Zest!

Now that summer has passed, lemons are beginning to get more expensive again.  I still buy them by the bagful because I love the flavor.  Along with squeezed lemons, there are plenty of other uses that make them worthwhile for me.  I'll squeeze a bunch up all at once and make vinaigrette or just store the juice in the fridge for use in meals.  Once the liquid has been extracted, it's time to grate the zest off the skin.

I use the same grater we have for cheese. It works just fine.  Either I'll store the zest as is in a container in the fridge, and use it as needed.  That's the solution if I know it will be gone in a couple of days.  There's also the oven method, where I spread a thin layer on parchment and bake it low and slow until it's dried out.  That will last longer.

The skins gets cut up in wedges and crammed into a jar, which is then filled with white vinegar.  This is great for cleaning.  Any time I pour some out, I'll pour a little more vinegar in.  This sits on my kitchen counter, next to the sink.  This would be a great hair rinse too.

This is all of the zest I ended up with.  It doesn't seem like it's going to add up to much while you're grating, but once you are done, it's obviously worth the effort.

 I made sweet biscuits.  That's just a regular batch of biscuit dough with sugar added in.  In addition to the sugar, I folded in dried cranberries and pecans.  Of course, the lemon zest was a sensible addition.  Not only did I fold some in with the dough, I mixed it with buttermilk and bee pollen, plus a bit of coarse sugar, and used it to coat the biscuits before baking them.

This batch of biscuits made for great car snacks, midnight noshes in my hotel room when I was out of town, and there were even a few left once I got home.  I never tire of eating biscuits -- but especially those that combine sweet and savory like this.

Are you a lemon head like me? I love them!