean, this time last year there wasn’t a single Meyer lemon to be found in all the metro area, and now look at this bounty. Highway robbery. I should go to prison, where I would ingratiate myself to the inmates with lemony deliciousness.

I’ve already begun cooking with them and Oh. My. Goodness. I understand now why they’re in such demand – their lemonyness is just out of this world, but they’re not too terribly sour. You could almost (maybe) eat them like very sour oranges.  And the flavor that their rinds impart is knock-your-socks off good. Vibrant, and fruity, perky and  just so yellow.

The plan is to make a different recipe from each one, and share them with all y’all. So far I’ve made Ina Garten’s lemon yogurt pound cake (though I had to subsitute sour cream for yogurt and olive oil for canola).

I’m glad I chose this recipe first, because the lemony-ness was so prominent. First the pound cake is made with a bunch of zest – two regular lemons or one Meyer – and then the warm cake is drizzled with a simple syrup made from sugar and like 1/4 cup lemon juice, which sinks in and moistens things up (not that this cake needs any help in that department). Then once the cake is cool, it’s glazed with a mixture of confectioner’s sugar and another 1/4 cup juice. And one lemon was enough for it all. I think that’s pretty amazing.

This cake lasted only one day before it was gone. Poor cake. Happy me.

Thanks, grandma!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 11:12 pm and is filed under food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.