Strawberry Key Lime Pie with Coconut Pecan Crust

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Any time I see key limes at the store for a reasonable price I pick them up. I adore key limes, but they are not carried in my grocery store often, so I was elated when I saw the bags of cute little key limes on sale at the grocery store. I picked up two bags with the intention of making a key lime pie.


However, Dr. Lazy Palate says that I am not capable of eating the same thing twice. He is probably right. If I had it my way I would eat something new and different at every meal. I have a flair for the exotic. I think food is one way that people can keep their lives exciting and invigorating. I decided to pair up two of my favorite combinations, strawberries and key limes, in this key lime pie recipe with a twist. I am also not a fan of pie crust. Most pie crusts get left on the plate after I am done eating the pie. I really just like the good stuff. The crust is just a convenient way of encasing the yummy filling. This time I wanted to eat the crust and enjoy eating the crust. I did not want to go through all the work of making a crust that I was just going to peel off, so I was excited to find a key lime pie with a coconut crust. After reading the reviews of the pie recipe it sounded like the coconut pie crust was so coconut laden that it engulfed the delicious key lime pie filling making the filling just a supporting player in the key lime pie. I reduced the coconut in the pie filling, added pecans, double the amount of pie filling, and added my strawberry syrup to the pie to make an excellent pie. I loved the pie crust. This is one time that I did not leave the pie crust sitting on my plate looking sad.

The strawberry flavor is very subtle in the pie because key limes are a very dominant flavor. I suggest adding strawberry syrup on top of the pie for some extra pizazz and an extra burst of sweet strawberry flavor. The strawberry syrup combined with the tart key lime pie filling and the coconut pecan crust make for one very satisfying and filling dessert. A small piece of this pie is sufficient for dessert.

I made the strawberry key lime pie in a 9 inch spring form pan instead of my pie pan because my pie dish was too small to hold the thick crust and the large amount of pie filling. In order for the pie to keep its shape once the sides of the spring form pan have been removed you have to chill the pie well. I chilled my strawberry key lime pie overnight, and it held its shape beautifully.

Ingredients (makes 1 nine inch pie) inspired by Wayne Harley Brachman

¾ cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, divided
1 cup pecans, chopped and divided
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and chopped into pea sized pieces
1 large egg mixed with 1 cup ice water
2 large egg whites
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extra

For the filling:

8 egg yolks
28 ounces sweetened condensed milk
4 key limes, zested
3/4 cup key lime juice
½ cup strawberry syrup + more for serving (follow link for recipe)

Directions

1. In a food processor, add flour, sugar, ¼ cup coconut, ¼ cup pecans, butter, and 2 tbsp of the egg water solution. Blend until the pie crust is chunky and crumbly. The mixture will look a little dry, but it will come together after chilling.

2. Wrap the pie crust in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

3. Roll the dough into a flat dish and line the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

4. In a food processor, add the remaining coconut, pecans, egg whites, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla. Process until crumbly.

5. Press the coconut pecan mixture on top of the chilled pie crust.

6. Chill the pie crust for 30 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

8. Bake the pie crust for 8 minutes or until set.

9. Decrease the oven temperature to 235 degrees F.

10. Strawberry Key Lime Pie Filling: Mix the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, key lime zest, key lime juice, and strawberry syrup in a large bowl. Beat well. The filling should look like pudding.

11. Pour the pie filling into the pie crust.

12. Bake the pie for 22-25 minutes or until set.

13. Allow the pie to cool to room temperature.

14. Chill overnight in refrigerator.

15. Serve drizzled with strawberry syrup.

Posted on Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Mangia Monday, My Meatless Monday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Your Recipe My Kitchen, Made By You Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesday at the Table, Tasty Tuesday, Made From Scratch Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday Tidbits, Tutorial Tuesday

Healthy Amaranth Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

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I have been experimenting in my kitchen with baking with amaranth and honey bee pollen. Amaranth is an ancient grain traditionally grown in South America by the indigenous people. Amaranth is a very small grain shaped like a small bead and has a nice nutty taste. Honey bee pollen is the pollen that bees collect and take to their hives. Honey bee pollen is considered a complete food meaning that it contains every single type of amino acid possible. Honey bee pollen varies from place to place as bees will collect pollen from their local flowers. Our honey bee pollen locally is a dark yellow color, but honey bee pollen can be red, green, orange, and brown depending upon the type of pollen found in the flowers locally. Honey bee pollen should not be given to children under the age of two and people who are allergic to honey as a severe allergic reaction can occur.

