Cloudy with a chance of limes

As I have mentioned previously, I was recently faced with the daunting task of making pie. After a successful run involving canned fruit, I stepped it up a tad with fresh pineapple-cherry pie. The other idea that had been tossed around was a lemon or lime pie. Citrus pies are a loophole in the rule of fruit pies that cost an arm and a leg to concoct (pineapple-cherry pie was clearly not), making both immensely appealing to my cheap side. Justin and I hit Trader Joe's for some lemons, limes and butter, then he had to go to work. I called Catey up and we went to Target. Her face brightened at the mention of lime pie as she recalled a key lime meringue pie she had sampled at Blue Heaven on a trip to Key West. Luckily, the internet led us right to the recipe. We got right to work (minus key limes, plus normal limes). It was so good that we ate the whole thing before Justin tried it, so I made another one.

Magical Vacation Lime Meringue Pie
Adapted from Blue Heaven Key Lime Pie

Crust Part:
- 3 cups graham cracker crumbs (original recipe called for 4 cups, but I think this was too much. On take two I used 3 cups and it was delicious)
- 1/2 stick of butter, melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

Filling part:
- 1 cup lime juice (limes are really annoying to squeeze and don't yield a lot of juice, so we supplemented limes squeezed by Sophie with ready made lime juice)
- 2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 8 egg yolks

Meringue part:
- 8 egg whites
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350˚.

First make the crust. Mix the graham cracker crust, melted butter and sugar together. Press the mixture into a 9 inch pie pan (use your hands and/or a spoon). Bake for 8 minutes, then remove to cool.

Have one of your trusty friends separate the eggs (thanks Luz!). Add the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk to the yolks and whisk together until well combined. Pour the filling into the pie crust and set aside. Use a kitchenaid or hand beaters to beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating to stiff peaks. Add the sugar and beat until all whites are at stiff peaks. Dollop the mixture on top of the pie decoratively. A spoon or spatula is effective.

Bake for 15-30 minutes, or until meringue is mostly browned, but not entirely (the original recipe recommends testing the custard for doneness, but this was impractical to impossible with the height of the meringue. We based our decision to remove the pie on the meringue color alone).

Let cool for at least one hour before refrigerating. Let pie cool as long as humanly possible. Cut with a hot, wet serrated knife for best results. Yum.