When Costco Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Bars

Well, Costco didn't give me the lemons, but the huge bag I bought on my last trip to Milwaukee was more than enough for tea, salad dressings and condiment use. I looked through my recipe file and found Mrs. Foss's Lemon Bars; the perfect solution to my lemon surplus problem.  I'm not sure who Mrs. Foss was, but she was probably one of the Lutheran church ladies my grandmother hung out with. I think she was also known for her molasses cookies.

Out came the handy juicer, which unlike our other appliances, does not have a crazy name; it is just called Citrus Juicer. I juiced a bunch of lemons and got to work.

Mrs. Foss's Lemon Bars

2 sticks butter

3 1/2 C sugar

3 C flour

1/4 t salt

6 eggs

1 C lemon juice

powdered sugar for topping

1. Mix butter, 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup of sugar and salt together and press the dough into a greased rectangular cake pan. I used a 13x9x2 pan. Bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
2. For the filling mix together 3 cups of sugar, 6 eggs, 1 cup of lemon juice and 1 cup of flour. 
3. Pour the filling mixture on top of the baked crust and put it all back into the oven for another 30 minutes.
4. Let the pan cool and then sprinkle powdered sugar over the top and cut into bars. Mrs. Foss says it will make 24 bars, but I like bigger bars, so I cut 18.
5. Do not let Weimaraners in the kitchen during the baking process.

  

The bars turned out well, although they could have been a little tarter. I didn't sprinkled powdered sugar on top because, let's face it, 3 1/2 cups of sugar is already overkill.

This isn't the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last, time that we find ourselves in lemon overload. If you have any good ideas for extra lemons, please send suggestions our way. We really miss the lemon tree we had in Las Vegas.  It provided us, as well as all of our friends, neighbors and strangers, with tons of fruit.

This is the only record I have of our
lemon tree. Just a bit of it is showing.