Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, TWD

This was quite a pie. (With quite a lot of butter.) I got excited about making this when Jennifer brought it to book club. Our host provided a wonderful citrus themed dinner, including dessert, but Jennifer provided another dessert, serendipitously citrusy as well. (And Ms. PH brought an incredible pesto dip, which complimented the citrus theme too!)

The lime cream for the pie has a hint of ginger. I stole a page from Romaine's book and made my cream in the microwave. I have done curds in the microwave before, and it is so simple and getting it to 180 degrees just took a few minutes. Then I strained it into the blender and slowly added the two and a half sticks of butter. The cream was nice and thick, so I think the microwave cheat was fine.



One advantage to procrastinating when making the TWD recipes, is I can learn from Jennifer's suggestions. She felt her crust was too dry and crumbly and suggested doubling the butter. As if this pie did not already have enough butter? But I followed her advice and the crust turned out fine.



I was worried about burning the meringue and may have pulled it out a tad to soon. Next time I will be braver and toast that top a little more.



Thanks to Linda at Tender Crumb for choosing this pie. She made tartlets from this recipe that are the most beautiful I have seen. You can get the recipe on her blog or on pgs. 337-339 of Baking, From my Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.

Peoria Dining Tour Books

Big E is a junior this year in the Washington Community High School band. He actually has a (4 note) solo in the song "Going to California" by Led Zeppelin. Yes, the marching band is doing The Music of Led Zeppelin for their show this year. I'm sure later in the season I will post a video of their show, showing all their hard work (and Big E's 4 note solo).

One of their fundraisers is selling Peoria Dining Tour books. This is a book full of Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupons for area restaurants. These are really nice to have. I am happy to have purchased my own this year. The past few years, I have had a relative who bought one of these to our family Christmas gathering and we all passed it around and shared the coupons. (These make great gifts!) Using it just a few times recoups the cost of the book. The book costs $30. You can buy them other places, but if you purchase one from the WCHS band, the band gets $10 of that.

I am listing all the businesses included here. If anyone would like to purchase one of these from the band, please call Scott or Vickie Williams at 309-745-5020 or you can email me at snicketmom@yahoo.com and I will hook you up.

Fine Dining, Casual Dining & Theater
Aachis Indian cuisine
Adams Street Café
Angie’s Family Restaurant & Buffet
Bananas Ale House
Bar Louie
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s
Bellacino’s
Bennigan’s
Burger Barge
Butler’s Chicken
Café Evergreen
Carnegie’s 501
Castaways
The Chateau
Chilliworks
CiCi’s Pizza Buffet
Club Lacon
Cornerstone Family Restaurant
Cracklin Jake’s
Crusen’s
Dairy King
Davis Brothers Pizza
Denny’s
Double A’s Pizza Pub
Eamon Patrick’s Public House
Eastlight Theater
El Sombrerito
Feldan’s
Firehouse Bar & Grill
Firehouse Pizza
The Galley
Geo’s Pizza
Germantwon Grille
Godfather’s Pizza
Good Tequila
Haddad’s
Hickory River Barbecue
Hooters
I-Hop
Jane’s Ice Box
Kaiserhof
Kelleher’s Irish Pub
Khoury’s
Khoury’s Cuisine Knickerbockers
Kobe Japanese Steakhouse
Kouri’s Bar & Grill
Lian Wang
Los Jimadores
Maid Rite
Michael’s Italian Feast
Nick & Willy’s
Par-a-dice Hotel Casino
Peoria Pizza Works
Peoria Players Theatre
Pita’s Mediterranean Wraps
Pizza Inn
Pleasant Hill Antique Mall
Ponte Vecchio
Qdoba
Rhythm Kitchen
Richard’s on Main Street
River Beach Grill
Second Street Bar & Grill
Sizzling India
Star Struck Hollywood Grill
Sushigawa
Tailgaters Sports Bar
Taj of India
Thanh Linh
Vertucci’s
Village Inn
Water Street Café
Yesterday’s Bar & Grill
Youssef’s Deli
Zim’s Diner @ Campustown

On The Lighter Side
Auntie Anne’s Pretzels
Baskin Robbins
Blimpie’s
Burger King
Charley’s Grilled Subs
Chicago Hut
Chicago Pizza & Grill
Cold Stone Creamery
Cookies By Design
Culvers
Dairy Queen
Domino’s Pizza
Dunkin Donuts
Dunkin Donuts & Baskin Robbins
Garner’s Pizza & Wings
Kentucky Fried Chicken Lou’s Drive Inn
Mister G’s Chicago Style Hotdogs
Nut House
Papa John’s Pizza
Quizno’s
Roly Poly Rolled Sandwiches
Smoothie King
Sonic
Spotted Cow
Subway
Sweet Treats
Taco John’s
Trefzger’s Bakery
Udder’s Ice Cream
Velvet Freeze

Applesauce Spice Bars

Look! I'm here. I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Or in a hole. And I have been baking my TWD assignments. (I just haven't been posting about them the past two weeks.) But I made the Banana Bundt Cake.



And the Brownie Buttons.



But summer has just gotten busy. And now it is over. The kids went back to school today and the Applesauce Spice Bars made a perfect after school snack (and a mid-morning snack for me while they were gone.)



This recipe was chosen by Karen and the recipe is on her blog, Something Sweet by Karen. Or you can find it on pages 117 & 118 of Baking, From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I loved this simple recipe. I substituted walnuts for the pecans and since I didn't have heavy cream, I doubled the glaze recipe and used half sour cream and half half and half. That was weird to write. But this cake was great, and hopefully I will be blogging more frequently (but maybe changing the name from Secret Server to Secret Substitute.)