Lime Bars

The other day our friends, Sholeh and Elena came over to make some dessert and to hang out. Whenever we hang out together, there is usually constant laughter about the most random things. They are amazing people.

Sholeh is not only a great friend but also an amazing photographer. She took all the pictures so I could concentrate on dessert, thanks Sho. Elena said she was "so into citrusy sweets" and the first thing that came to my mind was lemon bars. Since we had one lemon and twenty limes, I decided to make lime bars instead. In my opinion, limes are the zestier cousin of lemons, I think they pack more of a punch.

When I think of lemons, classic American foods like lemonade, lemon meringue pie, and the like come to mind. However limes in my mind become the condiment to savory ethnic foods like carne asada street tacos, and pho. There's nothing wrong with that but besides key lime pie and lime jello, was there any other desserts that put limes at the forefront? I wanted to change that and thus we made lime bars.

The Ingredients
For the crust:
2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks of butter, melted
pinch of salt
For the filling:
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup AP flour
1 cup lime juice (about 10-12 limes)
zest of two limes
pinch of salt


The Method
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine all the crust ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, butter and salt. Mix with your favorite spatula to combine.

Empty the crust dough into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Using your fingers, press the dough down to form an even layer.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes until the crust just starts to brown on the edges.

Meanwhile, whisk the custard filling ingredients together in a bowl: eggs, sugar, flour, lime juice, lime zest, and salt.

The lime zest has the essential oils of the lime and this will give your final bars two dimensions of lime flavor. The salt helps to bring out the lime flavor and cuts the strong acid of the juice. This microplane is one of my favorite tools in my kitchen. Besides zesting, it can grate fine ribbons of cheese, grate spices like nutmeg, mince garlic and ginger and a ton of other things that I can't think of right now...invest in one, you'll be happy you did.

One cup of juice? That's a whole lot! I know, I know. Trust me though it will yield a much more flavorful bar than those squares of yellow sugar found elsewhere.

Add the juice to the rest of the ingredients and let's continue. I'm hungry.

By the time the filling mixture is done, the crust should just becoming out of the oven. Carefully pour the custard filling over the hot crust and quickly return to the oven for another 20-22 minutes until the custard is set. No wobbles.

Now is the time to practice the fruit of the Spirit called patience. Let the lime bars cool for about 3o minutes. This allows the custard to set and will make cutting much easier, I promise.

Your patience will be rewarded. Cut into squares with a knife and dust with powdered sugar - its traditional.

The huge problem I have with lemon bars is that that are usually way to sweet with little lemon flavor. This recipe cuts the sugar and ups the lime. This recipe can easily be made into lemon bars. Just replace the lime juice with lemon juice (about 5 lemons or so) and use the zest of one lemon. I hope that you enjoy these lime or lemon bars as much as Elena and Sholeh did. These lime bars require only a few ingredients, I bet you have all of them right now. They super simple to make and are always a crowd pleaser.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Six Citrus Salad

I'm ready for summer. At UCSD, we're in the middle of week eight with three more to go. Most of my friends are done with school...one of the cons of the quarter system. Summer seems so close yet SO FAR at the same time. It's not that I don't like my classes; I really love learning about wildlife conservation, writing about California condors, and hearing lectures about cathedrals and castles that I've visited while studying abroad. It's just that I'm ready for something new... and a break from studying.

I have to be honest. I didn't make this salad over the weekend, in fact I didn't make this last week. This recipe and these pictures are from a month ago. We were visiting our friends and they wanted us to bring something green. I was at the produce market and saw how great the citrus looked and decided to make this salad.

The Ingredients

your favorite mixed greens

olive oil

salt and pepper

four lemons

one lime

two navel oranges

two cara cara oranges

two blood oranges

one grapefruit

1/2 cup feta

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup sliced almonds or pine nuts

handful of blackberries

The Method

Toast the almonds in a pan on medium low heat to bring out their nutty flavor.

Make the dressing by juicing the lemons and lime; you'll get about 1 cup of juice.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and drizzle in olive oil to taste. I put into about 3/4 cup of the olive oil but if you prefer a less acidic dressing add more olive oil that's why I didn't specify an exact amoung. Whisk to combine.

The next step is to segment (technically supreme) the rest of the citrus. With a pairing knife, cut off the top and the bottom of the fruit, just the white pith. Place the orange on an end and carefully make vertical slices separating the fruit from the pith.

Be sure to make curved cuts with your blade to minimize fruit loss. Take the fully peeled fruit in your hands and make a cut on each side of the membrane to loosen the orange segment.

Have a bowl underneath as you cut to catch the segments. If you don't get the hang of it right away, don't worry you have six other fruits to practice on.

Having the different citrus fruits give you a variety of colors and flavors. The navel oranges are the classic oranges. The cara cara navels are pinkish in color and have a blackberry undertone. Blood oranges are one of my favorite fruits; they have a deep crimson color with raspberry-like flavors. To balance out the sweetness, the grapefruit gives a pleasant bitterness to match with the bitterness of the greens.

The last step is to assemble the salad as a whole. In a large bowl, loss the greens with just enough dressing to coat. Add three fourth of the feta, almonds, cranberries and citrus segments. Toss to combine and add the blackberries, and remaining feta, almonds, cranberries, and citrus on top of the salad. Crack some black pepper over to finish.

It was so fun to hang out with everyone. We played a version of charades with two teams. Each round, each team picks any word for any player on the opposite team to act out. Sounds really easy but let's just say words like agility, niche, and valor don't have hand motions. My friend, Andrew Ruiz, who is an amazing photographer struggled for a minute and a half on the world "eco-friendly."

This salad is a great connection between the late winter-spring citrus fruits and the start of summer berries. It kinda fits where I am now: its spring and I'm in school but mentally I'm in summer mode.

Recipe by Spencer Huey