He made them, but He lets me babysit them.

He gives me beauty if I’m willing to get dirty in search of it.

He shows me that when I’m patient, there really is a reward.

Ain’t God the best y’all? Love You!

Love,

Leigh

Florida Pie! What better place to make one than in Florida? Ok, considering how much I want to move that’s a bad question since I’d answer pretty much any other state, but let’s pretend I don’t think that way and I’m just toe twiddlin happy to be making this in the Sunshine State. Don’t y’all be looking forward to coconut and meringue, because D’s fav pie is key lime so I went purist. Key lime and crust is all y’all will find in this pie.

The most important ingredient in this is… these!

A lime ain’t a lime y’all, and while it will work if you sub regular limes you ain’t getting the right flavour at all. key limes are strong, with a particular sour bite that you ain’t finding in any other citrus. They’re like black walnuts, you might as well use an orange and call it key lime for all the similarity it has to a key lime.

Look how tiny they are! They’re like toy limes! This shows how little they are, as long as you assume that I have a rather small hand being a kinda small chick and not that I have paws like a Sasquatch. The only thing Sasquatch about me is how difficult it is to remove my leg hai… y’all don’t wanna hear about that though. Sorry.

This is my new juicer. There really is a second bottom cup part, but it was being used as a large measuring cup. There used to be a large measuring cup around, but it was really old and it cracked so now I have to use the bottom of the juicer to measure more than a cup at a time and so a large plastic fast food cup gets to catch juice, yay! This is why my friends are jealous of my class.

Not that the juicer is helping much. Did y’all know key limes are really small, and a big plastic citrus smoosher don’t do much good?

Back to the hard way. Key limes also have really strong citrus, and these were stronger than usual. It was right about here that I found out I had a paper cut on my finger. The second lime let me know that. The 20th lime gave me a little blister. Ow.

Oh, the lime-anity!

The pain and struggle (all 20 minutes of it from start to finish since I left out the coconut cream and meringue) was worth it in the end, when out came the tastiest key lime pie ever!

In keeping with my high falutin ways, it’s in the tin foil pan it came in. That’s why y’all read my blog, for the presentation and art. Yup.

 
1 9-inch graham cracker crust (page 235), fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, separated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes)
1/4 cup of sugar

Getting Ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment of a silicone mat.

Put the cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and the mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape the coconut cream into a bowl and set it aside while you prepare the lime filling.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the reaming juice, again mixing until it is blended. Spread the coconut cream in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, and pour over the lime filling.

Bake the pie for 12 minutes. Transfer the pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.

To Finish the Pie with Meringue:

Put the 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking all the while, until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat the whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into the meringue.

Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, and run the pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you’ve got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) Return the pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.
 

If you don’t, you might put it on high speed instead of the low mix speed. It might end up kicking the flour and sugar out of the bowl with a large foof. You could end up looking a lot like this.

Nobody wants that. Do you?

Talk about getting down to the basics! As simple as it is, not everybody knows how to make this Southern must have so I thought I’d take a sec to share.  The first thing ya have to do is start with a respectable brand of tea, I use Tetley but Luzianne will do ya just fine. Tetley is great because you can sing the “tiny little tea leaves, in Tetley teeeeea” theme while you’re pulling the tags off. You can of course use Lipton or Red Rose or whatever, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. They all make the family size tea bags, and I use 2 of those in a big ol’ pitcher which works out nice. That would be around 4 or 5 of the small tea bags. You’ll also need some baking soda, so have that near the stove.

Use a small to medium sized sauce pan, and fill it up with water about 3/4ths of the way. Pull the tags off the tea bags (so you ain’t got paper in your tea), and set the whole mess on to boil. Please don’t wander off too far, you don’t wanna let it boil for more than a few seconds if you can help it. When it boils, yank it off the stove and use the super secret iced tea trick! Y’all ready? Take a pinch of the baking soda between your thumb and forefinger, and toss it in the tea. It should bubble up like one of those cheap science project volcanoes for a second, which is my fav part. Tea magic! Let the tea steep for a few minutes, and in the mean time put your sugar in the pitcher. It’s up to you how much you use, some people use a whole cup and that will get you really sweet tea. That’s a little too sweet for me (at least since were trying to eat healthier), 3/4ths cup is what I usually use. It’s good with as little as 1/2 cup sugar, but you ain’t likely to find any self respecting Southern household or diner serving it with any less than that. Take out the tea bags and pour the hot tea over the sugar. You’ll want to squeeze the tea bags into the pitcher too, I throw them back in the empty pot and run some cool water over them to not burn my hands when squeezing them and you can add the cool water to the pitcher. Fill the rest of the pitcher up with water, and give it another good mixing up before putting it in the fridge.

Y’all enjoy!

They’re thinking about taking away my TWD license you know. It’s almost like I can’t help changing the recipe, and if I ain’t careful they’ll make me call it Tuesdays Inspired By Dorie and not let me use the TWD title. For now, meet my version of the Peanut Butter Torte! Y’all might notice that it don’t look much like a torte, since it ain’t got a crust. In fact, that’s cake.

Boondocks Cake to be exact, a very light not super sweet sort of cake that’s kinda healthy. The recipe called for Oreos, and to be honest I’m really on this make everything from scratch kick. The idea of using a premade cookie that was filled with a shortening based cream full of stuff I can’t pronounce really turned me off. D ain’t much on crunchy desserts, and after some soul (and pantry) searching I decided the peanut butter mousse wouldn’t be too heavy for a thin layer of the cake. Y’all will also notice I left out any chunky ingredients, I got this longing for the frozen peanut butter pies from when I was little. Ok, and the cinnamon and nutmeg didn’t make it in either.

