Football Friday: The Lemon Edition

Today's blog is a little special- we want to peel back the curtain to show you what really happens in one of our test kitchens. 

Lemons. Kind of appropriate considering the two test kitchens don't have a team to root for in the playoffs any longer. But, you know what they say... when life hands you lemons- you cook stuff. Or make potent alcohol beverages. Whichever you'd prefer. 

So, here's how this all started. The Wisconsin Test Kitchen received a pound of Meyer lemons in one of their weekly deliveries from Door to Door Organics. Rebecca intended to use the lemons to make a birthday pie for Kevin; but life happened. He had to settle for pork roast, sweet potatoes and kale salad instead. Sad, right? 

The lemons continued to sit in the fridge for another week, and we forgot to use them. Fast forward to last weekend. We didn't want the lemons to go to waste, so we decided to investigate a few fun recipe ideas. 

First, we decided on Limoncello. For those that don't know- it's a refreshing lemon flavored beverage served cold. It's really delicious splashed into champagne or served cold on a hot day. We even bought 6 more Meyer lemons so we had the 10 needed for the recipe. 

Well, there was a slight problem. The limoncello recipe only called for the RINDS of the lemons... not the actual juice. So, we were stuck with TEN LEMONS, instead of the original four. Talk about a test kitchen fail...

Plan B: Lemon Bars! We made a pan of delicious, tart, lemon bars that we took to a wine tasting that evening, and even shared with our babysitters. But... the lemon bars only used 1/3 cup of lemon juice. We still had eight lemons left to use. AHHHHHH!!!!! 

Kevin couldn't take it anymore. He swore his hands were going to smell like lemons forever. So, he took matters into his own hands and looked online. Boom: Lemon Drop Moonshine! The recipe called for 2 cups of lemon juice, which we had after all our baking shenanigans. We were completely out of butter, flour, sugar and eggs... but we had plenty of lemon juice. 

For those that have watched Packer games with the Wisconsin Test Kitchen, you know it's customary to pass around a jar of shine after the Packers score a touchdown. We now have plenty of shine for the 2015-2016 Packers season! 

I mean seriously: look at that jug of shine! 
We hope you enjoyed this entertaining look behind the scenes of the test kitchen. We'll report back in a few months when the shine and limoncello are ready for consumption.

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew