Lemon Meringue Pie

Little story for you: Last Thursday, Sean, out of the blue, asked me, "Mama, would you make a lemon pie?" I was taken a little aback because I've never made lemon pie before, and to my knowledge he's never eaten it before (although my mom did inform me that he had some at the hospital when we went to visit my grandma like 3 years ago). I think I blinked a couple times, but thought, sure! "Of course I can make you a lemon pie Sean." To which he replied with a whoop and a "YES!" accompanied with the classic air-grabbing pulled back fist-to-tummy gesture. To which I replied, "I'm not going to make it for you tonight, babe. First I have to find a recipe. Then I have to go shopping for all the ingredients." And then I hoped it wouldn't be too hard to make. And who steps up to the challenge of finding a fantastic recipe for me? Mr. Baker Man Himself, of course! He sent me this book, "How to Make a Pie," by Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Not only was this recipe relatively easy to follow, but it gave all the background tips on how a "good" lemon meringue pie should turn out. So Saturday night Jessica and I did some slightly drunken baking at her house because she has a KitchenAid (Kevin and the boys were gone, so we had a girl's night). The most surprising part about this pie? It only takes 20 minutes to bake! For some reason I thought it would have to be baked a lot longer. Then the hard part: waiting for it to cool to room temperature. We were a disciplined group (Greg was in on the waiting) and followed the directions to a T. It said room temperature, so we waited until it was room temperature. NOT! We were barely able to wait 3 hours before the amount of mouth watering going on in the room was enough to drown us all. It was still pretty warm on the bottom, but firm enough to slice into, and can I say I now know what heaven tastes like? The meringue was like sweet air, and smelled of toasted marshmallows. The lemon filling was the perfect tanginess, and the crust was... well, a store bought graham cracker crust. Whatever. But that's not the point! It was a perfect blend, and I couldn't wait to give Sean some when I saw him on Sunday. Can you guess his reaction? The tears of joy came rushing and the sweet sticky kisses were lovingly slobbered all over my cheek... Just kidding. But, he did yell out loud, "This is WAY yummy!" Good enough for me. :)



So I asked Sean, "Why did you want a lemon pie all the sudden?" He said, "Because I saw it on my yogurt cup." I had to laugh at that. Except it was a key lime pie yogurt he was eating that day. When I reminded him of this, he said, "Well, I want a lime pie next." "You can make it on Thursday." This second one was from Ashton. My kids aren't demanding at all, are they?