Ray of Sunshine Lemon Bars

Are you a lemon lover? I am. Although we can get lemons year round, they just feel summery to me. Reminding me of the outdoorsy, free spirited, splash of water and sunshine on my shoulders of summer. You are going to fall in love with these lemon bars!! I’ve been making them for over 2 decades and you can bet your bottom dollar on their divineness.

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Right now we could all use a good little mouthful of lemony sunshine. It’s a weird time in our universe. All the distance classrooms (aka our kitchen tables) are closing up shop for the summer. Sports are going to start again… or maybe they’re not. We are, after much distancing, able to gather with people… or maybe only under strange restrictions. And if you have a senior… hi, pick me… then it’s an unprecedented end of year in the history of EVER!

Again, as we zoom out from our own four walls, the world is hurting and confused and unsure. Families are struggling, lives are lost, economies are fragile, and anxiety is real.

There’s no quick remedy and certainly not enough foodie fixes in all of creation, able to knit back together our frayed edges.

The unconditional love of Jesus and His subsequent work in our limited lives is THE ONLY true mending of our brokenness.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, ¹⁷ comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

II Thessalonians 2:16-17 NLT

Jesus gave us so much. Himself, unconditional love, forgiveness, creation, food for our souls (His word) and our bodies.

We need Him and we need one another.

So we can take what we have, whether it be lemons or the limitations of this current world. And we can offer up something meaningful. May it be a homemade slice of sunshine or a genuine heap of love to our people, our sphere and those hurting next door.

So, let’s start where we are. Between our own two feet. By the grace of God, we can offer a hand, send a text, say a prayer, visit the lonely, have a difficult conversation, forgive an offense, and bring along the hope of Jesus.

Friends, there is beauty in sharing of ourselves. Even if it’s in the form of a pan of lemon bars and an encouraging word.

Some may consider this tangy little sweetheart only worthy of the warmer months of the year. However, I’ve been known to pull out the juicer and whip this up in the dead of winter. All for a break from pumpkin and pear dessert things.

I have two important tips for you. First, it takes me about 8 lemons to pull this entire recipe off. I use an electric citrus juicer (and often a spare teenager roaming around) to do the hard work for me. Nevertheless my dears, you can one hundred percent juice these by hand. Which leads me to my second tip…

Second, this is my method for juicing any type of citrus for my recipes… and it needs to be yours too! Cut a lemon (or lime, or orange, or tangerine, or… you get the idea!) in half crosswise, like at the equator with your stem ends north and south poles. Then squeeze half of lime with one hand through a sieve to catch seeds (or into your other hand which can substitute for a sieve here). Then, turn that very half that you just juiced, INSIDE OUT. Proceed to run your fingers around the outside (which is actually the inside pulp) releasing all of that hidden juice from its pulp. I promise you you’re going to be amazed. And show this to all of your friends and family!

Now carry on with the recipe which is totally straight forward and worth your little juicing episode.

XOXO,