Inspiration Saturday: Loving lemon

Whenever we try something new that is purportedly lemon, my mother usually makes the same judgement: not lemony enough.  She wants something just shy of pucker-inducing, something which is absolutely, unequivocally lemon.  And while I don't grade as harshly as she does, I also am on a constant search for yummy lemon.  It seems like we are falling in line with a current trend, because I'm seeing a lot of lemon lately.  So that's my subject of inspiration this week.

The epitome of lemon lusciousness to me is lemon curd.  It has the sour brightness of lemon ever so slightly mellowed out by the richness of egg yolks and butter.  A spoonful of lemon curd can be enjoyed by itself or added to anything from fresh fruit to baked goods.   For anyone who lives in a city blessed enough to have a Trader Joe's, their lemon curd is one of the few things to have Mom's seal of citrus approval.  We're still waiting for them to open up here, in the meantime we have to stock up whenever we're in San Antonio, or make it ourselves.

What is available now in Austin, Hey Cupcake has a new flavor to go with their new South Congress location, the John Lemon.  Lemon cake and lemon buttercream, yum!  I haven't had a chance to try this, maybe next time I'm at Hill Country Weavers.  Nearby, Sugar Mama's Bakeshop has a Jack's Lemon cupcake with a similar description, plus some lemon sour candy sprinkled on top.  I'm loving the celebrity references with both of these.

Blue Bell has so many different flavors, they have a rotation each month of which ones are available at any given time.  This month the rotation has two new flavors, one of which is Lemon Bliss.

Lemon ice cream with vanilla sandwich cookies.  And even better, available in pints.  I found one at Fiesta and decided that it was my bloggerly duty to try it.  The downside of a dairy lemon is that it is rarely lemon-y enough.  We just had some lemon frozen yogurt at Chill Out that exemplified this (their strawberry sorbet, though, was delicious).  The ice cream also could benefit from a lemon curd swirl (why oh why don't they consult me before they make these things?), but it has good flavor, and the cookie pieces are a nice touch.

Also in the freezer aisle, Ben & Jerry's Liz Lemon is their latest Greek frozen yogurt:

I haven't tried this yet either.  I was instead lured into getting some of their limited edition Cannoli ice cream.  Greek yogurt or Italian dessert, that's still vaguely Mediterranean, right?

Once I'm back in the office next week, I'll have to put a Lemon Zinger Herbal Tea K-Cup in the Keurig to continue the inspiration.  I toyed with the idea of making something lemon-y as my treat this Wednesday, but right now I'm leaning towards a cookies and cream cheesecake instead.

Outside of the kitchen, I have to give an honorable mention to Knit Picks' City Tweed yarn, with a lemon curd colorway:

Which Ali Tong designed into a Lemon Curd Slouch:

Photo credit: Ali Tong

And I love Diana Rozenshteyn's Lemon Drops shawl:

Photo credit: Diana Rozenshteyn

But mostly, I just love eating lemon-flavored things.  What about you?  And don't forget, there's more inspiration at Woolen Diversions!