One of my favorite parts of game days is planning some kind of menu. By Friday night, I had figured out exactly what I was going to cook and had all the ingredients necessary, but nothing sweet planned. The boyfriend, Eric, had been begging for lemon bars all night (he does this sometimes), so I finally caved but on the condition that I could put a small twist on them.

So while I got started on the “duck bars”, Eric started scooping out the pumpkin we got last weekend. Our system involves him scooping and cleaning, and me cutting out the design. He doesn’t have the patience for that and always ends up doing something unoriginal 😛

Start the duck bars by combining powdered sugar, flour, butter, and a few drops of green food coloring. I attempted to do this by hand, but it was difficult to incorporate the green like this so I ended up transferring the mixture to my KitchenAid.

Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 inch glass baking pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. While this is baking, combine the lemon juice, eggs, sugar, and a little more flour. Whip until frothy. When the crust is done, it should look like this:

Pour the lemon mixture over hot crust.

Bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until lemon mixture is no longer jiggly.

Cut into bars and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Yummy and cute, just like I wanted! And then I carved the pumpkin.

I wanted it to be a scary pumpkin.

I may or may not have broken a knife during this process. Sorry roommate! 🙂

On a side note, did you see the game?! This was the one game people thought would be reasonable for us to lose. But no, we pulled through. Better yet, we annihilated them 53-32. It was awesome. The coliseum was packed, the players were jazzed because it was the closest they would come to a bowl game, the coach had been talking trash. And we just walked on them. I love my ducks. This is the first time the ducks have been 8-0 since 1933. We’re playing Washington this next weekend, and Eric and I will be there! We have a rivalry with the Washington Huskies that is almost as intense as our rivalry with Oregon State, so these games are always a big deal. Could I have chosen a better time to go to the UO?! Thank god it’s happening now since this is my last football season at the school 🙁

Alright, recipe!

Oregon Duck Bars
Very loosely based off of All Recipes

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
3/4 cup butter
4 or 5 drops green food coloring

Lemon Mixture:
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup lemon juice
6 tbsp flour
3-4 drops yellow food coloring

1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all the ingredients for the crust in your mixer until crumbly and the food coloring has spread evenly. Press into the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are golden. While this is cooking, combine the ingredients for the lemon mixture and whip until frothy. Pour over the hot crust. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes. When done, sprinkle the remaining confectioner’s sugar over the top for decoration.