It must have something to do with this summery weather we've been having, but lately I've been craving anything and everything lemon. I've been going through vitamin water lemonades at a ridiculous pace, and squeezing lemon onto everything from fruit to water to cream cheese. Unsurprisingly, when I was trying to come up with something to bake for my mom to celebrate her last day of work this spring, I immediately thought of this lemon poppy seed shortbread recipe I'd come across a few days earlier. Particularly when it's hot out, lemony desserts are always so appealing to me. The acidity of the lemon adds a lightness and a freshness that makes it much easier to ignore the loads of butter and sugar that probably aren't so good for that pre-summer bikini-body diet...
That said, I cut down on both the butter and sugar called for in the original recipe, and (after a few trials) these came out exactly as I wanted: perfect little lemony squares, browned on the bottom but soft and buttery inside. I think it's important to use fresh lemon zest if you want that bright acidity - one medium-sized lemon should be more than enough for both the zest and the juice called for here. And though the original recipe didn't include it, I dipped a few in white chocolate - couldn't hurt, right? - and next time, would probably dip even more. The creaminess and sweetness of the chocolate is a wonderful contrast to the sharpness of the lemon. These cookies made a fantastic gift (aren't they adorable??), and the recipe has been officially glued into my recipe book. A new favorite!
Ingredients:
14 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon zest
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp poppy seeds
Directions:
Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer until smooth.
Add in the vanilla, lemon juice and zest, and beat until combined.
Add in the flour, salt and poppyseeds. Stir until just combined.
Press dough into a ball, wrap in wax paper, and refrigerate at least an hour, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350
Roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper. It will be crumbly at first,
but once it warms up a little should be easy to work with.
Place the flattened dough on a baking sheet and stick in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm up.
Remove, and - using a knife or cookie cutter - cut the dough into squares.
Arrange on a baking sheet (I use a silpat, though parchment paper would work too)
Bake 10 - 12 minutes. Watch carefully, the bottoms brown quickly!
20-30 cookies
But what really made the night memorable (and why I will absolutely return) were the waiters. Incredibly kind and warm, laughing off their mistakes, joking with my dad as though they were old friends - I felt, by the end of the night, as though I'd been invited into a wonderful, if slightly dysfunctional, italian family. The space only added to that feeling. The front part of the restaurant is incredibly cozy, with exposed brick walls, rustic wooden tables and a wood burning pizza oven visible from just about every seat. The back opens out into a quiet, open-air patio, surrounded by tall yellow walls. It's decorated very simply - metallic patio furniture, a few blazing lights, some plants in the corners - and left me feeling as though I'd been transported from the heart of manhattan to a quiet corner in florence.
I've since made the decision - I hope you'll all be happy to hear that I'll be staying in new york! - and calmed down rather dramatically - enough to realize that I owed my grandparents a pretty big thank you. My grandmother was easy (nothing in the world makes her quite as happy as a vanilla cupcake from crumbs bakery), but my grandfather was a little tougher. He and I share a slightly obsessive love of cereal so, flipping through my recipe book, I decided I'd make him a batch of my favorite granola. The recipe comes from an Ina Garten cookbook. It's incredibly easy and incredibly delicious - on its own, tossed with fresh berries, sprinkled on a little yogurt or vanilla ice cream. It's also a fantastic gift. Most importantly, my grandfather gives it five stars. What more do you need?
Onto the best part: the food. We started with the hirame and spicy cucumber vinaigrette - thinly sliced and incredibly delicate pieces of hirame on top of cucumber. Deliciously light and fresh, though quick word of warning: don't order this if you don't like cilantro. Then came the sizzling hibachi-grilled spicy octopus (possibly the best thing we had all night - see picture) and the eggplant glazed in yuzu miso (also possibly the best thing we had all night). I would go back for these two dishes alone. The bowl of hijiki and root vegetables was also fantastic - the vegetables were chopped into tiny matchsticks and tossed with impossibly thin, translucent noodles - as were the shrimp and vegetable tempura udon and the black cod with daikon (see picture below) - incredibly tender cod sitting in a subtly sweet broth that was so good we ordered extra bowls of rice to soak up every last bit. 
Now. Although the food is amazing, it would be considered absurdly expensive just about anywhere else in the world. My advice? Think about how much you're saving ($28 scallop ceviche is still not $400 scallop ceviche), and enjoy. Or else try to convince a rich relative to take you.
