The Valentines Present that Nearly Wasn't!

The Valentines Present that nearly Wasn't!

So today for Valentines day . I told Mike I would make him one of his favorite pies. A Key Lime Pie.

I have made these very occasionally in the past and thought it would be no trouble. I searched through our library of cook books and found one good looking recipe in a Southern Living cookbook. I checked the ingredients and thought that I had them all and so this morning I set to.

First I had to make a pie shell and bake it. The recipe called for a graham cracker pie shell but I changed that to a regular short crust pastry shell as when I looked I didn't have any graham crackers. My pastry making has been so- so lately and I have tried out a few different recipes and felt certain this latest one would do fine . It looked good until I tried to roll the pastry out only to find it was extremely dry and kept breaking up and crumbling but somehow or other I managed to get in on the pie pan in almost the right shape and into the oven to cook.

While that was baking I assembled my other ingredients. I separated the eggs only with one mishap. One of the yolks dropped into the separated whites but I managed to fish it out with a spoon without breaking it. I mixed the sugar and got the lid off the condensed milk. As I took the top off the can I saw it was a yucky brown cinnamon color! Could that be right ? The last time I saw condensed milk it was a lovely light creamy color. I looked at the can but could see no mention of cinnamon or cocoa and also no sell- by- date. I did see that it had an Albertson’s label. I knew that we haven't shopped at Albertsons for about 6 years so probably this can was REALLY out of date. It was the only can I had.

OH big disaster!

Mike did offer to go to the store to get another can but that would take nearly an hour . So I said never mind I'll see what my other recipes say and see if I can fiddle the recipe. Fortunately I found another recipe in my old fashioned pie book which made the filling from scratch using cornstarch with limes and eggs. So very carefully I measured out the various ingredients . It was more complicated as the mixture has to be carefully mixed so it doesn't get lumpy or burn and the eggs don't become scrambled in the mix but it seemed to work okay. The limes didn't give much juice even though I squeezed and squeezed and the grated peel was not enough to make the filling green but apart from that it turned out surprisingly well. Even the meringue didn't shrink like it usually does.

We ate it for lunch and even for supper and both considered it a good Valentines pie but never true Key Lime pie

PS it was delicious.