Key Lime Pie

I'm preemptively posting this because ours is still in the freezer but the mix tasted good and the whipped cream turned out perfect so I'm just assuming it's going to be perfect. (CROSS FINGERS!)

You're going to need:
1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
5 tablespoons of melted butter
(The above if is you want to make your own crust - I cheated.. nuff said)
3 eggs
1/2 Key Lime juice. (NOT regular limes, little key limes)
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 regular lime sliced for garnishing.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). Mix graham cracker crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie plate and bank for 5 minutes. Let cool.

Separate 2 of the eggs, placing the 2 egg whites into a mixing bowl and the yolks in another mixing bowl.

To the yolks, add 1 whole egg, the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk. Whisk until smooth. In the other bowl with clean blades or whisk beat the egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until stiff but not dry. Fold the whites into the filling mixture. Pour filling into the pie crust.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes (Just watch it get a little yellow). Let cool at room temperature and then pop it in the freezer for 4 hours (to overnight) but in our case we set the alarm to go off at exactly 4 hours so we could smother it in whipped cream and eat it.

Oh yeah, the whipped cream. Put the cup of heavy whipping cream into a bowl and just beat the crap out of it until it forms little peaks. This recipe calls for 1 cup but we're fond of whipped cream so I just used the whole container (got a small one, not a large one).

EAT!

BEWARE OF GREEN KEY LIME PIE! Key Lime pie should never, ever, ever, ever be green. It should always be a yellowy color. If it's green it means they did NOT use Key Limes or they added a crap load of food coloring. And now you know. :D

Quick, Easy, Delicious Jambalaya

Ok you purists, bite your tongues. If you look up the definition and then look at this recipe this IS a Jambalaya!

I was going through a cook book the other day looking for something new to make and ran across this. I'd never considered making it before because I thought Mr. Picky Pants wouldn't like it but I showed it to him and he said it sounded good so lets go!
First off, I took a few shortcuts. My energy level is low these days and I didn't feel like standing over a stove for too long.

You're going to need:
12 small sausage Links - cut into one inch pieces (See Below)
1 cup finely chopped onion (I just used a whole medium sized onion)
1 cup finely chopped green pepper (I used a whole good sized pepper)
4 garlic cloves, minced (I used like 8 cloves :D )
2 tablespoons or so of olive oil
1.5 cups of cooked cubed chicken (See Below)
1.5 cups of cooked cubed ham (See Below)
1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes un-drained
1 cup uncooked long grain rice (brown)
1 can (14.5oz) chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh parsley (or just shake a bunch of dried in there)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

OK HERE GOES!
In a LARGE skillet, saute the sausage, onion, green pepper and garlic in the oil until the vegetables are tender. Add in the chicken and ham. Cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
Transfer to a 2 qt. baking dish (go bigger if you want. 2 quarts was VERY full). Cover and bake at 350 for about an hour or until the rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Personally I cooked for about 1 hour and 20 minutes for ALMOST al dente rice and some liquid left (we like broth).

ATTENTION!!! This comes out of the oven EXTREMELY HOT! Please let sit for a little bit, especially if you're going to be serving it to little ones. Thanks :)


My shortcuts:
For sausage I used Johnsonville Italian Sausage (mild with 6 big ones to a pack).
For chicken I used Oscar Mayer Carving Board Roasted Chicken w / no additional flavors. I used the entire container.
For ham I used Oscar Mayer Carving Board Slow Cooked Ham w/ no additional flavors, the whole container.

(Thanks for your help making it too, Baby!)