Best lemon bar recipe
Chitter

It’s funny how we give attributes to our children, you know traits that we assign them from ourselves or other family members. A lot of folks can’t tell Chatter and Chitter apart, but I’ve never thought they looked that much alike. I suppose it’s because their faces and individuality have born witness to me every day since they were born.

I’ve always seen The Deer Hunter’s side of the family in Chatter, more specifically I see Miss Cindy. Chatter has her build and mannerisms.

While I might accuse Chitter of acting like a Pressley, I’ve always told her she’s a Wilson up oneside and down the other-and she is.

Chitter and I share many of the same traits. We look at the world in a very similar manner…and we react to that world in a similar manner as well. We both can be so stubborn about silly stuff that we cut our nose off to spite our face. We’re both a little ocd about having things in order-or the perceived order we believe they should be in. And if that order is disrupted in any shape or form we both feel unsteady and unsure of everything around us until things are put back the way we want them.

Of course there are many ways in which Chitter’s traits are nothing like me, but somehow it always surprises me to find another way she’s not like me at all.

How to make lemon bars the old time way

 

A couple of weeks ago we were discussing what sweets we should make for Christmas. Chitter said “Oh I know lets make Lemon Bars!” I said “Lemon Bars? Why?” Chitter then told me she loved Lemon Bars. I was surprised that she liked them. I’m not much of a fan of anything lemon except Granny’s Lemonade.

While I stared at her in disbelief, Chitter went on to tell me every time she ate at a potluck she always searched the table for Lemon Bars. As she gushed about her great love for Lemon Bars I decided I better learn to make them if she loved them that much! I also began to wonder what else she liked that I didn’t know about, hmmph!

Rada whisk works great and cleans up easy

I found the recipe here: Mel’s Kitchen – Lemon Bars [Perfected]. You can jump over there and see the recipe I used to make Chitter her Lemon Bars-you can even print it out if you have a hankering for some yourself.

Old lemon bar recipe

Even after making the bars I’m still not much of a Lemon fan, but Chitter deemed the Lemon Bars the best she had ever eaten.

Tipper

 

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59 Comments

  1. Dear Tipper:
    At dinner New Year, I spent in the house of my eldest daughter, Veronica, I was talking with these (multiple), friends of the Appalachians, and Blind Pig and the Acorn, especially.
    I told them that is a page where you explain absolutely everything about the Appalachian culture, music, food, cakes, how to make sweets, idiomatic language Highlander,, sayings, stories of the Civil War, through letters of the time, anyway, “I was excited to several” as two particularly delighted to learn recipes typical desserts from there.
    Since these people knob to today’s post to make lemon cake, haha !, here obviously also it made, but there must be some small difference that made one of the twins, and others friends, LOL!
    A big hug for you, your family and friends Appalachian, José Luis.

  2. Fantastic whisk! Great design! Could certainly use another one to stir two pots at once. Love reading your posts, too!

  3. I love the lemon bars, lemon-filled doughnuts, etc! When Chitter was here over Christmas, I remember when we all went in the grocery store and she saw a box of lemon bar mix in the baking aisle and remarked how good that looked. I agreed.
    Janet Pressley

  4. I love lemon bars. Like Chitter, I look for them at any dinner on the grounds. I have several Rada knives and gadgets, but not this one. Pease, put my name in the hat!

  5. I do love lemon bars. I’m like Chitter, I always look for lemon bars because I’m not much in the kitchen. I’m glad my son, Alex likes to cook because we do have great meals, especially when he is home. I’m sure he could find something to do with the wisk. Have a very happy new year! Love to read your stories!

  6. Lemon Bars are my daughter’s favorite as well!
    And my 95 year old father and his twin love them as well. (I think I’ve shared some of their look-alike stories in the past so won’t bore you with them now.)
    Recently, I found a very simple lemon refrigerator cookie recipe which a couple of the ladies at the church declared absolutely addictive! They have held me in good stead through the holidays for those last minute events which require treats.
    That whisk reminds me of one my grandmother had. I haven’t seen one like it in years; so – please add me to the drawing.
    Thanks.

