Rapha Continental: Blue Mound

I cannot stop thinking about lemon bars. As soon as the Blue Mound edition of our continuing weekly series over on the Rapha Continental section of the site went live I started drooling. Considering how late in the day it is, yet still how far from dinner, this is not good.

Not sure what it was about this ride but it took something out of all of us. We started in pretty frigid temperatures, but were peeling off layers and jamming them into our back pockets by the top of the second hill. Of which there were many. But when we crested the top of Blue Mound State Park and all crammed back into the van that we were basically living in, I think it is safe to say that we were starving. Or at least I was.

So, upon arriving at the home of our extraordinary host Mike Ile a few hours later we were definitely ready to eat. And eat we did. In the kitchen, dining room and then out onto the back deck. There were steaming bowls of pasta, salad, carafes of wine and enough garlic bread to go around. Then there were the lemon bars.

It has been something like half a year since we were in Wisconsin and Minnesota but I still can't get those lemon bars out of my head. A nice flaky crust with a tart bite of sweet lemon filling, dusted off with a little powdered sugar, whew, those were good. Thanks for that.

Speaking of food, about a month ago I posted a Beans and Rice recipe by local chef/writer Matt Card and he has something else in the works that you should see later in the week… but maybe I can convince Mike to give up that lemon bar recipe?