It worked. It came out like a grown up version of those beloved pies, and halving the recipe for the filling gave me a layer thickness that was enough to be indulgent but not enough to fill you up after a few bites. D and me loved it, and he’s already requested that I make it again. The next time I wanna try the almost fudge cake as the bottom! As D said, you really need to love peanut butter to like this. Ain’t no problem sugah!

Peanut Butter Torte

1 ¼ c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; I use Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Getting ready: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chops together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Crape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish The Torte: put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.

Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.

When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

D and me met in true nerd fashion, over the Internet. To be exact, we met while playing World Of Warcraft. He and I were in the same large role playing guild (for you non dorks a guild in WoW is a fancy name for a bunch of friends who bash the heads of monsters in together and give ourselves a hopefully impressive sounding title), and once we discovered that we had the same sense of humour in common the rest was history. This greatly pleased the members of the guild, as it meant we would stop making them listen to our highly inappropriate jokes and tell them to each other. That was the theory anyway.

Right.

D played a mild mannered, soft spoken magic wielding warlock fellow who had the bad luck to be one of the walking dead and missing a lower jaw. Y’all can surely see the sex appeal. The tart played a cannibalistic obnoxiously loud orc woman who ran around heavily armed and looking for a fight. So help me the first one of you who mentions the resemblance gets clocked. Ahem. Where was I? Oh yeah, the warlock! D’s charming character was also known for roaming around with a giant undead spider he’d named Ralph! Why is this relevant you ask (and have been asking since I started this story)?

The first time D came to pick me up for a real date, he was in full gentleman mode. Opened my door for me, ushered me into his truck… the truck that he’d gotten out of just a few minutes before with this long stretch of denim covered leg and black booted foot that just… darn it, wandering again. Right! He opened my door and helped me into the truck… only to have me shriek at the top of my lungs and come hurtling back out so fast I about knocked the both of us to the concrete! Hanging from the top of the cab, right over the passenger seat was a large spider swaying cheerfully from a web line. To this day, I’ve accused him of bringing Ralph.

it’s the first time I’ve ever made bread using the KA. It’s in there, kneading right now and I don’t have any idea if I’m doing it right.

There’s no getting around it, I wussed out this week. Ain’t really a picky eater, but there are some combinations that make my taste buds start threatening guerrilla warfare and screaming cliche revolution slogans. Nobody wants that. Add to that a budget that was giving me dirty looks at the mere mention of buying ingredients we don’t usually use, and it wasn’t happening this week.

Dorie has got me addicted to her though, and I needed to bake something by her! A quick chat with Laurie (ok, so none of my chats are ever quick) and Chocolate Chip Cookies were on the table! Y’all, let me be the first to say that I’m stubborn when it comes to recipes I love. The chocolate chip cookie recipe I’e used for years was my fav and nothing could compete… Oh Dorie, how you’ve humbled me!

They’re everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. A little crunchy, a little chewy and soft. Buttery and easy to work with, they didn’t spread too much on the pan and they turned the right colour. Easy means easy, I made the dough before the oven could even preheat while fighting a fever and playing a video game with D! They weren’t greasy in the slightest, they formed into little scoops and snuggled on to the parchment paper with a cheerfullness you don’t usually find in a baked good.

Ain’t it sad that I couldn’t get through taking a pic without biting one?

Y’all should follow the recipe to be sure, but let me tell you how easy these handled. The things I didn’t do were : Mix the dry ingrediants together first, beat for 1 minute between eggs, add the dry ingrediants together in thirds, cool the sheet between batches, rotate the baking sheets midway, bake them to brown (they were golden on the edges and paler in the middle because I prefer them softer), or let them get to room temperature before eating one. To be honest, I dumped the eggs in all at once and did the same with the dry ingrediants. The cookies were very happy to be treated so callously. They like it rough cutie.

“My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies”

2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 c. store-bought chocolate chips or chunks (I used dark chocolate chips)
1 c. finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I didn’t use them)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each eggs oes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingrediants in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and the nuts. (The dough can be covered and refridgerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you’d like, you can freeze rounded tablespoons of cough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when theyre solid. There’s no need to defrost the dough before baking - just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfulls onto the baking sheets leaving about two inches between spoonfulls.

Bake the cookies - one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point - for 10 - 12 minutes or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle and that’s just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute then carefully, usuaing a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Since the TWD Tuesday was one of the days we were on vacation (I was on vacation, D was attending a conference and lovingly took me along with him) I made sure to bake the carrot cake before we went out of town. Let it cool, and put it in a bag to take with us so I could frost it there! It was the night before, so I put it in the fridge to stay fresh.

This is where we went, ain’t it pretty?

It was for most of a week, so I packed everything as if we were heading out for a year. Clothing and things to make me pretty and computers and his work clothing and suntan lotion and a violin (you read that right) Even packed this because I didn’t want to try to make it in the hotel room.

There was only one thing I forgot. At the house, in the fridge by itself.

Spent most all of my time here!

There were these…

And this…

None of this…

 A lot of this, and even more of this! 

There was even one of these (no comments about the goospimples on my thigh, the breeze was not particularly warm at that minute) although it tasted really vile.

Here comes the knight in Dodge armour to whisk me back to our house, and not a moment too soon. You know, if you really hate eating tasty steaks and seafood and laying around by the pool and not even having to make your bed.

Ain’t they cute? They didn’t taste bad either, really soggy though which sucked. This would be a very nice cake if it hadn’t been in the bag for several days before it was frosted. Pi licked one.

Today the realization that Lauriehas taken over my life smacked me in the face. All of my baking projects this week lead back to her in one way or another. Gah!