The Plucky Housewives

Key Lime Pie. CRUST 1-1/2 c crushed graham crackers 3 T sugar 5 T butter, melted PIE FILLING 2 (14 oz) cans sweetened condensed milk 8 large egg yolks Zest of 2 lime 1 c key lime juice (approximately 20-30 key limes, depending on how juicy they are) Few tips:  For the Key Lime juice, you have a couple of choices - you can squeeze fresh key limes or you can use bottled Key lime juice.  If you choose to use the bottled juice, pick one that is not "imitation".  You have plenty of options.  If your supermarket carries it, they will shelve it with the bottled lemon juices.  If not, Amazon.com has  Nellie & Joe's by the bottle  or  by the pack . I like a thicker pie, so this recipe makes a filling that when set is 1 to 1-1/2 inches.   If you like a thinner filling, reduce the filling recipe in half. 1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 2.  In a medium bowl, add crushed graham crackers and sugar.  Mix together thoroughly wi...

Over on our Gadget Tab is a great recipe for Key Lime Pie .   The What is This tab features Meyer Lemons and a wonderfully refreshing Greek Egg-Lemon soup (Avgolemono) .   Go over and have a try!

Grandma’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Pie crust – double (for crust and top) 2 c strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced 2 c fresh rhubarb, chopped 1 c sugar 2 T cornstarch 1/2 t lemon zest 1/2 t lemon juice 3 T butter, cubed, small.  1 egg mixed with 1 t water for glazing 1-2 T decorative white sugar crystals Prepare pie crust recipe as directed, making sure you have enough pie crust for top and bottom crusts. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F 1.  Roll out one piece of piecrust dough into a 9 inch circle.   Then, gently fold the dough into quarters, placing the point of the dough into the center of the 9” pie plate.  Unfold the dough to cover the entire plate.  Press the dough gently into the pie plate, leaving the extra dough to hang over the edge of the pie.  Roll the second pie dough into a 10-inch square.  Using a fluted pie cutter cut the second circle into ¾ inch strips.  Set aside. 2.  In a large bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawb...

About 10 years ago, I received a present from my mother-in-law.  It was a beautiful red (wonderful color) pie dish with this ceramic bird in a plastic box.  The plate I was thrilled with, but the BIRD?  Why was this bird in the pie dish.  It was cute, but so are a lot other things!  I used the pie plate a lot, but put the bird away.  Then, one day, I was reading in one of my favorite magazine,  Country Living , and saw that there were people out there actually collecting pie birds!  I remembered receiving a pie bird and quickly looked through my kitchen gadgets and found it.  I made an apple pie with the bird in the middle and it came out fun and delicious. What the pie does is it gives the pie (a double crust fruit pie) an outlet for the steam to escape, thus making it so your pie filling stays in the pie and not all over your oven!! Take your pie crust and cover the bottom of the pie dish.  Center the pie bird in the pie plate, on to...

photo by TAGilephotos@gmail.com Featured food of the week is the blueberry! Blueberries – At 80 fat-free calories a cup, they are an excellent source of vitamin C (25% of our daily requirements), dietary fiber, manganese and contain essential antioxidant properties. PICK blueberries that are firm, plump, and dry.  Their skin should be smooth and have a silver sheen.   Reddish berries are not ripe.  Avoid soft and shriveled berries.  If you see stains on the container, they are more than likely bruised, so avoid those also.  Blueberry Council FAQ STORE your berries in the refrigerator in the plastic pack they came in or a storage contained.  Wash just before using and within 10 days after you buy them.  FREEZE unwashed berries that are completely dry.  They will freeze individually, so you can use as many or as little as you need!  Throw out any bruised, discolored or shriveled berries before you freeze and keep in a re-seala...

My mother had this pie recipe book - Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook (1965). In it was every recipe for every pie she had ever made, plus all of her changes and adjustments that made them her own. When I moved back to Wisconsin and into the family home (after her death), there, in the house were many of her cookbooks and among those her pie cookbook. All her handwriting and notes and even small cards inside that she had written. I was dumbfounded why it was still there, but glad that this was the inheritance left for me. Anyone who has ever ate a meal at my mother's house and it involved a pumpkin pie, was fooled. There was never pumpkin in our house - never a can of pumpkin, never a fresh pumpkin cooked and pureed. Not one solitary pumpkin in over 40 years. The secret it out - it was all squash pie. Butternut squash to be exact. She was slow-roasting squash before Ina Garten had even thought of walking into a kitchen. In the fall, the garden would be cleaned out of all t...

Arlene - Getting food ready Food or the sharing of food  is a big part of our family. It is a major component in family tradition. My mom was a "foodie" before the term even came into existence. One of my fondest memories as a young girl/teen was helping my mother bake 12 loaves of bread a week for our family. She would do it on Fridays and the baking would go well into the evening. With my mother gone now for almost 5 years, my children and I really cherish those memories. She lives on in the messy pages of her pie cookbook, the one where the binding is literally in shreds and now sits in a Ziploc bag to hold it together; or the handwritten notes on the pages of her favorite cookbook, where she changed ingredients or even left notes in the corners to "remember" what worked or didnt work with the recipe.  She was famous  for her lemon meringue pie, with the meringue sometimes as high as 4" and perfectly brown. The lemon custard was sweet, but not overpower...