Teenage Mutant Ninja Lemon

Ever since Hallowe'en, my nose has been tickled by the scent of this mutant-looking citron that pal Sari brought over to scare me on All Hallows' Eve. It does look a bit like a lemon that was growing at Three Mile Island.

It may be creepy looking but it's the most wonderfully fragrant thing it has ever been my pleasure to own. It has been in a basket on my dining table all week but it perfumes the whole kitchen as well - I catch whiffs of the scent from 20 feet away, and yet it's not at all a heavy scent. I want to bury it in my underwear drawer or dab it behind my ears.

Like all citrus, it has that signature tang, but Buddha's Hand adds a light floral note to that for the most seductive thing I've smelled since vanilla extract or the yeasty scent when you first pop open a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne.

I've been researching it and it seems the culinary uses are in place of lemon zest or in marmalade, so I think I'll try to make marmalade out of it. If it retains all that complex scent in the finished jam, it should be wonderful. But, even if you don't want to make jam with it, buy one just to have in the house; it's a simply marvelous creepy looking mutant.