Key Lime Lovely

Fastest. Pie. Ever.

Take one of the "2 extra servings!" pre-made graham cracker crusts from the grocery store. Unwrap it.

Turn your oven on to 350.

While the oven's heating up, zest up a few limes, and mix with 8 egg yolks. Then pour on 2 14 ounce cans of sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup key lime juice.

Mix the whole shebang together with a whisk (it'll take a few minutes of whisking to incorporate everything and make it nice and thick). Pour it into your crust (you'll have enough for that pie and a couple of little tarts). Bake for 15 minutes, let it cool, and top with a little whipped cream.

Tadaaaaaa!

Stuff I love

What do I love?

John Cope's Corn I love baked dried corn, and just plain dried corn (cooked, of course). It's so damned Lancaster County, but it's really quite good. (And perfect with Chicken and waffles.)

Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream. I know. I'm not old enough to like Pistachio ice cream, but dagnabbit, this is good stuff. No neon green sludge, no pulverized bits of pistachio, just a nice clean pistachio ice cream with plenty of whole pistachio nuts (no shells, of course). YUM!

The super wonderful fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwiches, with roasted red peppers and pesto mayo on foccacia, at work. And really, the whole cafeteria at work. A lot of people bitch about the hospital cafeteria, but frankly, I think it's got a variety of food, all of it excellently prepared, for a reasonable price. And when you've only got 1/2 hour for lunch, you can't beat it for convenience. The aforementioned sandwich? $2.79.

Flavored Seltzer- No fake sugar, no caffiene, just good stuff. I am really trying to drink less fake sugar, because it's not good for you, and this is an excellent substitute.

Thomas's Corn Toasting Bread- by the English Muffin folks. This stuff is like a nice big corn muffin, in bread form. If it only toasted up a little crisper, I'd be in breakfast-food heaven.

And the stuff I don't like:

Capers. Rather, they don't like me. A greek salad with capers today sent me from zero to migraine in about 35 minutes. (I don't think it was the feta, because feta never bugs me.)

Smirnoff Vodka. Unless I plan on turning to a life of bullimia, I'll never drink the stuff again, in any form. (Who knew you could be allergic to a specific brand?)

Holy Guack-a-noley!

Yes, I really do know how to spell. This post is in honor of Saint Stoltz-a-ma-fus, who always spouts THAT instead of "holy guacamole!". He also used to say "Wrong Chicken" and has never answered the phone with anything but "Hel-LO Steve Here!". Ever. And I've known him for 5 years. We tease him that his answering machine should simply say "Hel-lo, Steve Not here!" but he hasn't gone so far yet...

Anyway, today's recipe is Holy Guack-A-Noley, or Guacamole by the seat of your pants...

For one nice sized bowl, you'll need:

3 nice, ripe, delectable Avacados
3-4 Jalapenos (seeded/deveined or as veined as you like for the heat)
1 roma, or 1/2 big tomato
1/4 onion (Red) or more if you like
a bit of garlic, whacked up finely
1 or more limes
Cilantro
salt
pepper
maybe some corn, black beans, or something else nummy to mix in...

Mince your jalapenos, onion, and tomato, if using fresh garlic, whack it up to within an inch of its life and toss that in the mix too. Then, cut your avocados in half, and scoop out their innards. (Grow the pit, or do what you'd like with it.) Smash the guts to within an inch of their lives (2 inches if you like yours chunky), while spritzing liberally with the fresh lime juice. Whip in the cilantro if you're feeling sassy, and mix the whole shebang together. Salt and pepper to your heart's content, and dig in with your favorite chippage or other guacamole delivery device.

If you're going to refrigerate this at all, be sure to smoosh plastic wrap down onto the surface of the guacamole, so that it won't turn brown so quickly. Don't try to make this a zillion hours in advance, you're just going to have nasty looking guacamole, and who wants that?