If you have a lot of lemons....

We have a lemon tree.  I give a lot of lemons away to friends and I also make ice cubes of lemon juice so I have lemon juice conveniently available to use throughout the year.

Juice the lemons and pour juice into ice cube trays.  Place the trays into the freezer.  After the cubes freeze, remove them and put as many as fit into a freezer ziplock bag.  I write the date and contents with a Sharpie marker on the outside of the bag.   Keep in the freezer and defrost the cubes as you need lemon juice.


Not Lemon Squares but Lemon Quadrilaterals 

aka Lemon Parallelograms
  
We used to make a lemon bar using oatmeal and sweetened condensed milk.  One of our kids adapted it for the County Fair and won 2nd place!  A few years later, our other kid added some raspberries to the recipe and won 1st place.  Let me know if you want the recipe and I will post the basic recipe here.

Joe found this lemon bar recipe that are baked in the microwave (!) and they taste great.

Base:
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zeste
1/2 cup butter

Filling:
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 eggs
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup lemon juice

Grease a 9 x 9 microwavable pan.

To make the base:  mix the flour, powdered sugar and lemon zest.  Melt the butter and combine with the flour mixture.  The mixture will be crumbly.  Pat it into the greased pan. Microwave for 3 minutes at power level 8 until the base is firm.  Depending on the strength of your microwave, it may need an additional minute.

To make the filling:  combine the sugar, lemon zest, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and lemon juice in a medium-size bowl.  Beat for 2 minutes.  Pour over base.  Return to microwave and cook at power level 8 for 3 minutes until the filling is set but has a slight wiggle like Jello-O.   Depending on the strength of your microwave, it may need another minute. Cool completely.  Refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours.  You can cut into squares but I like to cut bar cookies into quadrilaterals (baklava is traditionally cut into this shape)  Cut one side completely diagonally and then cut the other side perpendicular to the pan edge to make the quadrilateral shape.  Keep these in a refrigerator or cooler because the filling contains eggs.
Lemon Chess Pie


This is one of my favorite pies.  I entered this pie in the county fair.  There wasn't enough filling but I won second place!

This recipe is from Family Fun magazine.

Make a pie crust or use a pre-made one. I like the Krustez brand pie mix.  It is like homemade.
Ingredients for the filling:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. yellow cornmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Prepare, chill, and pre-bake a pie crust.
To make the filling set the oven temp to 350 degrees.  Whisk together the sugar, cornmeal, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Add the eggs and egg yolk and whisk well.  Whisk in the milk, melted butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract.  Then slowly pour the filling into the cooled pie shell.

Bake the pie on the center oven rack for about 45 to 50 minutes, turning it 180 degrees halfway through. When done, the top will be dark golden brown, and the filling will be set except for the very center, which may jiggle slightly when you tap the pan.  Cool the pie on a wire rack.  Serve it at room temperature or cover and chill until serving time.