There may be a bit of a blogging hiatus while I try not to kill people. OH MY. That’s all I have to say. Actually, I do want to post the pie that I just made because it’s so pretty. Yeah, the blogging hiatus probably isn’t going to happen. I like it too much.

So on with the pie. I agreed to bake a gluten-free key lime pie for my coworker’s dinner party tomorrow evening. Gluten-free you say? Yeah I had absolutely no experience in the gluten-free department. As it happens, key lime pie only has one gluteny ingredient — the graham cracker crumb crust.

Easy solution = gluten-free cookies food processed into crumbs:

The lime juice:

So the pie making and crust making went really smoothly and then I decided to candy some lime slices for garnish.
I used this recipe which is an Emeril recipe for the actual pie (but subbing gluten-free cookies for graham crackers). I didn’t use his recipe for the meringue or the candied lime peel.

In process (like my apron?) (You can see the pie in the background there too):

And cooling:

The recipe that I used called for creating a meringue topping, piping it onto the pie and then singeing it with a kitchen torch. Well, I don’t have a kitchen torch and no one is a fan of raw egg so we went with Swiss meringue buttercream instead. This involves whisking egg whites with sugar in a double boiler for a good period of time.

Good thing Andy came over to help (and console me):

After lots of whisking on the stove, you switch to mixing in a bowl for a good 10 minutes. This picture is before adding the butter. Basically Swiss meringue buttercream just involves egg whites, granulated sugar, butter and usually vanilla. We skipped the vanilla and I used a tiny bit of lime juice in its place to go with the pie.

And here’s the finished gluten-free pie all decorated and ready to be purchased by coworker:



In case you’re wondering about the plastic pie container in the pictures, I purchased them at Giant Eagle. It came with two aluminum pie tins and a the top and bottom plastic things that attach to each other. Great idea!

Andy also made pizza and salads for dinner.

Artichokes, bell peppers, onions, mozzarella, and romano cheese:

And spinach salads:

Alright I guess that’s about it for tonight. Today sucked but I have a positive attitude about tomorrow. Blogging really does help. Sad? Ehh it’s just like an online journal.

Okay I guess it’s bed time. Also the vagueness ends now. I have nothing to hide.
Goodnight.