sweet springtime & an "heirloom recipe"

i love fruity desserts! i would much rather have something light and fruity over rich chocolate any day. (my mom is shaking her head and wondering if i am really her daughter right now!) don't get me wrong... i really haven't met a dessert i didn't like, including the rich chocolate ones, but with spring right around the corner (this saturday!) its time to lighten up! what we have here is an old-school southern key lime pie recipe. warning... you may want to double your recipe as you may end up eating the filling before it goes in your pie shell!

this is one of those recipes your grandma tells you, maybe you wrote it down but once you make it a couple of times, you remember by heart. i call this an "heirloom recipe"... look for more of these from me!

you need:
can of eagle brand milk
1/2 cup of key lime juice (you can also use lemon or regular lime - and i used the kind in the plastic lime)
1 raw egg (don't be scared... the acidity of the lime juice "cooks" it)
zest of half a lime, save the lime to use the rest of the zest for topping
deep-dish graham cracker crust
whipped cream

with an electric mixer on medium speed beat together the first four ingredients for one minute incorporating as much air as you can into the filling while doing so. pour filling into pie shell and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, more if you can wait that long. top with a generous amount of whipped cream and the rest of the zest from the lime. for easier slicing you can put the pie in the freezer for about 30 minutes... the pie is delicious served straight from the freezer for a frozen treat!

it doesn't get much easier than that! a perfect party treat is to line a twelve cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners (cheap ones... you will be throwing them away) and place two vanilla wafer cookies in the bottom of each liner. spoon the filling over the cookies and refrigerate overnight. the next morning top with cool whip and lime zest, and pop them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. about fifteen minutes before serving, take out of freezer and remove cupcake liners for the cutest (and tastiest!) mini key lime pie you'll ever eat! recipe makes one pie or twelve mini pies.

its (almost) spring!!

and i am super excited about it!! i am ready for sunshine, flowers, and for longer and warmer days. richard and i have been busy bees getting our yard ready. last year the stuff i planted was last minute seeds... i had sunflowers starting to bloom mid-october. one of the joys of living in the south, our "indian summers" are not uncommon to last way beyond labor day. this year we started early and are starting from scratch. one thing i am experimenting with this year are bulbs, i have never planted them before. we bought sarah bernhardt peonies and seattle dahlias, and although they aren't in the ground yet, i have been reading up on how to take care of them since i am a "bulb beginner". wish me luck! we also got a bunch of seeds, including ones to take my herb garden to the next level. last year we grew basil, chives, and parsley. the parsley didn't do well, i think the seeds were bad... but the chives and basil flourished and within a month we had eaten all of it! i guess i didn't plant enough! i am hoping this time around we will have basil to last through the summer. eHow has a great gardening section with tips for even the most novice gardeners. they are easy to follow and very knowledgeable. check em out here.

we made the trip to get all of these supplies last sunday. we spent most of the day in greenville at michaels, lowes, and new river pottery searching for the perfect flowers, tools and garden accessories to make our labor worth the fruit. at new river pottery i found the most beautiful grapevine wreath for our door, but it was $30. richard and i were both convinced we could find a better one (even though i loved this one) at a lower price. so after having lunch at ruby tuesdays and our stop at lowes, i made richard run me back to new river. guess what? in that small time frame (maybe an hour and a half) my wreath was gone. and i was pissed. thus lesson number one... if you see something you must have and you have enough money for it, buy it! i pouted all the way home, or at least halfway home to oak city. then i started brainstorming. i had already bought a plain grapevine wreath from michaels (on sale for $3) so i just needed to find some fun stuff to decorate it with. the next day i hit up winton's family dollar where i found some not-so-ugly fake flowers and these butterflies that appeared to be made of pantyhose material. they were on a stake, i imagine to stick in your garden. i grabbed a bright yellow one and was on my way.

after about an hour, some hot glue hands, and a scuffle with my bow maker (the infamous BOWDABRA) i had a pretty cute new wreath. and it cost next to nothing to make! lets count... $3 for the wreath, $1 for the flowers, $1 for the butterfly, zero dollars for the ribbon i already had, and figuring less than $1 for glue, wire and sales tax comes to a grand total of slightly over FIVE DOLLARS! wow. i love saving money. lesson number two... if you see something you love and you can make the thing yourself cheaper, make it! so tell me what you think about my "cheap" wreath!

i love it. i also love the fact i am off the next two days, even though its going to be spring cleaning and yard work probably the whole time. lets hope this warm weather lasts a while. & more to come on our flower and gardening adventures this week!