  7. My wife, Edna baked a lemon pie last night. If you like lemon bars you would love lemon pie. She also baked a coconut pie. It was hard to choose between which was best so I had a large slice of each.

  8. Mmmmm-Mmmmmm, I love lemon everything! Your lemon bars look very tasty. Thank you for another yummy recipe (you really should make a Blind Pig and the Acorn Cookbook).
    I don’t have any Rada products that I know of. Looks like a pretty handy little whisk!
    Thanks for the chance to win one!
    Pam
    scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com

  9. That whisk looks kinda like somebody got their wood cook stove eye lifter turnt around backards but if it works I’d give it a try.
    I have never tasted lemon bars and don’t recall ever seeing them but I am a chocolate fiend so I could have easily overlooked them.
    I have been pretty well able to tell your girls apart if they are together but in separate pictures it’s tougher. Since they have such different hairstyles now, it’s is real easy. Seems like when we see real people we see much more than when we look at pictures. Facial expressions, eye and hand movement, etc. have a lot to do what we think we see. Any way you look at them though, they are a couple of fine Appalachian ambassadors and I would hate to be asked to choose between the two.

  10. Thanks for the yummy Lemon Bar. My Dad will love it. I also found many other recipes to try at Mel’s Kitchen. Thanks for the contest and chance to win.

  11. We love anything lemon! We will have to make these lemon bars, they look delicious! As always, thanks for sharing another great recipe.

    1. I love lemon bars and used to make them all the time to take up work. I used to breed and show Siamese cats and had kept two male kittens to show. Both were fixed and long tall boys, but still very kittenish in their behavior. I had baked a pan of lemon bars and put in the window to cool. Normally they never bothered any kind of baked goods, but even do I kept an eye on them. I left the room for 5-6 minutes tops and came back to find them happily licking out of the exact center of the pan. They had licked a spot a littler bigger than a silver dollar all the way down to the crust and were very pleased with themselves. I hollered et them and they both gave me that offended cat look, then yowled that Siamese yowl at me and got down. I couldn’t help laughing at them. I did consider just cutting out the part they had licked on and still taking it to work, as they had touched no other part, but didn’t. I did cut out the part they had licked, with a generous edge around it, then kep and ate it myself. It still tasted good.

  12. Lemon bars are one of my favorites. Actually I love anything chocolate, but my second favorite flavor is lemon. When I made lemon bars long ago, I’d make double the glaze for them cause well, I think one can never have enough glaze. LOL
    I have one of the small regular whisks, and I’ve looked for other models for a long time and never found any. That one looks very interesting. I bet it works well too.
    God bless.
    RB
    <><

  13. Our family loves anything lemon. We even eat them like an orange. I’ll try these bars for sure. Thank you.

  14. Tipper, I enjoy your family’s column and have for a long time now. Thanks for keeping the holidays like my mom and dad used to do. I miss them. I do not need the whisk. I went straight from your site and ordered one. That way someone can win, and I can whisk away also. Please keep all the wholesome living and talent coming my way. Jan

  15. Tipper, I love lemon bars. Lemon pie and lemon pound cake are also two of my favorites.
    I do like Chitter and scout out the lemon flavored items on the dessert table. I will have to
    try this recipe soon.

  16. Oh, what a great give-away,,,I love to cook, love lemon bars. and love that whisk…and need to say just how I love vintage cooking utensils… use to have them all hanging up in my kitchen, till my sister told me my kitchen looked like a flea market…well, later I took them all down and redid my kitchen, but I sure kept all my flea market décor…LOL
    Thanks so much for your offer and I enjoy reading your blog everyday…
    Your girls are beautiful and so talented…Have a glorious day…
    Thanks, Shirley

  17. Tipper,
    With only about 3 minutes left, Donna Lynn played Chitter and Chatter’s “Cradle of Love”. She laughed as it went off and waited for Paul to do his little take at the end, saying “I just had to wait for that.”
    There was a report of Snow Flurries in Marble but I ain’t seen any here at Granny Squirrel. I was puttin’ wood in the stove when I heard that Signature Sound of the Blind Pig Gang and The Pressley Girls…Ken

  18. Lemon bars have the best of both worlds, sweet and tart, yummm!
    I trust the family had a blessed Christmas and will be blessed in 2016 🙂
    I love Rada products, I have many of their products and love them! I do not, however, have the whisk which is odd since I collect odd shaped whisks. I would love to add it to my collection!

