Limes, Limes and More Limes

My little Lime Tree sure needed a hair cut, it had grown out at least 40 feet around and perhaps 20 to 25 feet tall....it was sagging with the weight of itself so I did ask the Gardener to go ahead and cut it back some...herewith the result and all the limes that were on the cut off branches and the thing is still FULL!
I've learned several other preservatives...one is to dry the entire lime, there are recipes from the Middle East and Asia that require whole dried limes, I believe you crush them in a mortar and pestle. Also I learned that you can slice them and freeze them...thus I sliced a bunch, laid them out on a cookie sheet to freeze then I will collect them into a zip loc bag...my friends tell me that you then just take one out as needed to add to a drink such as limeade or lemonade or even hot tea or some club soda.

Life Lesson #5/a bit graphic if you're "delicate", but it's funny

Well...I certainly won't do any photos for this one but must share this Life Lesson #5...if you did not go see "The Bucket List" either go see it or rent the movie or better yet, buy the DVD or video. Jack Nicholson gives us a few Life Lessons in that movie and they are these three, never pass up a bathroom, never trust a fart and never waste a hard on...I know they're all a bit graphic but bear with me as I share the Life Lesson from them...Tom wasn't listening apparently when the LIfe Lessons were given. The other day he called me frantically from work telling me he had had a horrible accident...he had let what he thought was a small fart slip out in his office at work...fortunately for him he was paying attention and made it to the bathroom just in time so to speak, though not totally...I had to pack up clean clothes including shirt, underwear, pants, and shoes along with a wash cloth, towel and plenty of soap too. Well...as he called me of course, I laughed so hard I nearly died, but began gathering up things to rush to help him...fortunately he had no meetings scheduled and everyone in his area seemed to be gone for the day already....so as we talked my stomach began to chortle terribly...I thought it was simply from laughing, perhaps sympathy pains...so I dashed out for the 30 minute drive to help him get cleaned up....I had remembered my cell phone for a change so was able to call to let him know how close I was and what floor is your office on anyway? and he said oh I'm waiting outside...hope you brought a towel...yes I had...well my stomach kept cramping, hurting something awful. However, I did pay attention to Jack Nicholson's Life Lessons so I didn't even entertain the idea of a fart. Well I got to the University, indeed he was waiting outside, just too anxious to get on home and get this mess fixed up....when he got in the car he told me that in his haste he forgot to lock the bathroom door....of course in walks one of the "Tea Boys" they call them, these are young men who actually serve tea in the executive offices, they do not speak any English at all...understand very little etc...well one of them walked in as Tom stood in front of the stink, drawers on the floor trying his best to clean with paper towels etc....we nearly died laughing as I drove away..again the cramping in my stomach...I told him this is not going to be a fun ride home...another at least 1/2 hour depending on traffic...well the traffic Gods were with us and we dashed home in record time...and of course I had a rather rough time in the bathroom too...we must've both eaten something the night before that urgently wanted out....but we sure did laugh....we really haven't a clue what the culprit was but we did both learn that we must pay attention when someone gives us a LIfe Lesson.

Limecello

grated zest of about 50 limes, dries well overnight, store in a glass jar.

Limecello in the making, at this point it is simply vodka and the lime zest.

My set up, limes, vodka, zester, juicer. I freeze lime juice in 1/2 cup amounts in zip loc bags, lay them flat, works out very well, then you can easily stack them up in the freezer. You do not use the juice in the limecello, just the zest which is later filtered out. After a few weeks I will need to make a simple syrup to add to the vodka/zest mixture. Then it will set again for several weeks.
This is the recipe I am following from my friend John....I'm hoping to get a good result and also hoping if it is good that I can make it again next year. I would've made more this year but only had the one bottle of vodka.

Limecello recipe from John:
take some of your limes ( depending on the size, 45-50 if they are small ones and peel the zest off, taking care not to get any of the white pulp.. Then in a glass or metal bowl, soak the zest's in 1 liter of Everclear (grain alcohol) if you can't get that, use a plain, unflavored vodka.
Let them marinate for 3-5 weeks, until the zests are the consistency of a chip. In a separate pan, make a simple syrup. 1 ltr of water mixed with the equivielent amount in white sugar. Bring to almost a boil and then simmer and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Set the syrup aside to cool. Take the zest's and drain the vodka off using cheese cloth. Mix the vodka with the syrup an ...Voila! you have a nice batch of lime-a -cello. Sip, savor, repeat.

So my limecello has been quietly brewing in the fridge now for 3 weeks. I will let it sit another two weeks before making the syrup. I notice though that my zest has turned a bit dark as has the vodka. hmmmm....we'll see.

Life lesson # 3 and # 4

Life Lesson # 3, don't always follow the recipe...I did an oops and it turned out better than the original recipe. I forgot to put the sugar in the topping, so scraped the topping off, and put the sugar in the peaches, returned topping for baking, sprinkled well with about 2 -3 tablespoons of demerara sugar, oh it was so good...also forgot the cinnamon was to go in the peaches, so put it in the topping...worked out fine! So the life lesson is perhaps the original recipe wasn't the greatest after all.

uhoh...poor little chicken in oven, put the tray back in under the grill and did not notice the plastic chicken cutting board was hanging onto the back side....oh dear...always check...Life Lesson # 4, just in case the chicken is still damp and holding on for dear life! Oh the tray got dirty when I baked the cobbler and like an idiot I did not cover it with foil before baking the cobbler which boiled over. So I had removed the tray and scrubbed it, put it behind the faucet for drying apparently right next to the chicken cutting mat and they got stuck together!

