My sister and niece came last weekend and tolerated living in our tiny house which is a feat in and of itself, but add to it that I had a stomach virus, and you can imagine that close quarters got a little too close – even for family.

Luckily, my tiny house has a decent-sized kitchen, so my sister was able to spend some quality time in there while I laid on the couch and cried. I made her cook. Because that is what guests really want to do – come to your house for a long weekend and DO THE COOKING.

Amy brought lots of awesome presents with her, including family favorite books for the baby, and Anthropologie tea towels. (Have you seen them? Cutest. Ever.) But possibly the best thing she brought, besides herself and Kate, was a bag of Meyer lemons.

A Meyer lemon, if you don’t know, is sort of a cross between an orange and a lemon. These really almost seemed MORE orange than lemon. They’re beautiful. It’s a color I would like to paint my bedroom, if only Sherwin Williams could recreate it.

I think we had about eight Meyers to work with, and we wanted to make the best of them. We were having a couple of people over for burgers on Friday night, and I had already planned to make this lemon tart, so I put my sister to work on that.

We also whipped up a batch of…

Clementine and Meyer Lemon Margaritas

3 Meyer lemons, juiced
4 clementines, juiced
2 limes, juiced
1 C sprite
2 C tequila
1/2 C triple sec
2 T sugar (we discovered it wasn’t quite right without it)
ice

I find that when you’re blending a margarita, you should fill your blender about 3/4 to the top with ice, and then pour in the liquid to about 2/3 the height of the ice. This gives room so your blender doesn’t overflow, and also makes a nice, thick, drink. I hate a loose drink. I do, however, like a loose woman.

I also used a lemon in a cold green bean salad that if I do say so myself, totally rocked. Also, it made good use of my favorite uni-tasker, the citrus zester.

Good Green Bean Salad

1 lb fresh green beans
1 cucumber
1 red bell pepper
1/2 small red onion
2 T toasted sesame seeds
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 T sugar
1 T rice vinegar
2 T sesame oil
Salt and pepper
*cayenne

Step 1)
Snap the ends off your beans and steam them until they are just barely cooked. You want them crispy.

Step 2)
Peel your cucumber and dig out the seeds. Cut it into sticks similar in shape and size to the green beans. Also, cut your onion into paper-thin shavings and julienne your red pepper.

Step 3)
Put the sesame seeds in a frying pan and toast them for just a few minutes. Also good if you throw in a little sugar with them to sort-of caramelize.

Step 4)
Zest your lemon, and mix the juice in with the sugar, oil, and vinegar to make the dressing.

Step 5)
Toss it all together with a little salt and pepper to taste. Chill until serving time.

*I didn’t include any cayenne pepper this time but I might in the future. I think a little kick might be good in this dish, although it’s fantastic in flavor and texture just as-is.

My sister read some other ideas for using Meyer lemons on the internet. One of them was to cut them up and float them in your bath water with some rosemary. I turned up my nose to the idea and announced that “I don’t believe in that.” I mean, seriously, do you want fresh herbs floating in your bath? Also, I think a good policy concerning all good foodstuffs is this: If it is edible, you EAT IT, you DO NOT RUB IT ON YOUR BODY. I believe that women have stopped EATING food, and now only bathe in it and rub it on in the form of “sugar body butter” and “lavendar and ginger hair cleanser.” Ladies. SOAP is for cleaning, and FOOD is for eating. Let us not confuse this issue further.

Now, go buy some Meyer lemons, and make your sister cook them for you.