Baking Adventure #22

How many of you have heard of Lyme Disease? What do you know about it? Most people only know one thing: That it originates from ticks.

Some wonderful people have been banding together in support of Lyme Disease Awareness and have declared the month of May: Lyme Disease Awareness Month. In honor of this month, they have decided to paint May "Lyme" green and put together some amazing PSA ads. (You can view them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/lymenaide) If caught early enough, Lyme Disease can be treated pretty easily with antibiotics. However, sometimes the symptoms don't show up for months or even years and can ultimately lead to serious, long-term health problems.

Now, you're probably asking yourself why I have decided to partake in this cause. Aside from the fact that I love seeing younger generations banding together and making a difference, this particular cause hits close to home. An old friend of mine's sister has been battling Lyme disease for 3 years now. She is an absolutely beautiful girl and had the world at her fingertips when this horrible disease took its toll on her body and turned her world upside down. She is on the road to recovery but the battle hasn't been easy. (You can read more about Teri on John Raser's Causes page of his website: http://gospeedraser.com/causes/ and his blog: http://gospeedraser.com/golf-blog/)

I have never personally met Teri but I went to grade school with John, and through the world of the internet, we have been able to stay in touch. If Teri is anything like her brother, then this girl is beyond amazing, and my hope is for this blog post to raise awareness of the horrible disease that has affected their entire family.

So without further ado, it's time to paint the month of May Lyme with a scrumptious little baking adventure...

Key LYME Pie

I got this recipe from a website shown to me by a client. ThePioneerWoman.com has some incredible looking recipes and the Key Lime Pie was the first one I decided to make. The ingredients were minimal:

Then came time for some crust making. The recipe on the website calls for a food processor to turn the graham crackers into crumbs... well, I don't have one of these, so I crushed them the old fashioned way with a plastic ziplock bag and a heavy wooden mallet.

After the graham crackers were crumbled, it was time to add the sugar and melted butter.

Press into the pie pan (ungreased).

And bake in the oven for about 5 minutes and let cool.

While the graham cracker pie crust was cooling, it was time to make the filling! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to find REAL key limes at the grocery! For never having even seen them in person nor knowing how much they would cost, I was a little worrisome. HOWEVER, my favorite grocery came to my rescue and they were only about $2-3 for an entire bag!

[Please notice the Key Limes are on the right and regular limes on the left.]

When first attempting to squeeze the juice out of the key limes (yes, squeeze by hand b/c I do not have a juicer... I seriously doubt these little boogers could fit in a juicer anyway), I only got three, maybe four, drops out of it...

The recipe called for 1/2 cup of key lime juice so that certainly wasn't going to work! After putting my thinking cap on [Elementary school throwback], I remembered the PERFECT kitchen utensil for crushing small things with little holes in it: my garlic crusher!!! It was a perfect fit and thus allowed for mega juicing of the key limes!

TIP: This recipe also calls for a large amount of key lime zest. Make sure you zest the limes prior to juicing.

Once the 1/2 cup of juice was obtained, I blended the 2 egg yolks, lime juice, lime zest, and can of sweetened condensed milk with my hand mixer.

Then poured into the prepared Graham Cracker crust.

And baked in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. [The recipe says 15, but mine needed some extra time in the oven to make sure it was no longer "jiggly" in the middle.]

Once the Key Lyme Pie is baked, allow it to cool on the counter for about an hour and then pop in the fridge. I chose to let it chill in the fridge overnight because I love icebox pies EXTRA chilly, but to each their own.

Once cool enough, enjoy the Key Lime-y goodness. I guarantee you won't be able to just have one slice. There's something about the combination with the super tart key limes and the sweet graham cracker crust that just makes it irresistible.

***If you are interested in reading more about Lyme Disease or simply donating to or supporting the cause, below are two websites dedicated to the fight against Lyme Disease:

• Turn the Corner Foundation: http://www.turnthecorner.org/
• Lymenaide: http://lymenaide.wordpress.com/

In addition to spreading awareness with this simple blog post, I will donate $0.50 for each person who comments on this blog post during the month of May to help the cause (up to $100). So please comment and feel free to donate or at the very least repost the above links to your friends and family! Together, we can help those affected by Lyme Disease.***

UPDATE: So this pie was SO good and such a hit that I decided to make another one for Cinco de Mayo. I changed the crust recipe slightly: used 16 graham crackers instead of 18. There was no overflowing mess of crumbs this time when pressing into the pie pan and it was equally as thick and delicious!

Thank you to everyone who has commented and reposted the link to this blog so far. The comments and stories are beyond humbling! Keep them coming! Together we can make a difference... EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!