I set out to make a healthy muffin that tastes good and is not something that you can readily buy at the grocery store. Luckily, amaranth is easy to bake with as is honey bee pollen. Honey bee pollen can have a chalky texture when eaten raw, but when I baked with it, the honey bee pollen infused itself beautifully within the muffin leaving no chalky texture anywhere in the muffin. The only potential downside to baking with honey bee pollen is that experiments have not been done on honey bee pollen to ensure that the structural integrity of all of the amino acids remains intact when baked, so you might potentially be losing some of the nutritionally quality of the honey bee pollen by baking the honey bee pollen.

These healthy amaranth whole wheat pumpkin muffins were excellent. The muffins were sweet and hearty with bits of pecans, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries sprinkled throughout the muffin to create a fun and flavorful muffin that is very filling. These muffins are perfect for breakfast on a busy morning when you do not have time to cook. Both of my kids loved these muffins. Miss Bubbles ate three muffins after they came out of the oven.

Ingredients (makes 18 medium muffins) from my own kitchen

2 large eggs
½ cup light brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup amaranth
½ cup wheat bran
¼ cup milled flax seed
¼ cup honey bee pollen
¼ cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup cranberries, dried
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk the brown sugar and eggs in a large bowl until smooth.

3. Mix in the pumpkin, amaranth, wheat bran, flax seed, honey bee pollen, applesauce, and vanilla extract until well combined.

4. Mix the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a large bowl.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly while stirring constantly. Stir until well combined.

6. Mix in the pecans, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Mix until evenly distributed.

7. Fill the muffin cups ¾ full.

8. Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

9. Cool the muffins 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan. Enjoy!

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

My favorite garden seeds of the 2011 season

Everywhere seed geeks are flipping through the glossy, brightly colored seed catalogues put out by seed companies to entice you to buy. You can see can a seed geek drooling a bit while they imagine a garden filled with crunchy orange carrots, fresh lettuce leaves, sweet cantaloupes, and exotic heirloom vegetables. I love seed reviews from other gardeners, so I thought I would share my favorite seeds from the 2011 gardening season. I live in zone 5. Last year I loved these five garden seeds.


1. European Mesclun Mix from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: I loved this seed mix. All the lettuce leaves were mild and made a great spring or fall salad. Most of the seeds in this mix were loose leaf so you can pick leaves from the outer edges of lettuce and still have lots more lettuce come in about a week. You can eat these greens in the baby stage or in the more mature adult stage.

2. Pairsienne Carrot from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: I got this packet of carrots free last year in my seed order, and I am so glad that I decided to make some room in my garden bed for this seed. The carrots were very sweet and grew very easily. The fat carrots were wonderful sliced fresh or in a soup.

3. Ground Cherry from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: This was my daughter’s favorite seed last year. She would sit on the ground and pick up the ripe ground cherries (the ripe berries fall on the ground) and peel the paper husk off before eating them. These sweet little fruits taste reminiscent of a pineapple.

4. Clemson Spineless Okra from Gurneys: I did not have much faith in okra being able to grow up here in zone 5, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well this okra produced. The plants produced many 6 inch long, tender okra pods. The pods were never woody and tasted great. The showy flowers on this plant were also a nice bonus.

5. Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: I loved these black beans. They were very easy to grow and versatile in the kitchen. You can use them fresh or you can dry them for the winter season. According to Baker Creek, “This heirloom was brought from Tennessee by the Cherokee people as they were marched to Oklahoma by the Federal Government in 1839 over the infamous ‘Trail of Tears’ that left so many dead and suffering.” I loved having a small piece of history in my garden.

Leave me a comment and tell me your favorite seeds of the 2011 season. I loved hearing your recommendations.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Chinese Soy Duck

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Dr. Lazy Palate first had this amazing soy duck at work at one of his work pot luck clubs. His Chinese coworker brought in this special soy duck that is usually reserved for special celebrations like Chinese New Year. Dr. Lazy Palate knew that I would love this dish so he asked his coworker for the recipe and she kindly gave us this recipe to make at home.


