TWD And The Sweetest Man Ever

Tuesdays with Dorie is a great little baking group, started by the wonderful Laurie over at Quirky Cupcake. I’ve admired their baking skills, read along with their adventures, and longed to join up to add in my messy baking skills. So eager was I to join, that yesterday I begged for an invite quite hastily… without stopping to think I needed the book. After the welcomes were given, after the enthusiastic hellos from the great girls of the group, my common sense decided to show up late to the party and mention that I didn’t *have* the book. How embarrassing it was! They were all very nice to me, and welcomed me to hurry back as soon as I got it, but I didn’t really have much hope that would be anytime soon due to our tight budget.

Today Fed Ex came to the door, and carelessly dropped a package on the door mat without even bothering to knock. Everything we’d ordered for Christmas had already come, there wasn’t anything expected, and yet a package from amazon.com sat staring up ta me with my name on it. It was with much confusion that I opened the package, and smiling up at me was Dorie Greenspan’s book. Baking, From My Home To Yours. My beloved man, after hearing my story of my mess up and joining me in some chuckling over my typically impulsive behaviour, had the book over nighted to me. In spite of our tight budget. In spite of me telling him everything was fine and I didn’t mind waiting. I won’t lie, I teared right up and got my glasses all streaky wet. The words aren’t there to tell y’all how I feel right now, all I can say is it’s good.

D, you truly are my knight in shining armour. I love you so much.

Chicken Meet Lemons, Much Roasting And Pie Commences

Roast chicken on Sundays is something that I love, it’s the perfect time for it. Grocery shopping is done on Friday, so the chicken is nice and fresh. The lawn guy we had before cut my herb garden down, but this Friday I grabbed a bunch of plants at the store and we have fresh herbs again!

                 

The chicken is simple, a little diced garlic, rosemary, dill, and lemon juice sprinkled over the top, big slices of onions in the pan, and a little olive oil. Into the oven it goes, to do it’s thing at 350 F while I attempt something that I haven’t tried before. D said he loves lemon meringue pie, and not being one to turn the nose upwards at a lemony treat I decided to find a recipe and try it!

The chicken was happily baking, so the next step would be to grab some lemons and get the juice out of the charming fruits. Like the corkscrew, there was no lemon zester in the house either so a grater had to do. Poor little things, don;t they look like they’ve had a rough day? Oh, the lemonanity! Juice, sugar, and zest starting to boil on the stove, it was time to separate the eggs!

                            

Juice, sugar, and zest starting to boil on the stove, it was time to separate the eggs! There’s something very graceful about separating eggs, it’s one of those little things that makes me feel accomplished for a moment. A reassuring bit of encouragement when doing something new was what I needed.

Hot juice and sugar into the eggs, and they didn’t cook! That was a really big worry, the technique isn’t a familiar one to me (y’all stop laughing, I’m new at some of this!) and it was nice to find out it wasn’t as difficult as I’d expected it to be. Aren’t these pink bowls D’s mom gave me for Christmas nice?

Whip until stiff peaks form, do those look like stiff peaks to you? The crust was a Pilsbury roll out, and to be blunt I don’t intend to try one of them again. It turned out bland and shrunk in a very off putting way. The idea was to have one less thing to worry about when trying a new pie, but the effort saved wasn’t worth the icky result.

It looks like a lemon meringue pie! Better yet, it tastes wonderful. The chicken was tender and juicy, and the pie set up nicely. The filling was only a little looser that was desirable, that’s only because it was getting later and we wanted to try some before going to snooze. It’s nice and firm now. The taste was perfect for our preferences, very sweet and tart from the zest. The meringue came out like… meringue, which surprised me as I’d never made it before. Light, fluffy, and not scorched at all!

                     

D’s plate is the one with the dark meat, his preference. It works out perfectly, he isn’t fond of white and I’m not fond of dark. He’s being kind enough in these pictures to hold the plates while I’m taking pics. The nice pic of the pie was taken by D, isn’t he good at it?

                                

Lemon Meringue Pie

Found on www.allrecipes.com

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 4 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. To Make Lemon Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.
3. To Make Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.