There are some kitchen tasks we all dread -- cutting onions, pulling out the insides of a chicken, and for many of us, squeezing lemons and limes. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your lemons, and for getting most of your lemon juice into your bowl, not on your fingers.

On the Today show, Epicurious.com Editor Tanya Steel shows Hota Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford how to make a simple key lime pie.

Even if you can make a key lime pie in your sleep, it's a fun video (even though they say to use pre-squeezed key lime juice if you can't find limes - eek! That's like using lemon juice instead of real lemons in lemon squares!) The taste just can't compare.

Well, the video is fine until good ol' Kathie Lee ruins the moment by first commenting on the amount of calories in the condensed can of milk (Steel smartly replies "Yeah, but who's counting calories?") and then likens the ingredient to colostrum (and Kotb remarks, "Buzzkill.")

Cook much, Kathie Lee? Yeesh - don't invite her over when you're making key lime pie. She'll totally ruin your appetite.

Lemons + a dirty microwave oven = clean microwave oven!

I love it when people care. Even if it's about something minor, like whether you can get a slice of lemon with a Starbucks iced tea, it's always refreshing when someone actually gives a damn. I feel like I'm generally too busy (read: lazy) to care about things, and it's good to know that someone out there is doing the caring for me. Plus, caring gets other people caring.

Take, for example, Al Lewis at the Denver Post, who cares desperately about the fact that Starbucks doesn't provide fresh lemons to squeeze in iced tea. I never noticed it before, but now that I think about it, I might really like that option. I always ask for lemon with iced tea in restaurants, but it never occurred to me that Starbucks has been denying me. So while part of me thinks Al Lewis should just invest his time in finding another establishment for purchasing out tea, more of me thinks he keeps fighting the good fight. Your thoughts?

When you go to a restaurant and get a drink - whether it's a cocktail or iced tea or just water - do you usually get a slice of lemon with it? Well, after watching this news report from HealthInspections.com...ahem

[via John Dufresne]

Punch and punch bowls have always bored me. All the ones that I've tried have been overly sweet and dull, and besides, punch bowls remind me of high school dances, and who wants to be reminded of high school?

But this Holiday Punch over at Esquire.com looks like something I could get into, even if it does have rum in it (not a big rum guy). It also includes Cognac and tea bags.

Somehow this has turned into "Lemon Day" here at Slashfood (hmmm...I wonder if that's a national food holiday? Must be), but with this post and Marisa's Summer Salad Flavored with Lemon Verbana and Lemon Cucumber Soup Bowl posts, it has turned out that way.

Our new blog DIY Life has a post on the many great uses of lemon. You can freshen a smelly garbage disposal, remove ink from your clothing, rinse your hands if they're smelly from other things, clean your countertop, even clean your shower door.

Oh, believe it or not, I also hear lemons are great for cooking.

Summer doesn't officially begin for another month, but we all know it's here already. The days are getting warmer (if not hotter, like today in the Boston area) and it's Memorial Day weekend, which is the real start of summer for most people.

So how about some lemonade? Like Kat Kinsman, most of the people I knew growing up used packaged mixes when making lemonade, but she gives a good recipe for real lemonade over at AOL Food. The full recipe after the jump.

Cold (and wet, depending on where you live) winter weather tends to make us crave hot, hearty foods, but that doesn't do anything to diminish the appeal of something light for dessert after a heavy meal. In fact, a bright cirtus dessert can serve as a reminder that spring is still on the way - and the Lemon Cream Tartlets from Helene at Tartelette are very spring-like, indeed. The recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's newest book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, and it is rumored to be one of the best lemon tartlet recipes out there, with an intense lemon flavor and silky smooth texture. The texture is due to the fact that an entire cup of butter is used to make the filling for only a handful of tarts, making it anything but light in fat and calories. One bite should make you be enough to forget the nutritional stats and just let you enjoy the heavenly flavor of the tart.

This recipe says it's great for a "Cocktails with the Cleavers" party, though I don't remember the Cleavers drinking anything stronger than coffee (unless they were getting all tipsy when the boys went to bed). But I get their point, it's for a retro party, and it sounds strong.

It's the Jack Rabbit, and it's made with bourbon, sugar, and lemons. Lots and lots of lemons.

I love making pudding cakes. I find them to be both easy and satisfying, especially on a cold evening where the dessert can really warm you up. A basic recipe for one will have egg whites folded into a flavored batter, much like a souffle. Unlike a souffle, however, pudding cakes are baked in a water bath that keeps the bottom portion from puffing up as it cooks, leaving a thick pudding at the base of your baking dish. The top portion of the cake, uninhibited by the insulation of the water bath, bakes into a light, moist sponge cake that provides a perfect contrast for the pudding below.

I baked this batch in individual ramekins, which makes them look a little more elegant than a pudding cake baked in one large dish and scooped out for serving. As an extra touch, I also used Meyer lemons in place of regular lemons. They add a lot of lemon flavor without any of the sharpness that is usually associated with lemons and lemon juice.

Popular ingredients to combine with chocolate include mint flavoring, peanut butter, crisped rice, nuts, dried fruits and cacao nibs. Some chocolates even add chilies and cinnamon for extra flavor. The combination of lemon and pepper, however, is one that would seem to suit fish or chicken better than chocolate. Nevertheless, Swiss chocolate maker Frey used that very combination in their Citron & Poivre Chocolate Bar.

I was gifted a bar of this chocolate for Christmas and was somewhat hesitant to try it. The mild burn of chilies suits cocoa, while pepper can be more aggressive. Would the lemon be too bitter? The promise of high-quality extra dark Swiss chocolate made me set aside my doubts and taste the bar.

Surprisingly, it was delicious. The lemon flavor came through as very zesty and bright, not at all bitter and with a much cleaner flavor than orange, which tends to linger in the mouth long after you have finished a piece of orange chocolate. There was only a hint of pepper, although if you were to eat the whole bar in one sitting it would probably be more noticeable. The chocolate itself was excellent, with a silky smooth texture that melted right into your mouth. I would definitely buy it again (it is sold at some select Target stores) and plan to keep an eye out for the brand's other unusual flavors, like Rhubarb & Aloe Vera (in white chocolate), Coeur de Macadamia (caramelized macadamia nuts in milk chocolate) and Pécan & Caramel (pecans and crunchy caramel pieces in milk chocolate)

Lemon bars are tricky things, though they seem deceptively simple. In theory, they consist of a tart, custardy layer on a shortbread-type base, but the vast majority of recipes miss the mark by miles, with fillings that are day-glo neon yellow, too hard, too soft, too tart or too sweet. The crusts tend to fare better than the fillings, but it can still be a challenge to get a good one when the filling actually turns out properly.

The only thing harder than making a really good batch of lemon bars is taking a picture of them. The yellow lemon filling and the pale yellow base do not make for much contrast, and since the bars are often topped with a coating of powdered sugar, you end up with something remarkably unphotogenic, no matter how good they look in person. I am please to say, however, that it looks like Lemon Bars were conquered by Sugar Delirium. Not only does her photo look fantastic, but the recipe for the bars sounds like it turns out a perfectly balanced treat.

Thinking about Lemonade this morning put me in the mood for something refreshing and the Pink Lemonade from Simply Recipes sounds like just the thing. Elise's recipe is extra-pink and uses cranberry juice to give it its distinctive coloring, unlike commercial versions which use food colorings or concentrated natural colors to create pinkness. The natural tartness of the cranberry juice also helps it to blend well with the lemon flavor, creating a smooth and balanced drink. Sure - it's a tiny bit girly looking, but who could turn down a glass of lemonade, knowing that it was homemade? If you can't use plain sugar for any reason, you could try sweetening the juice with Splenda, too.

Lemonade may just be one of the most refreshing summertime drinks you can have, even taking into account the amount of sugar that is usually in it. When we learn to make it, it is a one-note drink with lemons, sugar, water and ice. Enjoyable, but simple. But the drink has become more and more artificial, to the point where restaurants now serve Crystal Light and flat-sodas masquerading as what was once a juice drink.

Lemonade will help to revive the tradition of the homemade drink. It guides you to turn this classic into something more complex than the version you learned as a child, adding fruits and herbs, including rhubarb, spearmint, ginger and mangoes. Vanilla Bean Lemonade delivers a smooth, subtle flavor and the Strawberry Rhubarb is a treat. The book includes 50 recipes, each of which will make you forget the watery mix at the soda fountain that calls itself lemonade.