Archive | 10:35 am

Easy as Key Lime Pie

13 Oct

Another birthday… another baked good.  This time it was a new adventure with Key Lime Pie.

I wanted to make sure I had a good graham cracker crust, and after much searching, I opted for one that sounded a bit different on my favorite recipe site, AllRecipes.com.

I happen to love that they sell Graham Cracker Crumbs already all crumbled in a box.  I never can get the consistency exactly right when I chop it myself.  I’ll pay a little more for that (and the convenience).  Unfortunately, it’s very hard to find (when stores have it, it’s by the bread crumbs usually).  I haven’t yet found myself ordering a CASE on Amazon… but I wouldn’t put it past me.

So first you mix together the 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup melted butter, and 3 Tablespoons of granulated sugar.

Then you press it into the bottom of a pie pan and spread egg yolk on it.  After reading the feedback on the recipe, I soon realized this was the tough part… and they were right.  First of all, I used more like 3 yolks to have enough to go around.  And second, it was NOT easy to spread.  I wound up kind of dolloping it on and pressing it down with the back of a spoon until it was coated.  No real spreading involved.  But it wasn’t too bad.

I then baked it for 10 minutes at 350 to brown it a little.

After that, I was ready to add the key lime pie filling.  I got the recipe, again, from AllRecipes.com.  This was also as easy as… pie.

Mix 3 cups sweetened condensed milk with 1/2 cup sour cream, 3/4 cup key lime juice (I couldn’t find key limes so I used regular limes… much to my hesitation… but it worked out just fine), and 1 Tablespoon of grated lime zest.  Mixed it well and poured it on in.

As I baked the pie for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees, I realized that it looked kinda… boring.  So I had some limes left and decided to candy them.

I sliced them thin and put them in some sugar and water to soften and sweeten.

They did soften, but BOY were these tart!  Not for the faint of heart by any means.  I actually scooped these off my piece…

But they sure added a touch of flair to the pie itself.

I let it bake until I saw tiny bubbles come up the surface (the key is not to brown it).

I then chilled it overnight and brought it in the next day.

It was DELICIOUS!  I’m not sure if I would add this to my repertoire, but for a first time key lime pie, I think it was damn good.

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Stone Street Tavern

13 Oct

Mike and I love to dine on Stone Street.  It’s a (closed) cobble stone street Downtown near Wall Street that has a few restaurants with outdoor seating lined up.

We try a new place each time we are there, and this time, it was Stone Street Tavern.  

Unfortunately, this experience did not start off well.  There were some very rude tourists who were chain smoking at the table next to us.  Now…  it is 100% illegal for people to be smoking where food is served, even outside, unless in a designated area that is separate.  Stone Street Tavern’s waitress, however, denied this and offered for us to move tables.  We did… but it was still wafting.  Just what I want when I’m eating.

Thankfully… the food arrived soon after.  Both Mike and I must have been either hungover or recently drinking, because we both ordered their aptly named “Hangover Burger.”  Angus beef “loaded with cheese bacon, onion and fried egg.”  

My mouth is watering just thinking about this burger.  It was incredibly messy… but incredibly delicious.  That fried egg was fan-freakin-tastic.

And the fries were damn good too.  Usually steak fries are just too mushy for me, but these were perfectly crisped

My test of a friend egg is by how runny it is.  This, my friends, was a perfectly runny egg.

Nomilicious.

Total Nom Points:  7 out of 10 (0.5 points docked due to the smokers)

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Eggplant Parm

13 Oct

I was hearing this kitchen “fact” about how it’s important to brine eggplant before cooking it.  Some say it brings out the flavor, some say it removes the bitterness, some say it makes them sweat less (so they are less watery and… have less BO… I guess), and some say they just do it because it’s what their mama taught them.

Well… my mama taught me nothing about eggplant.  So one night we decided “what the hell!” and we salted our eggplant for an hour before making it.  Honestly… I have NO idea if it made a difference.  But it tasted great so I’m going to give it a thumbs up until I can give it a head to head.

This recipe came from The Food Network.

After salting and rinsing, we then coated it in an egg and milk bath and then in a mixture of breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.  We then quickly browned them in a pan.

Next we stacked up layers of slices with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella in a greased oven dish.

And baked it to ooey-gooey browned perfection.

I then realized that we had no tomato sauce for the pasta.  What to do?  Why not just make one?  So I set about my new “make my own sauce” recipe where i basically throw tomatoes and spices into a pot, cook it down, mash it up, and then puree it a bit with the hand mixer.  Works like a charm.

And tastes great too!

I think this was my favorite eggplant parm we’ve made.  The added seasoning to the breadcrumbs just made it that much better… and who knows? Maybe the salting isn’t a myth!

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