Key Lime Pie

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Also to John, who served in Afghanistan, years ago now. Thank you for your service. :*

Key Lime Pie. It's a sentence in itself. This cool, refreshing dessert originates from the Florida Keys, but gets its name from the key lime, a small, naturalized version of the Persian limes seen in grocery stores in the US. My local Kroger, by some miracle, actually carries real key limes, and so I picked some up to make a from-scratch pie.

This recipe doesn't include egg yolks, which Wikipedia lists as 'part of the traditional recipe'. Eh. Whatever. I used the version found on Allrecipes.com called, Key Lime Pie VII. It's certifiably amazing, having made it before. Very simple - 3 cups condensed sweetened milk (about 2 1/2 cans), 1/2 cup sour cream (in place of the egg yolks to hold the pie together), 3/4 key lime juice, and some lime zest. Place that in a pre-made graham cracker crust (which I made from scratch, and from cookies, not graham crackers), and bam! Delicious.

I squeezed an entire bag of key limes to get my 3/4 cup of juice! Tiny little things, aren't they? Instead of using a typical squeezer, I grabbed a garlic press. Cut the limes into quarter wedges, place in the press, instant juice. So simple! Takes time to do this, but the tartness of real key lime juice is hard to substitute. However, if you don't have time to squeeze an entire bag of limes like some people, there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. I recommend Nellie and Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. (It's really expensive on Amazon. I get it for around 4 bucks at Kroger.)

For the crust, I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachel Ray. (For some reason, the magazine just began randomly coming to my house, but under John's name. I don't know.) Take a box of Pure Butter Shortbread Cookies, some shredded coconut, a bit o' sugar, and some butter. Place in blender or food processor to make crumbs, press into bottom of pie pan, and bake your crust. Nice, thick, delicious.

I considered making homemade whipped cream for this. But then I got lazy, and it didn't happen. In the actual Conch Republic, they apparently place a meringue on top. This also didn't happen with my pie. Just the pie, which should be YELLOW in color, not green. Like this one.

Make it, bake it, eat it. Enjoy the holiday!

$500 Blueberry Pie

No, this pie doesn't cost $500. (Well, for for the winning bidder it did). It earned $500 at a charity just a few weeks ago! The Whitesville Lion's club threw a Pie Auction and Chili Supper (old article, sorry) to earn funds for the Wendell Foster's Center, here in Owensboro. I made this same pie for it, fancy crust design and all.

John's dad, (Judge, we shall call him), apparently goes to this every year and buys a pie. He mentioned it to me at dinner (knowing I make and bake), and naturally I wanted to donate one. Wound up being the second highest earner, largely thanks to the Judge. He LOVES this pie, and advertised heavily how good it was. Some smart person then snatched it up!

I have several fruit pie-making secrets. Tired of runny pies? Want your pie to gel like Grandma's? Cook part of the fruit insides first! Cook ONLY PART. Leave some out, to maintain that crunchiness of whole fruit pieces. Otherwise it'll be like the cheap fruit pies y'all buy at Wal-mart. *shudder* There are a few pies I keep as exceptions to this rule, such as apple. I just added the hot blueberry sauce to the dry, in this picture.

The second secret, and I advise this for most pies, is a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Combining a touch of spice with sugar does amazing things. It'll make you fall in love with pie again, I promise you that!

For the crust, which I call sunburst, make your bottom half like you were doing a single pie crust only. Then, take the second, and set it on a large cutting board. Use a small mouthed cup to cut out the center, set aside. Then, using a pizza cutter, cut the crust into small strips of varying sizes. Start arranging them around the edge, doing the long pieces first, then short, layering them until beautiful. (Easier said than done.) This pie turned out a little lop-sided, but once you've got a strip down, its DOWN. Don't pick it back up, especially with blueberries. The dark juice stains terribly. Wet the back of the circle-center, and gently set it down on the petals, pressing slightly to make sure it sticks firmly.

This pie was a gift for the Judge, cause he deserved one. (Funny, it's Mother's day and I made a pie for John's dad....) This pie is a great Mother's day recipe, however. Blueberries are coming into season, and little baskets are everywhere. Use 4 small boxes, or 2 big boxes, for Blueberry pie. Strawberries can easily be substituted.

