Key Lime Pie - PPP - March

My dear friend Rachel of the Country Cupboard Bakery suggested the pie for this month. She said she had tried Key Lime Pie once and thought it was lovely and wondered if I knew how to make it. Well, no but I could try.
Rachel runs this little Mennonite Bakery just down the road from my house, out in the middle of no where in South West Missouri. She has the most wonderful goodies there. Here Cinnamon Rolls are famous and positively sinful!!! She also stocks Jam from Das Jam Shop that is a local Mennonite Jam factory. They jams are simply divine! I love them!

On to the pie.... When looking up ideas I had some rules in mind.
It had to be tasty,
It had to be easy,
and it had to have reasonable ingredients.

Here is what I came up with.


(sorry this is the only photo, I meant to take a lovely picture of a slice of pie topped with whipped cream and a slice of lime but it is all gone. Once we cut into it we forgot all about photographing it and just snarfed it down.)

Key Lime Pie for Rachel

4 egg yolks
2 (14 oz) cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Lime juice (key limes if you can get them and fresh if possible)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp lime zest (optional as lime zest can be bitter)
1 - 9" pie graham cracker crust

1. Pre-bake your graham cracker crust.

2. Pre-heat oven to 370 deg. F.

3. Combine egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, sour cream, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into your pie shell.

4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

5. Allow to cool. Top with Whipped Cream, garnish with lime slices, and enjoy!

There you have it, easy, fast, and good!

Easy Graham Cracker Crust

1 package graham crackers (9-8 whole crackers), or 1 1/3 cup crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
Mix very well, pat into pie pan and bake at 375 deg F for 8 minutes.


Note: You can use 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime juice. If doing that, I would use lemon zest instead. It tastes so much better.
Also if using farm fresh eggs, you will not get a greenish pie. It will be yellow. :o)

Oh I almost forgot to add the squeezing key limes is hard!! I was going nuts with my citrus juicer until I remembered my garlic press. I cut the limes in quarters and put them in there. It still took a while to get 1 cup of lime juice but my hands weren't killing me when I finished!

March PPP - Carrot Pincushion Tutorial

These pincushions just make me happy! I love carrots.


This should be a fast, easy, and painless tutorial. (if I don't talk too much)

1. Make yourself a carrot template. You want a pie shaped piece. The angle of this triangle is about 45 deg. The sides are 9 inches long and the top is about 7 inches across. These are abouts. You want to make sure that the top side is curved like a pie piece though.


2. Cut out your carrot.



3. Fold the carrot in half and stitch along the long side. 1/4" seam allowance.



4. Turn the carrot right side out. To get the point you are really going to have to dig it out with a pin or something. Be careful and don't push too hard and rip you carrot tip.



5. Stuff the carrot. Start by putting tiny pieces in there and packing them in tight. You can then add bigger pieces but pack them in tight and keep squeezing and re-shaping the carrot as you go. You really want it tight.


6. Take strong thread and make a gathering stitch across the top of the carrot. Pull it tight and stitch it in place and tie it off.



7. Tear off a strip of green fabric about 1" by about 12". Fold it in half and knot it near the ends.



8. Stitch the carrot stem in place securely.


You're done!

What's in Your Easter Basket?

I went out to share some day old bread with my chickens today and brought in a little bundle of warm, wonderful, colorful eggs.

If you look carefully you can see that the one at the bottom right is green! I am so excited.
Bryan bought several colored egg layers last year and they are finally laying a basket of colored eggs for us. The egg in the center isn't white but next to the others it sure looks white. We do have a couple of white egg layers in the bunch too. The yolks of these eggs are simply gorgeous. They are almost orange they are so dark. I made vanilla ice cream yesterday with fresh eggs and fresh milk from the cow and it was golden yellow in color and OH MY GOODNESS was it tasty.
Here are my Fine Hens.


I had to add this to my cornucopia of farmy goodness.

I just made our first batch of butter for this Spring. It is so tasty on the fresh whole wheat bread I made last night.
Here's the bread recipe.

Farm Fresh Bread

6 cups hot milk (heat on the stove)
4 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
6 eggs (I actually used duck eggs)
6 tsp salt
3/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 cups old fashion rolled oats
16-18 cups fresh ground whole wheat flour (I use hard white wheat but red is good too.)