  19. beautiful girl’s.
    Love all their music and so enjoyable to listen to.
    all the music is great.
    I also like lemon bar’s. will make some this after noon.
    Love the recipe’s you share and Thank You!
    wishing all a very Happy and Blessed and healthy New Year 2016.
    Ruth & Sonny Cook

  20. beautiful girl’s.
    Love all their music and so enjoyable to listen to.
    all the music is great.
    I also like lemon bar’s. will make some this after noon.
    Love the recipe’s you share and Thank You!
    wishing all a very Happy and Blessed and healthy New Year 2016.
    Ruth & Sonny Cook

  21. beautiful girl’s.
    Love all their music and so enjoyable to listen to.
    all the music is great.
    I also like lemon bar’s. will make some this after noon.
    Love the recipe’s you share and Thank You!
    wishing all a very Happy and Blessed and healthy New Year 2016.
    Ruth & Sonny Cook

  22. beautiful girl’s.
    Love all their music and so enjoyable to listen to.
    all the music is great.
    I also like lemon bar’s. will make some this after noon.
    Love the recipe’s you share and Thank You!
    wishing all a very Happy and Blessed and healthy New Year 2016.
    Ruth & Sonny Cook

  23. I love family recipes and it looks like you found a new one. My children are grown now and they still request meals that I didn’t know we’re special to them.

  24. I see differences in the girls, especially their smiles. When we served in a community ministry in Atlanta we had 17 sets of twins. Fifteen sets were identical twins. It was hard to believe the other two sets were even related to each other. My older sister acts so much like Dad that sometimes we call her that. If I get the whisk my wife will use it.

  25. Tipper,
    My husband loves Lemon Bars….me not so much…the recipe has to be just so for me to eat them.
    Does that make sense? The lemons have to be just the right flavor and ripeness…the bars sweet, but not too much…Ha
    You would not believe how many vintage whisk styles there are! I have managed to accumulate a few family ones. One of my Grandmother’s has a round wire springy-thingy! ha The handle is green wood…the whisk’s wire is rusty-ish…so could never be used…only displayed..
    I love Rada and have used their curved paring knives for years…they just fit my hand. I would not use any other potato, carrot, or cucumber peeler except the Rada…it is the best. Many a relative has received one of these peelers as a gift…ha
    Put me in the hat….
    The girls are as different as they are alike…ha I have a hard time telling them apart….but then I haven’t been around them…
    I continue to find out little tidbits that I didn’t realize or know about my children and grandchildren!
    Thanks Tipper,

  26. I would love that whisk! I like to mix my protein drinks in the glass and a regular whisk never gets the edges mixed in.
    Lemon used to be my least favorite sweet but now it’s just about my favorite. Funny how tastes change over the years.

  27. Tipper,
    When I buy hard candy at Christmastime, I usually pick out the lemon balls first. I ain’t never had lemon bars before, but I like Lemony tasting stuff.
    As for the girls, I know them well enough to know them apart. Chatter use to be the more quiet one, while Chitter is fiesty and runs her mouth a mile a minute. Both are so beautiful tho, and I love their singing, not to mention their playing. I think you and the Deer Hunter should just keep ’em now.
    The Rada Wisk looks like a handy mixer, sure beats a fork like I usually use…Ken

  28. Tipper, I love reading your blog!!!! Am going to make the lemon bars this week. Also appreciate the giveaway!!!! I started buying Rada knives back in the late 60’s and still use my fav paring knife, plus a few others. Used to buy them where I worked and then found an old timey hardware store that was going out of business and bought several sets for gifts. Have never seen the whisk and would sure like to add it to my kitchen!!!! Thanks for the chance.
    Jan in chilly AR Ozarks

