Citrus

Orange eclipse, I can taste your lips / In the citrus afternoon / If you can fly, don't stop at the sky / 'Cause there's footprints on the Moon ~Owl City, Yacht Club


This was a very citrus afternoon. 


After juicing all those limes yesterday, it was little to no work at all to combine their lip-puckering sweetness with a few other ingredients. 


Two key lime pies now sit in my refrigerator, patiently awaiting their raspberry-syrup-and-whipped-creme-topped debut at tomorrow's family 4th of July celebration. 


(If you want the recipe I used, check out Olivia's blog here. For my own lime-juicing adventures, check out yesterday's post!)


Summer and citrus truly do go hand in hand. 


Lemonade on a sultry hot day, sitting on a porch swing with your best friend, laughing and sipping your tart beverage as the ice clinks gently against the glass...


...a sweet lemon ice and fresh raspberry smoothie, toes wiggling just under the surface of a relative's swimming pool, the breeze blowing just enough to cool your skin and ruffle your hair...


...and yes, even a slice of fresh, homemade key lime pie on the 4th of July, enjoying the sour-sweet firework show occurring on your tongue, a delightful precursor to the firework show coming when the sun finally slips below the horizon and the American sky goes navy blue. 


Perhaps I will forever associate my own patriotism with the aroma and taste of key lime pie, and with the feel of fingers made wrinkling by the acidic juice sinking into my skin. 

One of my own finished pies
Photo by DramticElegance

Perhaps summer will always be citrus fireworks to me.


Perhaps that is how it should be.


Because isn't that what summer is, really?


A combination of the bitter and sweet...moments of joy as lifetime memories are made, and outstretched fingers of heartbreak as so many things change. 


Summer is tart and acidic. 


Beautiful and full of sweetness and life. 


Summer is citrus.


And that's how it will always be. 


I wish that we could sail our sad days away / Forever / In deep blue seas of paper mâché / Let's dance in the moonlight / A barracuda chased our dog days away / Forever / Let's sink or swim 'til we fall in love / And dance in the moonlight / When we join the yacht club. ~Owl City, Yacht Club

Squeezed

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.  ~Harriet Van Horne


My entire kitchen smells like summer. 

That may have something to do with the fact that I spent almost two hours slicing, squeezing, and juicing 88 fresh key limes halves...

...resulting in one cup of fragrant, pale yellow-green juice. 

The final result should be two tart key lime pies, drizzled with a homemade sweet raspberry syrup, and topped with a fluffy mound of hand-beaten vanilla whipped cream...

...and maybe even some raspberry meringues with the left-over egg whites if I get extra ambitious.  

At least, that is the goal. 

We will have to see how things actually turn out when tomorrow comes...rest assured that a far-more detailed post will be written when the pies are completed 

This entire citrus-y adventure was inspired by Olivia at Of Horsefeathers and her key lime pie recipe. (You can read her post here and even watch her play-by-play video here.) 

Also, it doesn't hurt that key lime pie is one of my favorite summertime treats of all time. 

But as I stood at my kitchen counter, fingers busily draining every last drop of juice from the sparkling emerald fruits, I could not help but think about myself as a lime.

My key lime juicing set up.
Photo by DramaticElegance

I can be just a bit sour. Sharp. Almost intolerable at times.

It takes the hand of God on my heart, squeezing and pressing out all the goodness, tossing all the bitterness into the garbage, even turning me inside out and cleaning out every last bit of vileness from the inside...

...combining me with His pure love, the sweetness of His mercy, and a gentle spirit straight from His kingdom. 

It takes pain sometimes. Hardship. Even the heat of fire. 

But in the end, I will come forth...

...squeezed.

...beautiful.

...sweet. 

"And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” ~ Zechariah 13:9


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