I had been preheating the oven for jacket potatoes I intended to stuff with cheese, bacon, butter and sour cream...I scoop out the potato and mash all of that together, then put it all back together...it's yummy! I turned and noted smoke pouring out of my oven and a horrible horrible stench! Aaaaccckkk!

Fortunately I kept my few wits about me and shut off the oven, a first attempt to scoop fried plastic chicken off the bottom of the non removable part of my oven showed me that it needed to cool because it had the consistency of wet chewing gum stuck on your shoe!

I got so lucky, the little chicken did a regroup of its molecules in the cooling process and came out mostly whole...the rest I was able to clean up with a razor blade scraper...oh so fortunate that the oven base is ceramic too. It only took about five minutes with the blade and hot soapy dishwater to clean it up...oh I was lucky this time as I could've turned the thing on and left the house for an hour. So the lesson is always check the bottom of whatever you've stuck in the oven, just in case a plastic chicken goes along for a ride!
Ha and when you check your post you find out that your pictures are in reverse order....the clean oven should've been last and the poor little chicken should've been first...ahhh well...like Scarlett said..."tomorrow is another day".

A pot that age has made beautiful

I often wonder where this pot came from. It magically appeared one day, that happens sometimes when you have a gardener. When it first appeared it was a normal pot with normal colors. I think the gardener was trying to replace a pot that I had loved and he tossed out, it was broken and I had put it in a tree branch for decoration. Well...over time this pot has beautifully aged. I notice it daily when I go outside. I rather love it now. I think it's a happy pot. I love the age spots on it and just like my own, Mother Nature provided them.

Life Lessons 1 & 2

First life lesson...remember to prebake crust for key lime pie at least 20 minutes before adding filling and baking the 12 minutes which is perfect by the way for filling, cuts perfectly and eggs are bacteria free after 12 minutes...just be sure the pie crust is properly prebaked. It may take longer than 20 minutes, will test that again.
Egg yolks here are very dark orange, hence nearly melon or pumpkin colored key lime pie!

And to Life Lesson number 2. Keep rubber gloves in the bathroom for when your bracelet falls in the toilet! I had to fish out the chain then find the little ball too...ugh..thank you to whoever invented rubber gloves! I soaked them in bleach/dish wash soap and hottest water possible. And always remember to look BEFORE you flush..as I once flushed the last $20.00 we had and payday was a few days away.

Pie anyone?

This is my key lime tree in my garden in Dubai, two years in a row now it has produced somewhere in the area of 100 lbs of key limes and thus many pies. I decided I must find more recipes using key limes as I have so many and still have frozen juice and zest from last summer! I found this http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blfruit27.htm there are several recipes there that sound just terrific.
Several years ago I was interviewed for an article for Friday magazine, a local magazine here in Dubai that comes with your newspaper on Friday. I was required to make six pies and submit the pies for photographing along with the recipes. The lady that interviewed me was from India and she had brought her little ten year old girl along, neither of them nor the Phillipine photographer had ever had pie so we sat and sampled them all after the photo shoot. I use an old recipe for piecrust I found years ago in the Southern Living 1979 recipe book. I learned to make some new pies for the article, one was a coconut cream totally from scratch, it was delicious and fun. I also made pecan, apple, key lime and a cherry and a blueberry though they did not photograph those two. I have so many pie dishes because of that photo shoot! I have given several away full of pie. I also found a site online that shows you how to make individual pies in little canning jars, I made them while at our beach house and shared them with all my little neighbors, so nice as you can put the lid on and freeze them until you want a pie then thaw, heat and eat!
So this is my key lime pie recipe:

Pie Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Crisco
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water or more depending on your altitude

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add crisco and blend with a pastry blender until soft crumbles the size of small peas. Slowly stir in the ice water until able to make a ball of dough. Chill, then roll into a circle, roll it up on your rolling pin and drape over your pie dish, trim the edges and decorate as you please. As you'll see in the picture of the front of the magazine, they picked my American Apple Pie as the small featurette and there it is with the apple falling into the pie...silly me cut the shape all the way around instead of just making slits, then it fell in! Didn't alter the taste at least.

Key Lime Pie
4 large egg yolks
one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of fresh key lime juice
2 teaspoons of key lime zest

Whip the eggs together until thick and creamy, but do not over-whip. Add the sweetened condensed milk. Add the juice a little at a time mixing until well blended. Add the lime zest. Pour into prepared shell (I prebake my pie crust for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven). Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes to kill any bacteria in the eggs and to set the yolk. Remove, cool and keep refrigerated until serving time. Serve with a dollop of home made whipped cream

Home Made Whipped Cream
Pour contents of one small container of whipping cream into a bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Whip until it just barely holds a stiff peak, again do not over-whip. Serve on top of your pie, easy and delicious.