  29. When I think of lemon bars, I remember the delicious ones our friend, Dorothy Plemmons, a fellow teacher in the school where I taught so long, gave me and my husband Grover for Christmas each year. They were her favorite sweet to bake, to eat and to give away as a gift. Just reading about how Chitter likes Lemon Bars makes me want to make some like Dorothy used to give to us at Christmas. And as to the characteristics, isn’t it sometimes “disconcerting” (but also encouraging!) to see your own traits repeated in your children? That “generational bent” is strong, strong!

  30. I always wanted to buy some of the Rada knives. My mother swore by them! I hope to start my collection of Rada utensils….IF I win! Be Blessed!

  31. Tipper loved this story! My dad was a twin and even though they were paternal twins my mamaw started from birth putting my uncle on the right & my daddy on the left. Mamaw was a lady who was adamant about things so everyone obliged her. My daddy and uncle are rejoicing in heaven these days but I love to tell about my daddy and his twin.
    I’ve never made lemon bars but I love lemon pound cake! I’m not much for sweets but lemon pound cake is not too sweet. I’ve heard of rada cutlery before & I may have a tomato knife from there. My favorite thing for Christmas is an old fashion stack cake. I watched my McDonald mamaw make it every year. My mom took up the tradition after mamaw passed and this Christmas mom goes overboard in my eyes anyway cooking. I’m the only one who really eats stack cake so I looked the recipe on the Internet and in my old fashioned cookbook and they both said LABOR INTENSIVE. So I told mom don’t make it this Christmas and my husband then asked mom to make her fruitcake. So this tear she made a fruitcake and no one mentioned the stack cake. Sorry my post was long but I love to journal and I think I’m journaling on the blind pig!
    Carol R.

  32. My husband loves lemon bars–me, not so much. I am a lime fan, so maybe I should try them with lime instead. Now you have me motivated! I love to cook and bake, and a new whisk would be wonderful. My mother was a wonderful baker, but I don’t believe she even owned a whisk. She used a small rotary hand beater for much of her mixing, and I remember using it a lot as a child when I was helping her in the kitchen.

  33. Your girls definitely look like you. From the videos I’ve watched it seems one is more reserved than the other. Mannerisms passed along from our parents is a fascinating thing to me. Sometimes it surprises me when I do or say something and remember one of my parents doing the same thing. Or look at my hands as they age and see my dad’s hands. I think these things help us to remember them when they are gone. My parents have been gone a while now but part of them still live in their children. It always makes me smile to see one of their mannerisms in me or my siblings.
    We received a Rada tomato knife for Christmas and it’s a great knife.

  34. Sounds familiar. Children are a like-unlike mix and seem to never stop surprizing us. Our daughter is much like me in some ways but more assertive. And our son seems to be more like himself than either one of us.
    I have been fortunate to have had an association with Robert Rohm. He has a company called Personality Insights. I have seen him turn a large crown into four groups by asking only two questions. (1) Are you outgoing or reserved ? (2) Are you task-oriented or people-oriented ? It works.
    I’m with Chitter. I like lemon bars, though my wife is not a lemon fan.

  35. I have always had a hard time telling the girls apart. While teaching over thirty-two years I have had the opportunity to have several sets of twins and other multiple births. Glad you let me know which one loves lemon bars because I love lemon bars also. I could eat a whole tray of them. Now this Rada handi stir looks very interesting. I think I would enjoy having one and learning how to use it. Please add me to the list and, hopefully, I will become the proud owner of one.

  36. Isn’t it amazing how two girls raised in the same house can be so different? Unfortunately both my girls have some of their daddy’s traits, but the youngest was born with way too many. We are still working on that.
    I have never seen the whisk at the Amish store where I buy my Rada utensils. That brand is worth every penny spent on them.

  37. I love my whisk and it would be nice to have one like this.Some times I would rather use these than my mixer.The new year is off to a good start as always in years past.I’ve already messed up my diet…oh well tomorrow’s another day.Be blessed!

