Easy and Simple: How To Make The Best Key Lime Pie

Flounder's Key Lime Pie, in Pensacola, Florida, a stacked key lime pie


From Denny: Making your own key lime pie is so simple - and rewarding! It's definitely one of my favorite desserts, especially in the heat of the summer. The tartness really cools you off. FYI, any tart food cools down your liver, which, in turn, cools off your body in hot weather. So, think apples, limes, grapefruit and blackberries if you want to cool off the healthy way.

Florida is known for their key lime pie and there are fans of it all over the country now. The real secret to making this simple and easy famous pie is to purchase real key limes for the recipe. Key limes are very small, very tart and thin-skinned. When ripe they turn from green to yellow.

Most limes in our American grocery stores are those large beautiful, neon green and thicker-skinned Persian limes. Persian limes are also much less tart so they don't deliver that full flavor to the pie cooks, and tasters alike, desire.

How simple is this pie recipe? Really simple: 100 percent key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and a good graham cracker crust with a little melted butter, brown sugar and chopped nuts. At our house we make the chocolate graham cracker crust while others choose to use traditional pastry crust. It's your preference.

Computer Crashed This Week, Back Up Soon

From Denny: It had to happen sooner or later, right? The Dell Dimension was lingering like a slow tortoise crossing the road and stopping traffic. It just turned five years old.

After a few days of trying to fix it on my own I finally admitted defeat and took it into Office Depot. When I got the high quote I knew the Universe was advising me it was time to purchase a new one for practically the same price. It was just a couple of weeks ago I was in there, cruising the tech aisles, drooling over the terrabyte goodies while my husband grinned and shook his head.

So, yesterday, my husband looked at me and looked at the old guy Dell and said it was time to meet the new BFF guy on the block: HP. Happy Birthday to me a few weeks early. My husband turned to me today and said, "Someone's in a better mood - and so much happier. Welcome back to the plugged in human race." :)

Oh, and for the Fourth weekend Office Depot has lots of great sales on computers and other happy tech goodies.  If you are like me, finally having to part with an old friend, take a look around.  Who knows?  You just might meet the new love of your life!

*** Photo by babyymomma123 @ photobucket

Dennys Art Sanctuary: Funny Coffee Art and Tutorials: Barista With Cat Humor

Dennys Art Sanctuary: Funny Coffee Art and Tutorials: Barista With Cat Humor: "From Denny: Check out coffee tutorials in the form of how to do latte with beautiful designs like the Rosetta. From World of Latte in The Netherlands come some amusingly good looking cups of coffee!  While this site is not in English you can check out World Coffee Events for it is an English language site.

This cat design sure gave me a smile today.  Imagine being greeted with that at a coffeehouse when you are unwinding from a tough day at work!"



Cat Coffee photo by Live Solutions @ flickr, All Rights Reserved with embed code available

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 12 June 2011

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 12 June 2011: "From Denny: Check out what has been happening in the world of news, comedy, food, poetry, photography, art, music and more. In the past month a whirlwind of news occurred. World terrorist Osama bin Laden was hunted down and killed in a resort town in Pakistan where he had been hiding for the past six years. Supposedly, the Pakistanis were unaware of his presence there. Yeah? And I've got some swamp land in Louisiana to sell you too.

President Obama got a nice bump in approval ratings for about a week and then that fizzled as he resumed his usual do-nothing stance on the economy. Obama also continued with poisonous politics aimed at his own Democrats, throwing them all under the bus in favor of Big Business."

5 Cooling Watermelon Drinks 4 Summer

Instructions on how to carve a watermelon Birthday Cake

From Denny: Did you know that America ranks as number four in production of watermelons? Bet you didn't know that important factoid. Now you are ready when you see the Trivia Crowd coming your way. You are sure to impress.

Some more fun facts about watermelons from the site National Watermelon Production Board:

* About 200-300 varieties are grown in the U.S. and Mexico
* 50 varieties are very popular
* The first recorded watermelon harvest occurred nearly 5,000 years ago in Egypt.
* Watermelon is 92% water
* Early explorers used watermelons as canteens
* In 1990, Bill Carson of Arrington, TN grew the largest watermelon at 262 pounds (1998 ed. Guinness Book of World Records)

Today - and this past week - the temperatures have been riding high in the 90's, near 100 degrees, making everyone miserable. One sure way to help cool off in this heat is with fresh fruit like watermelon.

Seedless watermelons now make up 60 percent of the crop as they are highly favored among consumers at the grocery store. And don't worry if you prefer not to buy a large melon. You can do like I did this weekend and just purchase a large slice of your favorite watermelon. Sometimes, you just want to enjoy watermelon for a few days not an entire month! :) I like to buy the wedges because I can see how ripe the watermelon is and check out the seed level, if any.

Take a look at these wonderful recipes from the National Watermelon Production Board. They sure have been busy on their site figuring out how to entice people to enjoy their product.

Watermelon Pomegranate Green Tea

From: National Watermelon Promotion Board

Makes: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 cups watermelon purée
2 cups pomegranate juice
4 cups strong prepared and chilled green tea
1 cup white grape juice
Ice for serving

Directions:

Mix ingredients together in a large container (except ice) and chill well. Stir before serving and serve over ice.

Frozen Watermelon Blackberry Margaritas With Cilantro and Vanilla

From: National Watermelon Promotion Board

Makes: 3 to 4 drinks

Ingredients:

1 cup chilled watermelon purée
1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
1 tsp. fresh cilantro leaves
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Juice from 1 or 2 fresh limes
1/2 cup chilled tequila or to taste
1 tbl. Triple Sec
2 to 3 cups crushed ice

Directions:

Blend first seven ingredients together until smooth. Add ice and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Note: Rim glasses with sea salt or raw sugar.

Watermelon, Pineapple and Peach Smoothies

From: National Watermelon Promotion Board

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped, seedless watermelon
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well
2 cups peach yogurt
Dash of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Blend ingredients together in a blender until smooth and serve immediately.

Watermelon and Grapefruit Shooters

From: National Watermelon Production Board

Serves: Makes about 12 shooters

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
4 ounces strawberry flavored gelatin mix
1 1/2 cups watermelon puree
1 cup pink grapefruit juice
1 1/2 cups Tequila

Directions:

Bring one half cup water to a boil. Place the gelatin in a heatproof container with a spout and pour the water into the gelatin and stir to dissolve. Combine the dissolved gelatin and the watermelon puree. Divide the watermelon mixture among 12 shot glasses or small juice glasses. Cool until thick but not set. Top each glass with the grapefruit juice and tequila.





Pink Watermelon Chardonnay Sparklers

From: National Watermelon Promotion Board

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

1/3 glass watermelon purée, chilled
1/3 glass chardonnay, chilled
1/3 glass sparkling water, chilled
1 watermelon ball

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a wine glass and serve immediately.


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