More Pie!

I think Maria Antoinette really should have said, "Let them eat pie." I like cake, but I love pie.  This past weekend, I finally made a pie recipe I found last August in Bon Appetit. This pie spoke to me. Basically, it said, "Make me and your friends will LOVE you." It was right.

I mean, wouldn't you love me if I sat this in front of you and said, "This is dessert."? A lime blackberry Italian meringue pie?

You can find the recipe here:  Be forewarned that this is a labor of love. One doesn't make something that takes the time this takes if you don't love the people you are making it for. Or need them to do you a very, very big favor. I did, as usual for me, pushed this one to the limit. Which is why my dinner guests ate grilled eggplant and zucchini, rather than the eggplant, zucchini and tomato stacks I had originally planned. Something had to give and it wasn't going to be this pie. (For the record, I made the right choice.)

One tip: Since I was running a bit short on time, I opted to toast the meringue by using a butane torch instead of putting it under the broiler. It was an interesting choice since I don't possess a fancy butane torch of the type sold by Williams-Sonoma or Sur la Table. Nope, I just grabbed a basic long handled lighter and used that. It worked perfectly. Oh, and I didn't use the pie crust recipe given in the magazine with the pie. I opted to use my tried and true pie crust recipe that comes from the Woman's Day Desserts cookbook. (Came out several years ago and worth looking for just for that pie crust recipe.)