  38. First of all, I still cannot tell those pretty girls apart. When you have your niece or yourself in the photo, I have to look closely at facial features to see who is who. If I had a twin it would have been too tempting to pull a switcheroo on teachers, suitors, or anybody else, but then I always had to stir up mischief at times. Just wondered if those innocent, pretty girls ever contemplated or tried that–surely not. 🙂
    Rada has the most wonderful products, and through the years I have ordered their little knives for peeling. Anybody who has ever tackled a sack of potatoes with an old dull knife will totally appreciate Rada products. I buy them for little extra gifts even though according to superstition this can sever relationships. I’ve known men in the family to end up in the doghouse trying to use a favorite peeling knife for a screwdriver.

  39. It’s funny to me that Sometimes the girls look alike to me and sometimes they don’t. They looked more alike when they were babies than they do now. I certainly see some similarity of look, body build, and temperament between Chatter, the Deer Hunter, and me. I also see the similarity between you and Chitter.
    We are very blessed with these two beautiful young women and when I say beautiful. I mean inside as well as outside. Also bright and capable girls.
    I thought your lemon bars were very good!

  40. How interesting to hear about the differences and similarities between your girls! And I’m with Chitter — lemon bars are scrumptious!

  41. I love lemon bars, and am always looking for another recipe. Would love to have a nice whisk like that!

  42. I have three children and am always amazed at how uniquely different they are and how proud I am of each of them!
    Your Lemon Bars look yummy. I’d like to try making them with a new whisk! Hahaha….
    Best wishes to all in the New Year!

  43. It’s interesting, how twins that look so much alike to others (like me…I can’t tell them apart) can look so different to those they live with! They’re beautiful girls!
    I’m a sucker for kitchen gadgets…looks like a nice whisk!

  44. Oh, Tippper, a new gadget – and one Tipper-approved! I adore gadgets. I prefer these kind to the electric ones. I don’t know, maybe because I feel more involved in the making. Maybe it’s because that’s the way my Mummo used to do everything and that woman could bake like a dream. Don’t ask me about her day-to-day cooking, though…
    I’m with Chitter. I’d rather eat a lemon bar than even chocolate (and I adore chocolate)!

  45. since i am the primary cook in our house, i would love a Rada whisk.
    my grandmother made lemon bars.
    i didn’t much care for them then, and like you, they are still not my favorite thing.

  46. I love lemon bars! My family..not so much, so I rarely make them. I always thought you and your girls look alike…you are all cute. This whisk looks as if it would work well. I have several Rada knives and I love them! I haven’t seen the whisk until now. Thanks for the chance to win!

  47. I don’t always know which one is which by name, but I agee that Chitter and Chatter look significantly different.

  48. Tipper, I always thought the girls looked enough like you that you could be triplets! Miss seeing all of you at clogging, and hope you have a great New Year!

  49. I’d love a chance to win the Rada whisk! I don’t have a fancy food processor (or even an un-fancy one) and prefer to do things by hand. I’ll have to try the lemon bar recipe. Like Chitter, I love lemon bars, but have never made them from scratch.

  50. Heredity, whether it is appearance or traits, has always fascinated me. The whole time I was growing up, everyone always commented on how much I looked like my daddy. As I have gotten older, many people say that I look just like my mom, but at the same time, people still say I look like daddy. I think it is funny that different people see different things.

  51. The last time I had lemon bars they were so sweet I haven’t been able to eat another one since! I’ll save this recipe, just in case I get a hankering – I used to really like a lemon bar once in a while.
    Please count me in for your giveaway! A good whisk gets a lot of use in my kitchen. I haven’t seen a whisk made in Not China for a long time, so I’m down to one “Danish” whisk which I use for heavy batter and such, but I could sure use a smaller, lighter whisk. A fork is good, but it does leave lumps. I’m going to bookmark that Rada website.
    May I ask if Chitter made the pretty top she’s wearing? I’d love to know the pattern, because if I start now, I might be able to have one sewn by next summer 😉

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