Key Lime Pie for Debbie's Birthday

I saw the photo of Key Lime Pie on Never Bashful with Butter (3/5/07) and it looked sooo good and so easy. Then, Kyle brought in Key Lime pie to the office and Debbie said "this is my favorite!" So, I made a mental note to try out Andrea's recipe for Debbie's birthday. I was going to bring it to the office for a little party there, but it looks likes it is going to be weeks until everyone is in the office for us to do the party. So, I figured I'd just make the pie for Debbie's birthday party tonight at her apt. I'm not sure what the etiquette is here. What if she already made a key lime pie using her favorite recipe and she hates this one? What if everyone else brings a key lime pie? What if the recipe's not actually good and then everyone thinks I'm an impostor and not really from Florida. Can there really be too much pie, though? I'm sure it will be fine. Anyway, here's Andrea's recipe--obviously I didn't use key limes, I'm sure you can find them in NYC, but really, regular limes are fine.

Key Lime Pie

4 large egg yolks (reserve your whites)
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes

Since Andrea didn't say: beat the egg yolks first, then add in the milk and the lime juice, blah blah, I did this in reverse. I zested the limes, then squeezed them and put both juice and zest in a bowl, then I whisked in the sweetened condensed milk and then whisked in an egg yolk at a time. I read a few other recipes that ordered the additions, but I think this was fine, I honestly was trying to dirty as few bowls as possible as I spent the morning doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.

*Real* key lime pie doesn't have a meringue top. I'm just sayin'. So, rather than topping the pie with meringue (to use up the egg whites), I topped it with some whipped cream (heavy cream and a bit of powdered sugar, whipped till stiff, baby!) at my mom's suggestion. I wasn't sure if you could put whipped cream on before hand but it looks fine. I have some easy disposable piping bags I rarely use, so piping it on was fun (please, wait until the pie is cool, otherwise the cream will melt). Then I topped it with a slice of lime "so you know what kind of pie it is," more of my mom's sage advice. I felt moderately bad that I didn't make the graham cracker crust, but honestly, buying the crust is so easy and then you even have a top to cover it for the ride over. Sorry, I can't cut a slice and try it, I'll have to wait until tonight.

So, rather than throwing out the egg whites, I went ahead and made Jennifer's Snow cookies (see my 3/14/07 post for the recipe). This is the first time ever that I've been able to make meringue without it burning. Yay! I think the key is that you turn off the oven. Of course, this leaves me mildly worried about salmonella from the mushy part in the middle... nah, it's fine. And soo good! Warm, the chocolate chips are a little gooey! And look how beautiful!