When Life Gives You Lemons...Bake Pie!
It's been 14 days since I've left my home.That doesn't mean I haven't been outside. Thankfully, we have a wonderful backyard where we can roam and soak up the sun. And it backs up to woods, which makes it even more private. Am I going crazy? Has cabin fever set in? No. I love my home and my yard. I've been socially distant for decades haha!
When everything hit the fan on 3.13.20, we hunkered down. J and his coworkers continued going to work until the company confirmed that there would be no penalty if they stayed home from work. The next day, J said the place was nearly empty. On the 21st, Governor Murphy ordered all non-essential workers to stay home from work. That afternoon, J got equipment that would allow him to do his job from home. And our time together day-in-and-day-out began.
One of my main goals for 2020 revolves around baking. This is the year I dive in and tackle all the pastries and baked goods that I've drooled over for years. Bread, all the meringues: French, Swiss and Italian, and pastries I've seen on the Great British Bake Off. Both J and I enjoy watching the show.
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2020 BR Photo - All rights reserved.
Today I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time in my life! And I topped it with Italian meringue. The meringue was fun to make and easier than I thought it would be. Thanks to a recipe blog post with detailed pictures and a YouTube video, I made a delicious pie. All the aforementioned resources came from the Preppy Kitchen website. It's one of my two favorite baking sites on the internet.
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Look at that meringue!! Oh, and I finally got to use my kitchen torch. My youngest son ordered the butane I needed because he grew tired of hearing me say, "I'll order it. I just keep putting it off!"
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©2020 Her Life on Benson | B.R. All rights reserved.
Once again I'm happy with the finished pie, even though I/am sure I "broke" the filling. The same way I've broken gravy before. But it's okay that the filling was loose. The recipe will produce a thick filling. This allows for a nice clean slice. My filling was loose AND also the weight of the meringue helped the oozing. But oh my gosh, that meringue is SO delicious. I think I stood in the kitchen grinning at the meringue for a solid 15 minutes. Baking makes me so happy. Will definitely go for the "stand up" filling next time I bake this pie.
Too bad I didn't learn to make this while Dad was still with us. He loved lemon meringue. But he would have told me to cut back on the meringue. He liked equal amounts of lemon filling and meringue topping. Sorry Dad, but mile-high meringue is here to stay!
