The Perfect Antidote to a Grey and Dreary Day

It's been raining for two days straight here and the forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow.

After working on the farmhouse this morning, I came home, started a roaring fire in the woodstove,  and ate a bowl of homemade cheese tortellini minestrone soup.

Though the house gradually warmed and the chilliness departed my bones, I still needed something to cut the dreariness of the day.

Lately, my antidote to this sort of thing is lemon.

The fragrance is well-known in aromatherapy circles to be an uplifting mood enhancer. To me, it's like a ray of much-needed sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.

Therefore, in this house, dishes are washed with lemon-scented dish soap.  Lemon Cookie candles--which are back in the Harmony Farm Candles Etsy shop!--are burned for a very happy pick-me-up.  Eggs are kept in this lemon-colored ceramic egg crate on the kitchen counter.

And today, the chosen grey-weather-antidote-in-the-form-of-lemon was Lemon Meltaway cookies.

Very minorly adapted from a recipe found on Pinterest, these cookies are a new favorite!

If you're familiar with meltaway cookies, or melting moments as I'd previously known them, they are pure magic in the mouth.

The ingredient list is short:  butter, flour, sugar and cornstarch.

And that last ingredient is what gives the cookies their delicious melting property.

Topped with a smear of lemon curd, I almost don't notice the pelting rain as it hammers the roof.

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Lemon Meltaway Cookies
adapted from Landee See, Landee Do's recipe
makes approximately 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients
1 cup of softened butter
3/4 cup of cornstarch
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 cup of all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon of lemon extract

Directions
Turn on oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  While the oven warms, cream butter until light and fluffy with a mixer. Next, beat in cornstarch and powdered sugar until smooth.  Add flour and mix until thoroughly combined.  Lastly, pour in lemon extract and mix until incorporated.

Drop teaspoon-sized balls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Using the bottom of a small glass dipped in powdered sugar, gently press the cookies until flattened into discs.

Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven. Let sit on cookie sheet for 1 minute to begin cooling, then transfer cookies to a wire rack.

Top cookies with lemon curd and enjoy!

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Hope you're staying warm and dry this winter day,