Cover this pie after 15 minutes in the oven with aluminum foil. Otherwise, it will over darken. 

I was glad to donate something to a cause as good as Wendell Foster's. Next year I will do it again. And again. And again.

Kentucky Derby Pie

Happy Derby Day! It's time for the biggest party in the United States, friends! John and I aren't going to the actual race this year, which is good, seeing how it's rainy and cold. We're going to a party instead. Last year we did go to Churchill Downs, and it was gorgeous weather. We were packed in there like sardines, and I won $0, too. (At a previous derby I attended however, I won $360 off a $20 bet. It rocked.) It'll be a muddy track this year, so its anybody's guess who will win! I will not be betting this year, however.... I'd rather spend my money on shoes. Or kitchen gadgets. I have a lot of kitchen gadgets. Need more!

Derby Pie is probably the most famous dish to come out of Kentucky, which is saying something. There are a lot of recipes unique to this state! The pie is very rich - butter, sugar, chocolate and pecans, with a shot (or two, for you drunks) of bourbon tossed in. What's not to like about a pie like that?? Some people don't like the bourbon in it however, and if you are one of these, suspect you might be, or are feeding someone who is, it's perfectly acceptable to leave the booze out.

Kern's Kitchen, which is still in operation, invented the original derby pie to serve at Brown's hotel (a place also famous for Hot Browns). Derby Pie's are in stores everywhere down here, which come in the box seen above. I bought one just to show y'all. The recipe is top secret! (And highly trade marked, too, fyi.) As you can tell, my pie did come out different. I was handed this recipe from someone down here (I'm sorry I forgot you, whoever you are), and it tastes pretty much the same. My guess is that Kern's layers the chocolates and pecans, then pours the bourbon sauce on top. Just a guess, though. Love the pressed pie crust, do you see it?

This pie is very easy to assemble. Place the eggs in a bowl, beat slightly. Add the sugar, vanilla, melted butter, bourbon. Stir. Slowly add the 1/4 cup of corn starch (not flour.) Then add the pecans and chocolate, and pour into your pie shell. (I used a cheater pie shell this time. Good old Pillsbury ready-mades! I DO have a recipe for a pie crust. Someday, we shall get to it.)

I used Lexington bourbon. (It's named after a famous race horse.) It's a very smooth, mellow bourbon whiskey, and is John's current favorite. Now. For the caveat. I live in Kentucky, the only place in which bourbon can be made. (Hence why Jack Daniels is a Tennessee WHISKEY.) We Kentucky dwelling folk have bourbon selections that can't be found anywhere else, so if you can't find Lexington, I would recommend using the finest bourbon you can get your hands on. Woodford Reserve is my suggestion, but it still won't have the smoothness and subtle flavor of Lexington. Sorry, all y'all from not around here!


Now, for a picture of my backyard. I had thought spring in Nebraska was beautiful. Wrong. I've never seen spring like in Kentucky. The flowers! Those are the azaleas IN MY BACKYARD. The entire city of Owensboro is like this! You should see the street we live on, color everywhere. The dogwoods and redbuds are all in full bloom, too. Flowers, flowers, flowers, everywhere. *sigh* Too bad they only last a few short weeks.

Something is up with the grass in the yard. John and I aren't sure what it is, but it's killing it. Need to get the lawn guy in here, to diagnose...

Strawberry Salad

When I take this recipe somewhere, I ALWAYS get asked for the recipe. It's so good. Sweet and delicate, with a hint of spice.




The secret ingredient, that separates my Strawberry Salad from all others, is cinnamon. Add just a few dashes (or a 1/4 of a teaspoon), and voila, your taste buds will rejoice.

Make sure and add the balsamic vinegar at the end, because once its added, it will start to cook the strawberries. And eat all of it in one night! The strawberries will be pickles by the next morning, mushy and sour.

Add the sugar at least a half hour before serving, placing the strawberries back into the fridge to sit. This will encourage them to make a syrup and absorb more of the sweetness.

Use nothing but fresh basil, too. I add basil more for a touch of color, but I can't imagine strawberry salad without the herb, either.

John ate the entire batch I made last night! I myself got only a few bites - I turned around and it was all gone. Which is just an excuse to make more, right?

