zesty lemon bars – Spring is here!

Spring is finally here, and with all the warmth and sunshine I’ve been inspired to bake some zesty lemon bars. I’ve borrowed another recipe from Joy the Baker (here is the link to her page for the classic lemon bars recipe) and have included a few of my tips below.

• To get the lemon zest and juice I first used a vegetable peeler to peel a thin layer of the zest off (avoiding the white rind with that), finely chopped the zest, then sliced the lemon in half and squeezed the juice. I needed the juice of a whole large lemon to get the 1/4 cup the recipe calls for
• when baking the crust it was still bubbling with butter at the 18 minute mark. This turned out to be fine. I thought it might have been something wrong with the recipe, but all was good in the end
• before adding the filling to the hot crust, I stirred it once more, since the sugar had settled-out. This prevented the sugar from ending up in a lump in the middle
• I cut the bars still in the pan – first trimming the edges (they are more decadent and chewy.. absolutely delicious! but didn’t look nice on the bars)
• I suggest you wait several hours until the bars have completely cooled to give them a true taste test. They are all the more lemony with time!

I’m not sure I’m done with making lemon, or even other citrus fruit desserts yet this spring. There’s just something so refreshing about citrus after a long winter.

~ Leena

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Flax – pull over sweater from the simple collection

I finished the flax pull over sweater this winter, and loved how easy the pattern was and the results. I highly recommend this project for anyone making their first sweater. It was a free pattern from Tin Can Knits, in their Simple Collection.The yarn used was Wool of the Andes Tweed, worsted weight, from Knit Picks. I made the 4 year old size, for my nephew (who is a big 2 year old ;) ).
~Leena

knits, purls, and a whole lotta love

We may still have a few hot days of summer yet, but Fall is around the corner – I can feel it in the air – and with that returns my fervent desire to create warm clothing! It must be a survival instinct :)

At the same time, I don’t have a lot of free time. I’m trying to finish my Masters in the next 2-3 months, which will be a challenge to say the least. So, small projects it is. I decided to make a sweet baby sweater for the 5 month old daughter of my good friends. It was an extremely easy pattern to follow, and well worth the few dollars I paid to the designer (the pattern link is here on the Ravelry.com website).