Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Pie

If you're a fan of key lime pie - this is the secret to making the best:

Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice. 

They have a lot of fabulous recipes over on their site, including this one:

Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Pie

• 9" graham cracker pie crust
• 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 3 egg yolks (whites not used)
• ½ cup Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice

Combine milk, egg yolks and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream, or meringue, and garnish with lime slices.

How simple is that?  And yes - make your own whipped cream. 

Takes about 1 minute and tastes so fantastic. 

So that's what I'm doing - hanging in FL and eating pie :)

Vacations are pretty great - just sayin'.

xoxo

jessica

Simple Fruit Galette

My mom and sister are visiting this weekend, and Saturday night after we enjoyed some Chicken and Dumplings we were in the mood for something sweet.  I had a refrigerated Pilsbury Pie Crust in the frig (those are THE BEST pre-made pie crusts) - so I whipped this simple galettte.  It was delicious!
In a bowl combine:
2 apples, thinly sliced
some strawberries, blueberries - whatever berries you have on hand
1/3 cup of sugar
1 T of corn starch
1/2 tsp of salt

Preheat the oven to 375.  Unroll the pie crust onto a cookie sheet (I placed it on top of a piece of aluminum foil for easy clean up).  Pour the fruit mixture out onto the middle of the pie crust.  Fold up the edges of the pie crust - pleating them as you go.

In a small bowl whisk an egg and some half and half.  Brush it onto the pie crust, then sprinkle with sanding sugar.  Bake it for about an hour until it's all juicy and beautiful - rotating it after 30 minutes.  Let it cool for several minutes, then serve with a tall glass of cold milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

Hope you all had a great weekend - we spent most of it in the fabric store or gathered around the cutting table - super fun!!  I'll show you something I made tomorrow - along with a tutorial so you can make your own.  Talk to you then!
jessica

C is for Love

....okay actually C is for Chocolate but when you eat this pie, they might as well be the same thing.

*warning* just reading this post may exceed your caloric intake for the day ;)

For some reason, I was craving a really good chocolate pie.  I don't think I've ever had one.  They are always too rich, or not rich enough, or they taste like jello pudding.  You remember that part in Julie and Julia where Julie comes home and is talking about how "when you mix eggs with sugar and butter it will get thick - it is such a comfort" ? She is making some kind of yummy chocolate pie.  I wanted that pie. 

I surfed around online and found this recipe from one of my favorite resources, Saveur.  I adore this magazine - I actually have a very close family friend who works for them - so it makes me love them even more.  Here's their pretty picture of the pie (I found that gooey chocolatey pie is not a cooperative model).

 
So I headed out to the  store at 7:45 at night to buy yummy ingredients to bake my pie.  This is not calorie free and some may argue that it's not healthy - but here's the thing:  It's made of real ingredients.  Real stuff that your body knows how to metabolize.  No processed junk.

I bought some quality chocolate:

organic eggs:

organic butter:

and mixed them all together

to create this gorgeous pie.  Wow.  It is amazing.  It's not too rich.  It's chocolatey but not too sweet.  Have mercy - I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

(I actually had to restrain myself from having a slice with my coffee this morning).

If you're looking for a delicious treat for Valentine's Day - this is it. 
Even if you don't have a date - this pie will show you a good time.

AND - don't be intimidated by making a pie from scratch.  I am not a baker.  I enjoy cooking - but I enjoy the results of baking.
Here are my tips for baking if you are a non-baker.

• Bake at a time when you won't be interrupted - when you can concentrate totally on baking.  (For me that was 9:00 on a Tuesday night)

• Start with a clean kitchen and (mostly) empty dishwasher.  Clean as you go - then you won't have a huge mess at the end.

• Use quality ingredients.

• Make your own whipped cream.  It takes about 90 seconds and is waayyy better than cool whip.

• Take your time, follow the recipe exactly, and have fun!

Happy baking, and seriously - try this pie.  Soooooo good.
jessica

In honor of Super Saver....

Derby Pie:

This pie is courtesy of my good friend Katy Q. Since yesterday was the most exciting 2 minutes in sports (Kentucky Derby), we decided to make Derby Pie - it tastes like a giant chocolate chip cookie. Oh so good.

Ingredients:

Frozen Pie Crust
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 stick cooled, melted butter
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. flour
1 c. toasted pecans
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. Kentucky whiskey, bourbon, or vanilla


Toast the pecans.

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the eggs with the butter.

Add the sugar and flour. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and pour into unbaked pie crust.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream. Yum!