Soy duck takes several hours to prepare. Dr. Lazy Palate’s coworker said that this dish takes her about 2.5 hours to prepare; however, the dish took us over three hours because we were not as efficient as she was at making this delicious soy duck. The first step in soy duck is to fry the duck in a wok. Then, the next step is to simmer the duck in soy sauce and a few spices for an hour and a half. Finally, the sauce is reduced to a mere half a cup. None of the steps in making soy duck are hard, but they are time consuming. Two woks is recommended to make the duck, but you can also make soy duck in two large pots if you do not have a wok, or you can wash out your wok in between frying and simmering if you do not have two woks (this is the method that we used).

Soy duck is very flavorful and not greasy like most duck recipes. The skin is the best part of the duck which still does retain some of its natural fattiness, but it is worth every bite. The sauce is super intense. Most Chinese families liberally pour the sauce on top of their soy duck, but I found the sauce to be too salty for my taste, so I dipped my duck in the sauce instead. You can freeze the leftover sauce in ice cube trays and use it as a stir fry flavoring.

Little BBQ refers to this recipe as “Chinese chicken” and devours the duck. Miss Bubbles loved this duck recipe and ate two servings. I foresee our family making this recipe again in our homeschool to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Soy Duck (serves 4) from Dr. Lazy Palate’s coworker Cynthia

1 whole duck
2 cup “light” soy sauce (we used Pearl River Bridge)
Vegetable oil
Sugar
1 star of anise
1 tsp Chinese prickly ash (this can be found at Asian markets)
¼” piece of ginger
2 green scallions, finely chopped

Directions
1. Deep fry the entire duck for 10-15 minutes in a wok or pot.

2. In a clean wok or pot, add soy sauce, star of anise, Chinese prickly ash, ginger, green scallion, and duck.

3. Add water to the wok or pot until the duck is ¾ covered.

4. Bring the duck sauce to a boil, and then turn down the heat to a simmer for 1 hour. Do not cover.

5. Turn the duck, and cook for another 30 minutes.

6. Remove the duck from the wok and set aside.

7. Turn the heat to high and reduce the duck sauce until there is only ½ cup of sauce left.

8. Chop the duck into pieces and pour the liquid on top of the duck and serve.

Powdered Laundry Detergent Recipe for High Efficiency Washers

I am always looking for ways to save money around the house, so I decided to try my hand at making powdered laundry detergent for my high efficiency washer. After doing some basic research I found out that my high efficiency washer needed a low suds detergent which is great news for the frugal home keeper because it seems that most recipes produce few bubbles.


I tried a powdered laundry detergent recipe with two different soaps to figure out which soap I liked better. In the first laundry detergent I used Ivory® soap which is inexpensive and easy to find. For the second recipe I tried Fels-Naptha® which is inexpensive bar laundry soap, but the Fels-Naptha® is harder to find. I was able to find some at WalMart® in the laundry section, but my local grocery store does not carry Fels-Naptha® so the Fels-Naptha® does not appear to be available everywhere like Ivory soap.

Both soaps seemed to clean my clothes equally as well. I tried clothes soiled with dirt and food along with sheets and towels, and I did not detect a difference in the cleaning power of the soap. However, I did not like the way the Fels-Naptha® shredded in my cheese grater. The soap produced long shards of cheese like strands when I shredded it with my cheese grater. The Fels-Naptha® feels oily on my skin when I shred it, and I detest the smell of the Fels-Naptha®. The scent is very strong making the laundry soap with a very strong and unpleasant to me odor. The scent of the detergent is almost undetectable after being used in the washing machine, so that is plus for me. The other downside to the Fels-Naptha® is that the soap shreds do not mix easily with the washing soda and Borax® because of the even size distribution.

The Ivory® soap, on the other hand, grinds itself up into a nice fine powder that mixes well the washing soda and Borax making a nice mixture that is easy to pour out of plastic pitcher. I love that the Ivory® soap does not have bad smell and an oily texture. The clothes come out of the washer unscented which I love unscented laundry since Dr. Lazy Palate cannot stand his clothes to be scented.

In conclusion, I will use Ivory® soap as the soap for my laundry detergent in the future because it is inexpensive, easy to obtain, and makes a great laundry detergent. I highly recommend this laundry detergent recipe for anyone with a high efficiency washer.

Ingredients from DIY Natural (enough detergent for 64 loads of laundry)

1 bar of Ivory®, shredded (a cheese grater works great)
1 cup Borax®
1 cup washing soda

Directions

1. Mix the ingredients.

2. Store in an air tight container.

3. Use 1 tbsp of detergent for 1 load of laundry.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday