Key Lime Goodness

Lately, I have really been craving key lime pie. Normally, I’m definitely a chocolate girl, but I have been ordering key lime pie whenever possible. I finally decided to give it a try myself and I was not disappointed. It’s a very simple and tasty recipe!

Our friends, Ali and Sam are coming to Nashville for a visit, so this will be waiting on them when they get here. Hopefully, they like key lime pie as much as I do!

And a special thanks to Lisa, Deborah and Delancy for my fancy new shamrock green Fiesta pie plate! I love it! It definitely makes the pie taste better!!!

Key Lime Pie

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

7 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup of sugar, and the melted butter. Press firmly on bottom and up sides of pie plate. Bake for 7 minutes and let cool completely.

Filling:

3 large egg yolks

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and condensed milk. Stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and cream. Pour the filling into the crust and bake about 30 minutes or until firm. Remove pie from oven and let cool 20 minutes before putting into fridge.

E’s Notes:

• I used the remaining heavy cream to make whipped cream by adding some powdered sugar and beating for a few minutes.
• The homemade crust is totally optional- you could definitely by a prepared crust from the store.
• I cheated a little bit and used the juice from one fresh lime and some store-bought key lime juice. I can’t tell a difference!
  

Ivy went to the groomer for a day of pampering. Doesn't she look pretty???

Apparently, all that pampering leaves her exhausted. She's been sleeping all afternoon!

Pick a Pepper!

We stopped by Billy and Rita's on Monday and they gave us more tomatoes and a few peppers! At this point, I had to make some salsa!

As I said earlier, I was a little reluctant to make the salsa since I didn’t want to ruin the delicious tomatoes. I looked up about 10 recipes on salsa and reviewed the ingredients and the process. And then . . . I did it my own way. My big decision was whether to do a “fresh” salsa and just chop all the ingredients or to do a “restaurant style” salsa and cook the salsa mixture. I decided to go with cooking it, since the fresh tomatoes have a ton of juice and I am hoping it will last a little bit longer. We’ll see.

I don’t have an exact recipe for this- I used 8 large fresh tomatoes, 1 yellow onion, 5-6 jalapeño peppers, juice of 1 lemon, 3 garlic cloves, handful of cilantro, teaspoon or so of cumin, tablespoon of chili powder, and salt. I peeled and cored the tomatoes and put them in a large sauce pan until they came to a boil. I put them in the blender until it was fairly smooth. Back into the pot and I added all the other ingredients (except cilantro). I let them mixture cook for about 30 minutes, until all the veggies were soft. Last, I topped it off with the cilantro.




I really thought this was going to be like several other things I have made (like biscuits) from scratch- good, but not worth the effort when the store has plenty of good options. But it was completely delicious and so worth it. I did taste it at one point during the cooking to see if it needed more ingredients- I added salt and more peppers. It’s going to be hard to eat “regular” store-bought salsa now! Although I will say, I think the tomatoes made it great!

E’s Notes:

• You could make this with canned tomatoes- most of the recipes online used canned tomatoes.
• Taste it several times during the process to see what it needs. The peppers will get hotter and more flavorful as all the ingredients meld together.
• I took the seeds out of the peppers- if you want it hotter, leave the seeds in!
• Add ingredients that you like or omit the ones you don’t like (ex. cilantro).

Derby Days

We met Billy, Rita, and Alison in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday. We dropped off Ivy at the hotel and headed for Churchill Downs. It was very hot, but the tour was neat! A tunnel lead from the front gate to the general admission stands- our tour guide said today, it would take us about 2-3 minutes to walk that, but on the day of the Kentucky Derby, it takes over an hour! I think I’ll watch it on tv!

We headed to the Hall of Fame Café for some lunch and drinks to cool us down. Louisville is famous for Derby Pie and Hot Brown. At lunch, Alison wasn’t very hungry, so she only ordered Derby Pie. Rita and I really wanted some, but we were too full from our big lunch to order a piece. We had a sample of Alison’s and it was fabulous- vanilla ice cream, caramel, warm pie! Amazing!

Rita and I agreed that we could not leave Louisville without trying our own piece. Later that night, we went to the restaurant in our hotel and ordered Derby Pie a la mode. They were out of ice cream! And the pie was not warm and not delicious. We were so disappointed! We did try the hot brown and it was very good.



We came back to Nashville after a big brunch on Sunday. I couldn’t let our last memory of Derby Pie be a bad one. So I made some Derby Pie and it was great!

Derby Pie

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. chopped pecans
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla
6 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 T bourbon
1 9 inch deep dish pie shell, unbaked

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all ingredients and pour into pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes and reduce heat to 350 degrees for 35 minutes more. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

E’s Notes:

• I used Jack instead of bourbon- it’s all whiskey!
• I had to put foil around the edge of my crust because it was getting too brown.
• Serve warm with ice cream, of course!

J- O- B

I am so completely thrilled and excited to report that I have a J-O-B in Oklahoma City. And it's a job that I am really excited about! I am going to be the Director of Outreach and Volunteers at the YWCA- Oklahoma City.

I feel so blessed! Jeremy, so many of you, and I have prayed about this for such a long time. It has been really hard over the past few months to have patience and trust that God knows what is best for us. No doubt, it's been a long road . . . but we are so happy to be at this point in our lives!

