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Tag Archives: key lime

When Life Gives You Key Limes…

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Cream Pie

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

graham cracker, key lime

…it’s probably time to make some key lime pies.

(“Life” in this case takes the form of our friends Will and Renee, who have an overabundant key lime tree–thanks, guys!)

Here are the steps.

1. Realize that this big tree-carved bowl full of limes complements what you happen to be wearing. Take a series of artistic selfies entitled “Girl with Limes.”

photo 2

photo 2

Step Two: Juice roughly a thousand key limes (okay, probably forty) by hand with a press juicer. Be thankful you don’t currently have any paper cuts or hangnails, because the job would be a whole lot more painful if you did. This step will take you roughly forever (okay, probably half an hour.) If you have an electric juicer, by all means, please do that instead. It would be infinitely more logical.photo 1

Step Three: Freeze the extra juice, which you will end up with if you are gifted this many ripe key limes at once. I only made one key lime pie on this particular day, but the beauty was that I was able to freeze enough juice cubes to make two more exquisitely fresh tasting key lime pies about a month later. I like freezing citrus juice in ice cube trays because the smaller units are easier to defrost.
photo 2

Step Four: Make a homemade graham cracker crust. I think I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Homemade graham cracker crust is delicious; store-bought graham cracker crust is an edible container which isn’t necessarily bad but definitely would never be described as delicious. I wanted this Joe’s Stone Crab Key Lime Pie to be absolutely delicious, since I had already spent a good amount of my life squeezing the key lime juice that was to go into it. So, it had to have a homemade crust. The graham cracker crust recipe in Ken’s book is a quick mix of graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon with melted butter to bind it together. Once you’ve made one homemade crumb crust, you’ll never go back. Some things in life are a lot more work for a little payoff (aka hand squeezing a bunch of key limes instead of using already-squeezed key lime juice) and some are a little more work for a huge payoff (aka making a graham cracker crust by hand instead of buying one.) I think I’ve made my point, so I’ll move on.

photo 3

photo 4

When making a graham cracker crust by hand, once you’ve got a bowlful of damp crumbs, you can just dump them into your pie plate and use your hand to pat it into shape. I usually try to make the crust go up the side of the plate just to the line I think the filling will go up to, though I often mess up and make the sides go nearly all the way to the very top of the plate. I mean, I don’t think it’s a super big deal either way. You just definitely want the crust to go at LEAST as high as the filling will. It definitely makes sense to err on the side of making the crust a bit too high. IMHO.photo 5

True to form, I left off taking step by step photos after forming the crust. So, Steps Five and Six, if I were to have included them, would have covered the blending together of the filling and the pouring of the filling into the gently hand-molded crust. We find ourselves now at Step Seven: Eat your delicious key lime pie. You’ll know it’s the real thing because it will have a serious tang to it. It will be creamy, even more so when freshly-whipped cream is dolloped on top. It will be so, so good.

photo 2

photo 3

Step Eight: Put your scarf on your head and smile for one more selfie, cause you’re DONE and you’re thinking about how much key lime juice still awaits you in your freezer.

photo 3P.S. You guys caught me again. It’s not key lime season in California’s May. It’s key lime season in January. Shhh…don’t tell anyone how slow of a blogger I am, okay? 

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The Love of my Life

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Chocolate Pie, Cream Pie, Nut Pie

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

berry, chocolate, coconut, cream, key lime, pecan

….is not pie. It is my husband, Levi.

We’ve been married for three years today. Three whole years! It’s both hard and easy to believe.

Image

If you’ve read the “Why Pie?” section of my blog, you already know that I received my now well-worn Pie cookbook as a wedding present. What you may not know is that Levi and I opted have pies instead of a wedding cake…much to the initial chagrin of my very traditional Italian relatives. (Although I happened to look through my Nana’s wedding album shortly after our wedding and discovered that she and Pop-Pop had a big heaping platter of Italian cookies instead of cake at their wedding. Needless to say, I drew her attention to this incriminating fact!)

Our reasoning for this decision went something like this:

1. We really like pie.

2. We don’t like wedding cake.

3. Wedding pie it is.

A decision that was less easy to make was, “What KIND of pie should we have?” So we had five kinds. Pecan, Berry Medley, Key Lime, Chocolate Chiffon, and Coconut Cream. Something for everyone. (If you were in attendance, what kind of pie did you choose? If you weren’t, which one would you pick today, three years later?)

Levi and I sampled every pie, I’m not ashamed to say. Each was as wonderful as the last, just as the years of our marriage have been. Three years later, I’d still pick you, Levi. You’re my favorite, favorite one, my very best friend, the love of my life. Happy Anniversary.

(Professional photographs taken by the incredible Elisabeth Millay. Her blog is super gush-worthy.)

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Lovin’ Oven

21 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blueberry, key lime

I only wish I’d thought of that ridiculously cute title myself. But alas. They thought of it first.

When I’m in New Jersey, one of the places I like to visit is Frenchtown. Everything about it is cute. Even the laundromat, which is called the “launderette”. See? Cute. In Frenchtown, there is an amazing store called Two Buttons, which is owned by Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert. I saw her there one time. EEEP!

On my trip out east this month, my friends Maggie and Jen and I made it to Frenchtown. We shopped at Two Buttons, where you are given free red wine and popcorn and you drool over fantastically beautiful things from all over the world. I bought some fossils of extinct squids from Morocco. It’s really a great time.

The NEW and exciting discovery we made on this day was the new business next door to Two Buttons: Lovin’ Oven, the cutest (in keeping with the theme) bakery/cafe that you ever did see.

I’ve kicked around the idea of starting up a bakery someday. Okay, let’s be serious…maybe a farmer’s market stand. Or…maybe a lemonade stand type deal in the front of my house. I honestly don’t know the first thing about being an entrepreneur, but it’s fun to imagine.

My friends Josh and Amber are the ones who have the most fully-formed vision of my future pie-peddling. My company will be called Hipster Pie; I will have a food truck from which I will sell delicious mini pies faster than Sprinkles can sell cupcakes. Another option in my mind is to wait until Levi and I are of retirement age…his plan is to make his own wine and chocolate, so I figure we’ll just move to the country somewhere and have a little shop. Y’all come visit.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them, no matter how far-fetched.

But none of you are going to come up with a name as cute as “Lovin’ Oven.” And yes, that’s a dare. I dare you to be cuter than Frenchtown, New Jersey.

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