FIRESIDE LEMON MERINGUE PIE AND TEA

 Winter is a wonderful time to read,

watch old movies and learn something

new.  I have so many interests that getting 

bored doesn't seem to be a problem for me.

Every season has it's special delights.

I just "refreshed" my birdfeeders earlier

today since they were way down in seed.

  As I went out on the deck I heard masses

 of birds up in the trees.  There were 

hundreds of bluebirds but they just seemed

 to be resting way up and not coming

down at all.

BLUEBIRDS

There in the trees and up in the sky

Bluebirds on branches 

Hundreds rest,  waiting to fly

I tried to entice them

With birdseed and rye

But they seemed on a journey

So we bid them Goodbye!

Today I made a Lemon Meringue

Pie.  I wonder how many of these I've

baked over the years?

Let's take a seat over by the cozy fireplace

and enjoy our pie.

You might want to bake this pie too:

Prepare a pie shell and bake it! I use the old recipe of 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup Crisco and 3-4 Tb ice water) Bake 450 degrees about 8 min 

The ingredients for pie are as follows but

frankly I doubled this for a really deep

dish pie.

1 1/3 cups of sugar, 4 Tb cornstarch, 1 Tb flour, 1/2 cup cold water, 1 1/2 cups of separate water ready boil, 4 egg yolks slightly beaten, 2 Tb butter, 1 Tb grated lemon rind, 1/3 cup lemon juice

For the meringue you will need 4 egg whites, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and 1/2 cup sugar

Combine the 1 1/3 cups of sugar, the cornstarch, the flour and cold water in a medium size saucepan and blend them together until smooth.  Stir in the boiling water and cook stirring constantly until the mixture begins to bubble and is thick.  Simmer about 2 minutes and keeping stirring to keep from burning! Remove from heat

Now blend about 1/2 of this hot mixture into the egg yolks and return all to saucepan and cook about 2 minutes.  Remove again and add butter, lemon rind and juice and stir through well.  Set aside to cool slightly.  Stir to let out steam and help cooling.  I put the bowl in the refrigerator to cool.  Once cool I pour it into the baked pie shell and put it into the baked pie shell and I go ahead and refrigerate.  I find this works for me but I do see people do this step differently here.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar in a medium size bowl. Slowly add 1/2 cup sugar and continue beating still stiff. 

 When the pie is cold in the refrigerator, spread egg white meringue on top.  Put in the preheated oven of 400 degrees for about 6 to 8 minutes - watch for browning.  Cool on a rack - when cool refrigerate again for several hours.