My dad has always been a huge fan of all things lemon. So, a few years ago, when my family unexpectedly found themselves back together during the COVID pandemic in 2020, I decided to make surprise lemon bars around the holidays. A cup of sugar here, a squeeze of lemon juice there, and voila: beautiful lemon bars perfectly powdered with confection sugar. I remember they looked beautiful, and they smelled even better.

Truthfully, I’m not much of a baker, but I really patted myself proudly on the back for this masterpiece. It was only when my dad took the first bite that I realized something was horribly wrong. Expecting him to turn and say these were the best lemon bars he’d ever tasted, you can imagine my surprise when he turned and expressed a face of revulsion instead. Turns out when they say zest the lemon, they don’t mean grate in the whole thing! Not a single additional bite was taken, and lemon bars have not been attempted since!