So, a couple weeks ago I hosted a baby shower for my friend Kelly. At the shower, I served these, what I thought were (and yes, ahem, I did make them) amazing raspberry lemonade bars. (Much thanks to the blog Annie's Eats, from where I stole this delicious recipe! And, if you like to follow recipe blogs like me... Ok, I'm a little addicted, it may be a disease... Well, anyway, Annie's Eats is a great one to follow. I highly recommend her.)
So, if you're to lazy to CLICK above, here's the raspberry lemonade bar recipe. Yum. Yum. (I didn't take a photo of mine, so just click on over to Annie's Eats to see a photo that will certainly entice you to make these little beauties).
Raspberry Lemonade Bars
INGREDIENTS
For the crust:
- 2¼ sticks (18 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp. lemon zest
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 3 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
- 6 large egg whites
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour and salt just until incorporated. Add the dough to the prepared baking pan. Press into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven, maintaining the temperature.
While the crust is baking, make the top layer. Combine the sugar, flour, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Add the raspberries to a fine mesh sieve and press through, mashing with a spatula, to extract as much juice and pulp as possible, straining out the seeds. Add the egg whites and eggs to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk well to blend. Whisk in the raspberry puree and lemon juice until smooth.
Pour the mixture over the crust and bake until the center is just set and not longer jiggles when gently shaken, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Cover and chill well in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, use the parchment paper to lift the bars from the pan. Place on a cutting board and slice into bars. Dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar if desired.
*This recipe can be halved and baked in an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with a slightly reduced baking time.
Ok, so now that you're all hungry and mad at me for making you crave sugar, (Ooh, I feel like I'm beginning to sound like a food blogger... except I don't come up with my own recipes, I just share other peoples... not quite the same...)... On to THE TURTLE.
I've come to call snapping turtles my nemesis. Why you may ask?
Well, innocently enough (ok not so innocently, Kelly's husband captured the beast), Kelly had a snapping turtle in a bucket... So, we put water over it and left in the driveway... because, what else do you do with a large reptile that has just arrived at your home, right?
So, how did he become my nemesis?
Well, this particular snapping turtle ESCAPED.
BTW, did you know that they look like this?
Imagine that ugly beats running around your neighborhood... TAUNTING YOU. Trying to bite your toes off. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit. But that bugger SCARED THE BEGEBEES out of me! Look how ugly that guy is. And, I swear, the one that ended up in my driveway was EVEN UGLIER!
Mainly, I was worried about my dog. I didn't want her to get snapped at. Fortunately, she didn't. He was gone from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., whereupon he came lunging up my driveway at me as I was leaving for a friend's party that evening. And, I know it's a turtle. I know they are slow. But the hare stood no chance against this monster. He could really MOVE. Kelly said they'd come get him, but I knew by the time that they'd arrive he'd be gone.
So, I don't see him at all the next day... or the next day.... Then, Tuesday morning rolls around... And. He. Returns!
I was out walking Lucy for our morning walk. We went down around the pond near my house as usual (see where this is going?) and on the way ran into my neighbor who lives across the street. Who starts to tell me about how his wife went to let out the dog on Sunday... and you can guess what they ran into. Needless to say, I apologized profusely if it scared his wife or dog (hey the dang thing scared me!) and confessed I knew where he came from. Of course, my neighbor just laughed at me because I was so worked up over a silly turtle!
So, Lucy and I continue and do a second loop and she walks over to the woodchips on the playground and THERE IT WAS! Just bathing in the sun. So, completely freaked out and feeling guilty and feeling like the turtle needs to find an appropriate home, I called New Brighton Parks and Recreation as soon as they opened to inform them about the turtle. (And I called back at noon. They hadn't been able to find him. I don't know if they ever did.) Anyway, it's been a couple week and it's gone.
My conclusion. He trotted across the overpass, over the interstate and made his way to Long Lake Park, where he is now living a happy turtle life. (Hey, it COULD have happened.)
In the meantime, I'm having dreams about the turtle living in the park and mating with a painted turtle and making turtle babies that crawl up and down the playground equipment. Yes, I did dream that. It must all come back to that the turtle came into my life during Kelly's baby shower.
I love you, Kelly, but I have to confess, I hate your turtle. (And, I hope this makes you laugh.) Even if he does make a good story. (And by the way, this 20 pound turtle became about 500 pounds in my legendary story telling about him. I'm quite a good exaggerator, believe me.)
So, that's the story of my nemesis... the snapping turtle. Maybe you all should just make the raspberry lemonade bars and call it a day.
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