Nebraska-style Beer Chili

Okay, so I'm not really sure if Beer Chili comes from Nebraska, but the chili I ate at home is most certainly not like the chili eaten in Kentucky. No, the folks in Kentuckiana's chili is darker in color, and, horror, they add PASTA to it, which confused me terribly when I first saw it.

Beer should be added to more food. It seems to be a running theme for me recently - I made a Guinness Chocolate Cake, and then Wednesday John and I went to a beer tasting, all of which served with beer infused food (see pic --->), at the Campbell Club here in town. Now beer chili!

The other 'secret' ingredient in this recipe is the Southwest Chipotle flavoring. Adds a further depth to an already very hearty, very flavorful chili.

I used 2 pounds of ground beef, 1 pound sausage, in this particular batch. Sometimes I use more sausage, sometimes turkey, venison, bison... Mom's version uses shredded porkloin and beef brisket smoked by Dad. Calls it her '$75 chili'. No joke, that.

Chili freezes really well. People also seem to appreciate receiving some, not sure why. ;)  (I tell you what I can't give away anymore - my deserts! Apparently it makes you fat, or some such thing. Pchah! I won't listen to such negativity!)

Chocolate Guinness Cake

St. Paddy's day is over, and I am (mostly) recovered from the holiday. I wouldn't call my celebrations wild, per se, but it wasn't sober. John and I headed to a friend's lake house, and stayed there most of the weekend, with plenty of beer, red wine (my favorite), and this Chocolate Guinness Cake!

I'd heard of using Guinness beer as an ingredient in food, in both main courses and deserts, before. Sounded like a unique challenge, and who doesn't want to try a cake with beer in it??? The finished product is not as sweet as your average store bought chocolate cake mix, but not bitter either. The beer adds a unique taste that is hard to describe, giving it depth.

I placed the batter in a 8" spring form pan when it reached the consistency of brownie batter. You can see a crack in the cake, where frosting dips down in the photo above. Cracking creates more space for holding the made-from-scratch cream cheese frosting on top!

One last note - I'd like to introduce you to the most expensive butter I have ever bought, ever.  I'm not going to tell how much I paid for my Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. It's sinful expensive, like eating a cake with an entire bar of it inside! Feel free to use regular old plain butter, if this is bit much for the budget.

Curry Rice

This is the first dish I ever learned to make. Really. While studying abroad in Japan, I made an effort to set the kitchen on fire while making potatoes. Seeing that I needed help, the Japanese RA's, M and N, decided to show me how to do some stuff. The rest, is history!

Curry Rice is probably the most popular Japanese comfort food. Nikujaga is up there, too. And Omurice. YUM. I love them all. Japanese food has got to be the most delicious food in the world! Most Americans think that Japanese food is all sushi, but this just isn't true. (The Japanese DO eat a lot of sushi, however.)

Making Curry Rice is very easy. You need 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces, 2 potatoes, PACIP (peeled and cut into pieces), half a yellow onion roughly chopped, and a meat of your choice. Chicken is the most traditionally used meat. The sauce is readily available in most major grocery chains, including Wal-mart. Just look for it in the Asian foods section. Comes in a shiny little cardboard box with 'Golden Curry' written on the side. English instructions! The curry comes in little blocks, and looks decidedly like chocolate. Funny smelling chocolate...

I've Americanized my Curry Rice. (The horror, the horror!) Instead of chicken or beef, I prefer Jimmy Dean's hot sausage. It is SOOOOO good. Adds even more flavor to a dish that is extremely flavorful to begin with. I'm lazy and simply break up the sausage while browning it, but a more ambitious person could form them into meatballs.

After browning your meat, set it aside and brown the potatoes and carrots, adding the onions when the potatoes start to turn translucent. I keep a glass full of water on the side, and have never actually measured out the quantity, but this recipe will call for around 3 cups total. After the vegetables have browned enough, I add a little water to continue cooking, then pour the rest in later.

Once the potatoes and carrots are soft, add the remainder of the water, until the vegetables are covered. Add the meat. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat back down to a simmer. Take the sauce mix, and break up the curry cubes. Place the curry cubes into different areas of the pot, tucking them under vegetables. Slowly begin to stir, mixing the curry mix in with the rest of the ingredients. When it turns thick and stew like, the curry is done.

Serve with rice on the side. I know its odd, rice and potatoes (starch and starch), but you just can't have curry without rice.