Key Lime (Minus the Key) Pie

It's hard to believe that only a few months ago I was wishing for Fall/Winter weather. It's true that you always want what you don't have. That's why it's also a cliche. Gotta love a cliche. Yep, here I sit wishing for Spring/Summer weather and wallowing in my cliche.

Last night, Jeremy and I attempted to bring a little Spring/Summer to the Ross household. Jeremy had been dying to use the new grill my parents got us for Christmas, and despite the fact that it was 30 degrees outside, he decided that last night - January 21, 2011 - would be the night he officially christened it. He'd already cured and seasoned the grill last week. That part had felt like an ancient manly ritual: "I am man! I make fire!" He carefully rubbed the entire inside of the grill with vegetable oil, then heated it to 250 degrees for 2 hours and 400 degrees for an additional hour. Why that combination I have no idea, but this process will supposedly keep the metal from rusting as quickly. I'm skeptical.

In addition to this curing process, Jeremy had to season the cast iron grates. Of course. For this, he used nearly an entire can of my Crisco (Yes, I'm very possessive of my cans of shortening; Mama's little baby loves shortenin' shortenin'!). The grill got heated again. This time to 350 degrees. The entire ritual used a huge bag of charcoal, which makes very little sense to me. Why waste charcoal when you're not even going to cook something? But whatever. I'm female and lack the natural compulsion to make fire and burn things.

Regardless, I was glad that Jeremy had already completed this complicated curing and seasoning business, because this meant he could use the grill to make some yummy steaks last night. And boy, were they yummy!

Steaks, baked potatoes, salad, and wine = the perfect meal

After dinner, we had another taste of the upcoming seasons with a little homemade key lime (minus the key) pie. Back in December, when preparing to cook Jeremy a pumpkin pie, I had grabbed a graham cracker pie crust at the grocery store. Obvious to everyone but me, this is not the type of pie crust you use for pumpkin pie. I had made pumpkin pie before but had apparently forgotten this key detail. Anyway, I had been needing to use the pie crust for quite some time and had never gotten around to it, so earlier this week I decided to make a cheese cake...which eventually changed to key lime pie upon Jeremy's request.

This was my first attempt at key lime (minus the key) pie, and it actually went pretty well, even if I do say so myself. The pie set up well and was very tasty and limey... Unfortunately, because the grocery store had no key limes or key lime juice, this had to be a plain ole lime pie. I can imagine how good it would be with the actual key limes! Yum!

Here's the recipe I used for our little taste of summer:

Key Lime (Minus the Key) Pie

3 egg yolks

1 can sweetened condense milk (14 ounces)

1/2 cup lime juice

2 tablespoons lime zest

1 graham cracker pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks until pale in color. Slowly add condensed milk, while still whisking. On low setting with hand mixer, beat mixture until light and frothy (took about five minutes). Add lime juice and zest and beat for an additional minute.

Pour mixture into graham cracker crust and back for about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Once completely cool, put in refrigerator to chill at least two hours.

We chose to leave off any whipped cream, as neither of us area really fans.

Voila! The perfect winter reprieve.