Key Lime Tart

One of the things I never understood was why this sweet-sour confection was called a pie.  My idea of a pie was a flaky white crust that was made of a lot of butter with a thick layer of filling, and more of the crust on top of the filling.  Key lime "pie" is not like this. 

The Key lime  "pie" as we know it has a graham cracker crust with a creamy citrusy filling.  Therefore I like to call it a tart rather than a pie.  For those of you who could care less, please just let me induge myself with this ridiculous notion. 

Jessica had made a wonderful Key lime tart for a dinner party one night.  I refer to it as "Jessica's Key Lime 'Tart'" even though the truth is, she obtained the wonderful recipe on a bottle of Nellie and Joe's Key West Lime Juice.  I absolutely fell in love with it and she kindly let me keep the bottle. 

Well, I have to say that the bottle sat in my kitchen neglected for a while.  Reasons being I could not find this bottled juice in my area or I would try other kitchen projects.  A few weeks ago, however, my local Whole Foods had fresh Key limes by the bag available.  Aha!  This was my chance!  I bought a bag, a box of graham crackers, and decided to make Jessica's Key Lime Tart for a dinner party that we hosted last weekend. 

I will say right now that one can buy readily available graham cracker crusts at supermarkets.  However, I wanted a crust that was thinner and crisper.  I actually also have a crust recipe that uses the ingredients of graham crackers, but it calls for some ingredients that I do not use regularly so I did not think it was practical to buy it just this one tart.  Maybe someday. 

Needless to say, the tart was a success.  Almost everyone had two servings; the exception was Thomas and a guest, who each had three.  The next evening, we were invited to a friend's house for dinner, to which I volunteered to bring dessert.  Thomas and I were still riding on the euphoria of the Key lime tart that I made it again for the following evening, where I must admit that we also ate a heafty chunk of the tart as well. 

For those of you who are intimidated by baking or avoid baking because it takes so long, don't do it with this recipe.  It truly is one of simplest to make.  And you can always use the supermarket graham cracker crust (I think Keebler's is a good one). 

CUTEST kitten video EVER

Saw this on Anderson Cooper's 360...I can't help but watch it over and over again. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8

Coming back...with mayonnaise

I realize that it as been quite a while since I last posted something up. To carry on from the last post, my strawberry plant did not do quite as well as I had hoped. It had grown and the leaves are large and bright green, and small white flowers have continually popped up. However, the berries never formed larger than half of my pinky fingernail.

So, my attempts at strawberries has been unsuccessful. It may possible be due to the fact that they were indoor plants and didn't get as much sun as needed. However, at the same time I was attempting to grow basil plants, which I did quite successfully. They are still producing leaves to this day. They began to flower some weeks ago, which I stopped by pinching them off. Allowing flowers to grow strips the flavor from the leaves because the plant is focusing its energy to the flowers. I am quite proud of my basil plants.

Now for the mayonnaise...I decided to try my hand at making this condiment from scratch. The recipe I used was based on one from a platter of figs and other recipes by David Tanis, a chef at Chez Panisse, the very well known restaurant in Berkeley, CA. It calls for two egg yolks and a cup of oil. Yes, it's a ton of oil, but for those who did not know, mayonnaise is at its simplest, a mixture of egg yolks and oil.

I read in other cookbooks that the eggs should be at room temperature so I let them sit out on the counter for a while. And just out of curiosity, I used half olive oil and half sunflower oil. I used a hand mixer to whip the egg yolks until they had a thick consistency and then very slowly, drizzled the oil in a thin stream. You can't put too much in too fast or the eggs will curdle. The mayonnaise then gets flavored with Dijon mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. I also added some paprika to make it more interesting, but you can pretty much add whatever you choose. The resulting texture is a smooth, thick condiment. While kept in the fridge, it did not separate very much. If left out at room temperature or warmer, it does separate; and although you can mix it back together, the texture is not the same.

Making mayonnaise was an interesting process. If you like mayonnaise, it is worth a try since it does not take that long to make. I am not a huge fan of it (Thomas loves the stuff), but the flavor of a freshly made one very intriguing and I find myself always sneaking a taste.

As of 20 March

It's been a while since I last posted...and I just started this! Unbelievable. Anyway, since the last post about three weeks ago, my strawberries have grown up a bit. Taking advice from Kayla to use a florescent light, a leaf grew within one week (it kind of looks like holly from this angle):

Since then, I've had done some research on the internet on how to take care of them properly. I spent about two weeks going back and forth about whether I should use fertilizer and what kind. I never knew there was such a dizzying array - greensand, liquid seaweek, fish emulsion, balanced vs unbalanced fertilizers - it's all very overwhelming. But I referred back to my handy-dandy book, and decided to use a very diluted solution of liquid seaweed when I first plant them and a balanced fertilizer on a regular basis throughout the growing season.

Last weekend, I decided to re-pot the oregano that was residing in a very large pot all by its lonesome self into a smaller pot. I was using some the liquid seaweed, and used some leftover solution on the strawberry plants. By that time, my plants had very healthy second and third leaves growing (sorry, I forgot to take a picture to commemorate). I then left town the next day for a business trip.

Thomas took care of them while I was gone, mindful about doing it carefully, since I have developed an odd obsession for them. One of them had apparently gotten "soft" (an adjective he used) around Tuesday, and so he stopped watering fearing that he was doing too much of that. They recovered, and he sent me this picture on Thursday:

I couldn't believe it, they got so big! I was really thrilled. I couldn't wait to see them up close when I got home. And now that I am home, as ecstatic as I am that they had gotten significantly bigger, I also realized that they were starting to look a bit droopy. I picked one up and saw that the roots were beginning to grow outside the peat pellets they were in - they were at least an inch outside the pellets. I hadn't readied the large pot for them, so I decided to temporarily pot them in disposable cups with holes poked at the bottom (for water drainage) to give them more room to grow. It was too soon for any fertilizer, so I just added moist potting soil and am letting them do their thing by the window:

I am keeping my fingers crossed that my plants will do better now that they have more room to grow. I am really thrilled at the progress the strawberries have been making so far. I am on furlough this week, so it's probably the best time to prepare their final home sometime soon rather than later.

And a side story, the act of moving my oregano has resulted in getting it killed. I don't know if it was because it was unhappy being in a smaller house or that the fertilizer was too strong. Either way, may it rest in peace and know that I appeciated the wonderful flavor it imparted.

I will try to be better about posting the next update soon. Pray that I don't accidentally kill these plants too!

American Idol

Earlier this year, we were invited to a French house party with the theme "American Idol". Everyone was to dress up as a musician celebrity and perform an act. I was hesitant to do any performance, but the hosts said that as long as I dressed up, they didn't care. So Thomas and I were trying to think of ideas as to whom we should go as... Sonny and Cher was thrown around, except Cher was the taller of the two and as you all know, that is not the case with Thomas and I. As a joke, I said John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but didn't really mean it because surely we would have better ideas than that. Well we didn't, and arrived as the infamous couple, and I have to say, we did quite a good job:
I realize that Yoko is not known to smile a lot, but other than that, we did a good job , no?

Other notables that showed up were the Spice Girls:


And Marilyn Manson: