"Do You Use Lemons, Honey?"

For about ten years of my life, my former grandfather-in-law would ask us this question nearly every time we visited his home in the Montclair Hills.  Wally was an avid gardener, devoting much of his backyard and spare time to his vegetables each year - right through his early nineties.  But he also had the most beautiful and abundant lemon trees I'd ever seen, including a Meyer Lemon tree, whose delicious significance I sadly under-appreciated while he was living.  So even though I wasn't really doing any cooking or baking at that time, my answer to that question was always "Yes!" "Well, don't ever buy 'em at the store - what they charge for 'em is a crime!" he'd reply.  And immediately he would get an old grocery bag and start picking from his trees.

Since that time I have grown to love cooking and baking with lemons - Meyer lemons in particular.  Their tart, yet subtly sweet, flavor make them perfect for savory and sweet dishes alike and infuses them both with  a unique taste and fragrance that defies my descriptive abilities; not quite lemon, not quite orange.  I have made marinades, sorbets, scones, breads (both savory and sweet), cocktails, and sauces with these wonder-fruits.  And I am always amazed by their pure, delicious, clean flavor.  If you doubt my authority, perhaps you'll trust this.

Meyer lemons weren't always available at your run-of-the-mill grocery store, but I recently saw them at my local Safeway in a (what my kids thought was very scary) prepackaged bag of 5 lemons - for $4.99.  I could almost hear Wally "tsking" at me as I readily added them to my basket - but I didn't hesitate.  They were the first I'd seen of the winter crop and I just couldn't walk away without them.  Of course, had I been brave enough to tackle Berkeley Bowl on that Sunday afternoon, I would probably have had 5 different Meyer lemon options to choose from (local, imported, organic, small organic, large local, etc.) and they would have ranged in price from .29 to .59 each.  I lacked the courage.  But the fact that winter is really the season for Meyer lemons may be one of the things about them that I love most - what joy it is, just as the weather starts to turn cold and nasty, to find such a bright and glorious reminder of summer!

So this morning I awoke with lemons on the brain and decided it was time to make a recipe that my former mother-in-law gave me years ago - she probably saw me walking away from her Dad's house with all those lemons and was thinking "that girl doesn't cook - I'd better give her something she can use all those lemons for".  How lucky am I that she gave me her Very Lemony Lemon Bread recipe!  Although the recipe doesn't specify Meyer lemons, that's what I used - and I took the liberty of adding some poppyseeds in lieu of nuts because my daughter loves lemon poppyseed anything.

I hope Cal won't mind me sharing her recipe here.  And I hope Wally has forgiven my youthful ignorance and is somewhere right now saying "Real good, honey!"

Cal's Very Lemony Lemon Bread
1/2 c. butter
1c. sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 /1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. finely chopped nuts
grated peel of 1 (2) lemons

Topping
1/8 c. sugar
juice of 1 (2) lemons

Preheat oven to 350
Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer or with an electric hand mixer.  In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add eggs to butter and sugar and mix.  Alternate adding some of the flour mixture and the milk to the butter until combined.  Mix in nuts and grated lemon peel.  Pour into greased 5x9 loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes.  Just before the bread is due to come out of the oven, make the topping by combining the sugar and lemon juice and stirring to dissolve the sugar.  As soon as the bread comes out, turn it out of the pan onto a cooling rack placed on a paper bag or towel to catch the drippings.  Using a toothpick or skewer, poke holes all over the top of the loaf and slowly spoon on the topping.  Let cool completely before slicing.

The dead giveaway for how good this is:  Cal also included the quantities needed to quadruple the recipe!