A Jaunt to Virginny

NOTE: THIS POST HAS LOTS OF PHOTOS OF PLUMBING AND A RECIPE FOR LEMON BARS

Mom used a boxed mix to make the lemon bars we gave to the plumbing supply guy (see below), but here is a recipe from The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook for Zesty Lemon Bars that are very similar, but probably better since there is fresh lemon juice and zest in this recipe:

Zesty Lemon Bars
Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
11/4 cup powdered sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled

Filling
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Adjust the rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.
Crust: Briefly blend the flour and sugar in a medium bowl to combine. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles oatmeal. Using your fingertips, press the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until pale gold.

Filling: Briefly blend the flour, sugar and baking powder to combine. Blend the eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients and blend until thoroughly combined.

Pour the filling over partially baked crust and bake 25 minutes. Cool. Sprinkle powdered sugar over top and cut into bars.

Yields 18 bars



The poor blog has been neglected of late. The reason is that Sweetie and I flew back to ‘Old Virginny’ for a combination of work and play vacation.


When you return to places from your childhood it is not uncommon for rooms and yards and playgrounds that once seemed huge to now seem very small and you wonder at your memories.

I returned last week to the house in Northern Virginia where I grew up. The back yard did seem smaller, perhaps because the maple trees are now huge, but the bathroom really is small and looked about the same.


Since it is so small, it was a challenge to find a new sink to replace the old wall hung one that had become cracked over time. The bracket it was hanging on was also rusted and had broken apart at the end closest to the bathtub. Fortunately, my Mom chose a beautiful pedestal sink with nice clean lines at a home store way out Route 66.

Unfortunately, Sweetie and I discovered that installing such a sink was more difficult for us than installing a sink with cabinet combo. For one thing, you are working in a very tight space and trying to tighten up pipes with that dang pedestal surrounding them on three sides. For another thing, we didn’t have all of our usual tools, so we spent a lot of time rounding up tools in the basement and purchasing more.


Then we turned off the water to remove the old sink





and to put in new quarter turn angle stop valves for the water supply lines for the sink,

but the return of water pressure afterwards seemed to loosen up some grit and gravel from the water lines, so the flush mechanism of the toilet was damaged, so that had to be replaced, too.

Good thing that there was another bathroom downstairs. For the first 15 years I lived there we all shared one bathroom…and eventually “we” was 10 people. Now you know why I’m so good at sharing and time management!

By the third day the folks at Brown’s Hardware

knew us very well since we were in and out of there too many times to count. And just think, the entire project was done during an Indian summer bout of heat and humidity…reminding me yet again why I don’t live there year round.

We also established a relationship with a local plumbing supply store where this guy was very helpful with tools. A gift of some of Mom’s homemade lemon bars when we finished seemed a fitting thank you for such trust and generosity to strangers. He also supplied us, finally, with the proper gasket to stop the leaking that should not have been happening with all new pipes.

Mom was truly grateful and I knew that if we had not done the work that she would probably have waited until the old sink fell off the wall before she replaced it, so it felt good to get the job done.