5 Pie Thanksgiving including Key Lime Slice

We decided to do Thanksgiving at our house this year. It started out at 16 and quickly moved to 18, then 21. Cooking is shared among hubby's family members, very nice - and makes the event much less of a massive endeavor.

We decided to put together both our dining room tables and use all - I mean all - of the china and silver. The table looked GREAT, thanks to the limoges, wedgewood, Will's sister's table decoration, and Will's cousins napkin design and handmade place cards.

As one Aunt does the turkey and fixings, we decided to focus on before and after. Hubby smoked, and of course, I did pie. I decided to go all out and do 5 pies: 2 pumpkin, one apple, one pecan and a new concoction, key lime slice.

I am not going to place all the recipes for this one. Many of them are repeats. My pecan pie recipe is my standard with british cane syrup instead of Karo - yum. The pumpkin, truth be told, I used the Libby's on-the-can recipe. But with one I sprinkled about a 1/2 c. of candied ginger on top. With the Apple, I did a double crust and used cider instead of water in the crust.

The experiment was a new recipe -

Key Lime Slice pie with a Ginger crust

Crust:

• A box of Ananas ginger cookies from Ikea
• A stick of butter
  

Pie:

• 1 cup of thinly sliced key limes. Around 15 or one package.
• 1 1/2 c water
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 7 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T butter

Meringue

• 3 whites
• 1 t cream of tartar
• 6 T sugar
  

Simmer the limes in the water for 10 minutes until the rind is soft. Add 1 c sugar and let it simmer. Mix the rest of the sugar, with the egg yolks, flour and salt. Stir some of the lemon mixture into the yolk mixture. Then pour all the yolk mixture in the simmering pan. Cook over low heat until clear. Add the butter and cool to room temp. Pour into the crust.

Whip the eggs until they form soft peaks. Whip in the cream of tartar. Whip to stiff peaks. Slowly whip in the sugar.

Put the meringue on.

The pumpkins were good as was the pecan but not amazing. My crust on the pecan was a little tough. The apple was good, and the cider did give a subtle yum to the crust. The lime was a clear winner. Hubby loved it, definitely good use for key lime. He thought though that the lime rind was too tough. I thought it was interesting.