We are sad to leave Nashville, but we feel really good about what is ahead of us in Oklahoma City. This job is something I would love to do even if I didn't have to work! Here's a little synopsis of my job duties:

"The Director of Volunteer and Outreach Services is responsible for recruiting and training new volunteers for all YWCA program areas, as well as maintaining involvement of current volunteers. The Director will also represent and speak on behalf of the YWCA in a variety of capacities."

It's going to be challenging, but rewarding. I can't wait to start. My start date is August 4th (so soon- I know!).

A funny story- the mission of the YWCA is "eliminating racism and empowering women ." Recently, the YWCA-OKC decided to state the mission when they answer phone calls. As you can see, the mission is a little long and a little wordy. Apparently, more than one person has been caught saying- eliminating women and empowering racism. Oops! Hopefully, I won't make the mistake!

Only two things money can't buy . . .

True love and home grown tomatoes! I absolutely LOVE fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes. They are nothing like any of the tomatoes that are bought in the grocery store. They have so much more flavor and color! The pictures don't even do them justice!

Jeremy's parents have a garden and they have all kinds of delicious vegetables. But the tomatoes, without a doubt, are my most favorite! I slice them up and salt liberally. They probably gave me 6 or 7 tomatoes to bring home with us. I was a little worried, because Jeremy is going to be out of town, but I think I can probably eat them all myself! My mom suggested making a homemade salsa- I'm thinking about it, but if it didn't turn out well, I would feel like I wasted a tomato. They are only available for a limited time and in limited quantities!

They also gave me some squash and cucumber, so I'll be coming up with a few recipes to use those vegetables!

Red, White, & Blue- Strawberry, Cream Cheese, & Blueberry

We had a fabulous July 4th! On Thursday night, Alison and I baked and decorated a cake for their community's annual 4th of July picnic. I would post the recipe, but we used a mix and store-bought icing. It's a strawberry cake mix and 2 containers of cream cheese icing (Duncan Hines).

Then we decorated with fresh strawberries and blueberries! As most of you know, I really like making things from scratch, but this was pretty darn good. And as always, the fun part was the decorating.

Unfortunately, Alison had to work on Friday, so she wasn't able to attend the picnic, but we saved her a piece!

Isn't Alison's new haircut cute?!?!

Jeremy and I went to Ms. Thelma's house for the picnic. Don't you love potlucks?!?! There was so much food. We had barbecue (that means pulled pork in TN), fresh tomatoes, chicken dorito, green beans, corn on the cob, all kinds of little salads, vegetable trays, spinach dip. And then, the desserts!!! They had pecan pie, blondies, strawberry cake, sugar cookies, other cookies. It was a feast!

That night, we went to see Lexington's fireworks. Alison and Cody invited us out to watch the display from Cody's boat. We had front row seats! It was a very impressive display. My pictures didn't turn out too well, but trust me, they were good. The fireworks lasted for over 30 minutes!

Alison, Cody, and their friend, Ricky.

Jeremy and I on the boat.

Fireworks reflecting off the lake.

We had such a great time, but we're so tired! We went to another picnic on Saturday night. They had more delicious food, including homemade ice cream! It was amazing!

girls- n. sweet n’ sassy

Yesterday, I took everyone on my personal tour of the sites of Nashvegas- we nicknamed it the Ivy tour- she went with us. I took them to downtown Nashville and we saw the capitol building, Ryman Auditorium, Music Row, Broadway, Vanderbilt, Parthenon, Bicentennial Mall, Centennial Park, etc. Did you know that Nashville is also called the Athens of the South? And the three stars on the TN flag are representative of West, Middle and East Tennessee. I could totally be a tour guide! Lisa enjoyed it- I think the girls were a little bored.

Click here for more pics of our Nashville tour.



Today was the day they have been waiting for all weekend! Their trip to Sweet N’ Sassy! They did the Princess Package- mini- mani, makeup app, and a hairdo. Deborah went with the rockstar look and Delancy did the princess look. They asked me about doing it- I told them I am already sweet n’ sassy!



Both Deborah and Delancy like banana pudding and since it is Jeremy's favorite dessert, I decided to make it while they were visiting us. My family traditionally makes the pudding by cooking it on the stove- from scratch, the old-fashioned way. One time, I made it for Jeremy like that and he said he wished it was the cold kind!!! I wasn’t so happy to hear that after I had spent all that time over the stove stirring it and making sure it didn’t burn.

The cold kind takes only a few minutes and it’s so easy! I’ll probably never make the stove top kind again! Here is the recipe for one of his favorites.

Banana Pudding

(the cold kind)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
4 bananas, sliced
1/2 (12 ounce) package vanilla Wafers

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.

Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish with vanilla wafers. Arrange sliced bananas evenly over wafers. Spread with pudding mixture. Top with remaining whipped topping. Chill.


We askd the girls about their favorite thing from their entire time in Nashville. They said Nucci's- the Italian Ice and Gelato place. Who would have thought that's all it takes for a fun trip to Nashville?!?! So, with one final stop to Nucci's, they are headed back to the great state of Texas, with a minor detour in Memphis to see the home of Elvis.

It was a fun, interesting, entertaining, exhausting, exciting, filling weekend (plus a few days) with Deborah, Delancy, and Aunt Lisa! I'm so glad they came to visit and hope there will be many more trips to Cousin Erin's- even if I live in OKC!