Key Lime Pie and Some Random Notes

I made a version of Key Lime Pie (abbreviated as KLP in rest of post) today. Authentic KLPs uses key lime from the Florida Keys, egg yolk, and is not baked. However, as the linked Wikipedia article notes, most KLPs are baked today because raw eggs are frowned upon, particularly in the United States. (I suppose they’d be fine in a place like Japan where raw and undercooked eggs are still part of the cuisine.)

Last week in an e-mail from Cook’s Illustrated I found a recipe for a no-egg, no-bake KLP originally published in Cook’s Country. As much as I’d love to give you the recipe here, I can’t.

I went out and purchased the ingredients. I returned home and realized I should have written down the quantities in my shopping list. I was short the limes by a count of 5 to 7. So after finishing the Graham Cracker crust, I went out to purchase the remaining limes. It was dry on the way out. By the time I reached the store a few minutes later, it was pouring. I was on the bicycle. It poured the trip back. A few minutes after I returned home, the sun returned.

The hardest part in making the pie was juicing six limes. It took the most muscle and time. The rest was easy, throwing ingredients into the food processor, one by one, until it was a nice custard-like texture.

On Facebook, when I noted the difficulty of juicing the limes, one of my high school friends suggested a technique he’d invented: using a chef’s knife to juice the limes. On initially hearing it, it sounds a bit dangerous, but after reading the explanation it doesn’t seem too bad. The pressure is applied to the back side of the blade (not the point or the sharp edge), and the blade is angled down so that the juice goes down into a bowl instead of down your arm.

I tasted a bit of the filling that was left in the bowl and it was pretty good. The girls had the rest and they thought it was good, too.

I cleaned up my AeroGarden’s first planting (from last Christmas). It is now newly planted with Japanese herbs. Apparently this herb set wasn’t very popular because it is no longer sold and what stock remains is being sold at the AeroGarden Outlet web site. I just noticed that the cress is already sprouting after 2 days.

Shelley is preparing to attend Petersburg High School this coming year. She went down to the school to start registering for classes.

Trees are starting to flower…

Our Stripey is doing well. He looks and acts like he did before.