Lemons in Summertime

Bookmarking Time and Memories

I used to think that everyone bookmarked time and memories with their senses.

In my mental schema, 7-up is the taste of illness and 90s country is the soundtrack of spring. Processed cheese in a spray can is the flavor/texture of family reunions at the lake. Late summer/early fall is fig-scented. This year, I declared chocolate to be the official flavor of late winter.

I only learned recently that everyone’s mind doesn’t make associations like this. (Mine actually goes even weirder, but I’ll save that for another post.)

Someone at Trader Joe’s gets it, though. TJ understands that lemon is a flavor of summer, which explains the recent return of the boxed lemon cake mix. If you love lemon and you haven’t tried it, now is the time. Jeni’s ice cream offers lemon bar ice cream all year long, but I only want it in the summer. Then I want it more often than I can afford it.

For about the price of a scoop on a waffle cone, I can make a batch of lemon bars. I guess I could mix one with ice cream for the full effect, but by the time I make the lemon bars, I remember how delicious they are in their own right. Side note: My son says lemon bars have an overwhelming vomit taste, so I guess everyone has their own sensory associations.

The Pioneer Woman has a fail-proof recipe. Her website is a hot mess these days, so I’m glad I have this one in a cookbook. As I’ve mentioned before, her books are excellent for kids or beginners, because there’s a photograph of each step, showing you what it will look like if you’re doing it right. I don’t make any tweaks to this recipe. “If it ain’t broke . . .”