Mix everything together and kneed until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl. The dough might be a bit sticky.
Cover and let rise for an hour in a warm place. (I always keep checking on it and punch it down and flip it around at this stage, I just can't leave it alone.)
Punch the dough down again and divide into 6 loaves. Place in greased bread pans.

Bake at 400 deg F for about 25 minutes. If you are using glass or stoneware pans you might have to add 5 more minutes or so. I usually use metal pans.

This is a large batch so I usually freeze a lot of it and take out the loaves as we need them. This reduces the number of times I have to bake bread in a week.

For Amanda

This winter my niece Rebecca had me help her finish up some of Christmas sewing. Of course I helped because it was for her Fabulous sister Amanda.
I made her a Sassy Apron of her own. It is just like my Sassy Little Aprons but this one is larger just like the one I made for myself.
This apron is double sided so here is side A with Poison Dart Frogs for when Amanda is brewing up her favorite poison.

And here is her other side which reminds me of Van Gough. This side only has 2 frogs for when Amanda feels much less poisonous.

Yes, you can read a woman by her apron. hee hee

Doll Swap Recieved

I got my doll!!! I was so excited. It came this weekend in a lovely red polka-dot package. It was so exciting. My lovely swap partner is the very talented Cheryl from Artsy Fartsy.
Here is my lovely Beary (Bear Fairy).

She is just shy of 9 inches tall. She is made of real vintage fabric (made from a little girl's blouse). She is just darling! I am so happy. She is MINE! Yes I will let some little girls hold her from time to time when they are very clean and being Oh so good. hee hee. They actually seem to like that Mommy has Dollies too and that they have to earn the privilege of touching them and playing in my room with them. It makes the dollies so much more special.
My swap partner also sent my a lovely vintage apron. It is faux smocked on red cotton gingham.

I just love it. I have always wanted one of these. I showed it to my mom and she just went nuts and said that this style of apron was all the rage when she was a teen and that she had made one for herself that was set on point. She was so excited and really loved handling it and remembering happy times. Thank you Cheryl!

Easters Early

I have some little Easter Friends that I have moved over to my Etsy store. They are ready to ship out Priority mail to new homes in time for Easter if ordered by Tuesday, March 18th.
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail have grown up and have bunnies of their own.
Sorry, Cottontail has been sold.


and their friend Mama Pig and Mrs Mouse.
sorry, mama pig has been sold.



Sorry but Miss Flopsy already made it off to a new home, but the rest are here and ready to go.

Macaroons

Sorry, I can hear my dad in my head saying, "Macarooneyroons."



My mother has been craving Macaroons for a few weeks now. I can't do a whole lot to make her life better, but I can try to fill these little wishes for her. She had a few specifics in mind too. She wanted a good fresh macaroon that was crispy but soft in the center. Well, we went on a search and do you know that none of the stores around us have any. So I started searching recipes. She has fond memories of Macaroons from childhood and I wanted to find as authentic a recipe as I could. I figured that the recipes that call for sweetened condensed milk couldn't be right. So I searched some more and came up with this one. I love it and so does she. It is crispy and soft and isn't very sweet so you enjoy the great toasty coconut flavor.

Macaroons

14 oz unsweetened flaked coconut (the longer shreds work better and have the right feel)
2/3 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat the oven to 320 deg. F.
Mix the coconut, sugar, flour and salt together and set aside.
Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Add the vanilla and fold in.
Fold in the dry ingredients.
Drop batter onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper (about 1-2 Tbsp).
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Cool and serve.
Store in a zipper bag to keep them from drying out too much.

Book Tag

I've been tagged..... (my sister Mary Tagged me)

1. Pick up the nearest book (with at least 123 pages)

2. Turn to page 123

3. Find the 5th sentence

4. Post the next three sentences

5. Tag 5 people

" 'What was that he was saying about the Doctor's family?' I asked innocently.
'The Cullens? Oh they're not supposed to come onto the reservation."

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.



I am reading this book for our local book group. I don't know what I think of it yet. I just started and have to finish it by the 13th.

I tag:
Angelic
Rebecca L
Jill Mc.
Josie
and
You!