The Diversion

After several sweltering days in the sun, the hot air rose and the cool air and rainclouds flooded in with a vengeance last night. It’s hard to believe it could be so cool and rainy today after the summery weather we’ve experienced. I didn’t mind the cooler weather, though,  because I decided it was time to clean the house from top to bottom. The dusting-wiping walls-cleaning bathrooms-rearranging furniture -vacuuming type of cleaning that cannot be done if the outdoors are calling.
What I did not expect was my dear friend to call. “Wanna bake a real lemon meringue pie with me today?”. She had read my earlier post about baking and this motivated her to want to bake a REAL lemon meringue pie for the company she is having tomorrow. And I LOVE lemon pie (which you already know).
I rarely bake this type of pie totally from scratch. Yes, I make the crust, but I usually buy a packet to make the lemon filling with . It’s just faster (or so I’ve been led to believe) and I’m just lazy sometimes.
How could I say no to having my friend over for an impromptu visit? So, I dropped the cleaning gear when she arrived after lunch. The pictures say it all..
Oops.. we were having such a great time, we forgot to separate the eggs. (Angie will be having scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow!)..

Look at the color of that filling! Almost orange (very deep yellow Omega 3 egg yolks were used)..

We substituted agave sweetener (from the cactus plant) for 1/2 the sugar…

Fillin’ up the prebaked pie shells with that lemony goodness..

We added cornstarch to the egg whites. They became thick and fluffy. Unfortunately, amid all the  excitement, I beat them a bit too  much, so they lost their silkiness.

It won’t affect the taste, though!  Here they are, ready for the oven..

The topping is browned to perfection, we agreed..

Angie promises to save me a piece. From the spoonful of filling I sampled, it was luscious… not too sweet, extremely lemony.
Turns out, it doesn’t really take much more time than using a package. So much better to be cooking with REAL ingredients – real lemons – well, I ain’t goin’ back to the package no more!
Oh, btw, the filling is from this wonderful site.