Key Lime Pie Recipe

When we were in Florida two years ago we discovered this fantastic dessert.

There is nothing like a fresh key lime pie made from key limes in Florida.

And that is coming from me, who used to think that key lime pie was poisonous.

This picture looks the most like how your pie will turn out following this recipe:


Key Lime Pie

Combine 4 egg yolks and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Mix well.

Add 5 ounces of key lime juice a little at a time.

Pour into an 8 inch graham cracker crust. Top with meringue and bake to brown or bake with out meringue.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Chill and serve!

Make sure that you are using KEY LIME juice not plain old lime juice. It makes all the difference.

Let me know if you try it and ENJOY!!

Quilt Retreat 2010 --- Dresden Plates

This year for our annual Quilt Retreat, Mary featured the Dresden Plate.

What a lovely design this is.

I couldn't wait to learn how to make one.

While we were trying to figure out the way to cut these little delicacies, Mary and Rose made lunch.

It was fantastic -- monte cristo sandwiches, fruit, sun chips and gourmet cookies.

My Aunt Patricia made lemon snickerdoodles with blueberries inside.

I couldn't get enough of them.


I couldn't resist taking this photo of Matt pushing his dump truck around.


My sister, Carolyn, was making a different project. She had a charm pack and designed this quilt.

By the way, it is now finished and ready to go to the quilter.


My sister, Heather, also was doing her own project. She was making skirts for her daughters.


My sister, Rose, is a master smocker.

It is hard to tell but she has done smocking on this piece of fabric to make a shirt for Kit.


My Aunt Denice drove up from California to be with us.


My cousin, Emmy, drove with her mom from California.

It was so fun to sit by them and chat.


My cousin, Eileen, her sister-in-law, Flo and her daughter-in-law, Karen.

They all worked together on their block.


My nephew's wife, Maren. She bought a show-and-share of a wreath she made.

It is made out of an old book she bought from the DI. She took the pages, wrapped them around a pencil and inserted them into holes in a styrofoam wreath.

It was lovely.


The whole group of women that came to the retreat.

It was such a wonderful day.

I loved being with family and friends.


Thank you, Mary, for all your hard work and effort in our behalf.

Another fun-filled year in our memories!!

Last but not Least, The Everglades!!

I have always had a fascination with the Everglades.

I have always wanted to go there.

I always pictured them looking something like this:


I am sure there are places where it looks like the above photo. We just didn't see anything like it.

We saw a lot of this:


My thought on seeing the Everglades was that I was going to see an alligator. I HAD to see an alligator.

I had visions of alligators walking everywhere. After all, this was the Everglades! Right?

Well,the park has a road that goes through a lot of area and has trails that you can drive to and get out and walk.

The first trail was the Anhinga Trail.

This was the trail that we saw the most wildlife.

And I saw two alligators. One was this little guy. Note: emphasis on the word LITTLE.

He was probably less than 18 inches from nose to tail. But he was an alligator.


I hoped desperately that we would see another one.

As we were walking along one of the paths that had been built for tourists, Alyssa suddenly exclaimed, "There's an alligator!"

Sure enough, there was a very large alligator swimming slowly through the water.

He then hid under the leaves of an overhanging tree.

And I felt fulfilled.

We also saw this soft shell turtle:


Many different varieties of birds:






Banyan trees:


Anhinga birds (they dive into the water and swim until they find something to eat):


And this ugly thing:


This species of bird loves the rubber on your car. We went on one of the trails and came back to see this bird pecking at the rubber around the windshield of this car.

It was very vicious about it. It was pecking for all it was worth.

I talked to the owners of the car and they told me that when they came back to their car after walking along the trail that this bird was pecking at their tires.

There are warnings all over the park about these birds, telling tourists that they love the rubber on your car.

The other thing we saw was an abundance of bugs. BIG bugs.

There were so many dragonflies in certain sections of the park you wouldn't believe it.

And the flies.

Oh my, the flies. They were enormous. I wish I had taken a picture of the flies. You can't believe how big the flies were unless you saw one for yourself.

It got to the point that Alyssa, Jenny and I were nervous to get out of the car. We didn't know if those flies bit or not, and we didn't want to find out.

Our trip through the Everglades was memorable down to the extreme rainstorm just as we were getting there and again just as we were leaving.


We stopped by a fruit stand to try some Florida fruit. We tried Jack Fruit which was really weird, a fresh-cut mango, and fresh pineapple.

And of course, you can't leave the keys of Florida without picking up some Key Lime juice.

It makes the BEST Key Lime Pie ever!

This is the end of the posts about our trip. Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of our family vacation.

What a wonderful time we had!

Cozumel

Ahh, Cozumel.

We had told the kids all week that we would go shopping in Cozumel. We had been there before and we knew right where to go.

The only thing was...it had been two years since we were last there and unbeknownst to us, the ship's port had moved 3 miles around the island.

So, we got off the ship and began walking because we KNEW that the shopping was just around the corner.

The kids asked the taxi drivers where downtown Cozumel was and they told them 3-4 miles away.

"HA!" I said, "They are just trying to get our money. We will walk because it's not that far away."

We walked and walked and walked. Everyone was beginning to be doubtful that there really was a downtown area. Perhaps it was lost in a hurricane.

And keep in mind that it was approximately 90 degrees with probably 90% humidity. It was just HOT. AND Boyd was not feeling well.

It got to be a bit of a joke even though the trudging along got really old.

We told the kids that we would pay for a taxi back. Alyssa was so desperate, she said that SHE would pay for the taxi back.

We finally started to see signs of stores and our hopes began to rise.


The boys wanted to get jewelry for their friends at home that are GIRLS. Note: not girlfriends...friends that are girls.

Alyssa and Jenny wanted to get souvenirs for people (boys) back home as well. Note: not boyfriends...friends that are boys.

By the time we accomplished both of these tasks, there really wasn't a lot of time for Boyd and I to shop, which was OK because we really didn't want anything. I just wanted a bag.

When we were done shopping, which wasn't too long, since we had used up most of our time WALKING, we hailed a taxi and caught a ride back to the port.

It took a really long time to get back to the port.

All I could think of was that we had walked all that way.


As we were ready to get back on the ship, I took a look at the water and couldn't resist taking a photo of it. The blue is indescribable.


About the ship:

Our room was a balcony room.

You could open the door anytime you wanted and go outside to see the ocean.

It was calming and glorious.


Our room stewards made a different towel animal every day that we saw when we came back to our room.

My favorite towel animal that we got this week was the hanging monkey.

It was actually in the way when we tried to get ready.

One day it was brushing the back of Boyd's neck as he was walking through the room. He said to me, "I feel like I have a monkey on my back."

It made me laugh.


This is our waiter, Sasa.

He was from Bosnia.

We have been on a lot of cruises and had a lot of waiters that were excellent.

He was my favorite.

I wanted to take him home with me but I probably couldn't afford him.




Getting off the cruise ship is such a mixture of emotions. You are excited to go home, sad to leave the ship, hopeful that there is no problem with customs, nervous about finding a way to the car rental agency, and anxious to find one more adventure before flying home.