April Fools Moldy Key Lime Pie

So yesterday I was the 1,000 texter on a local radio station and won Houston Rockets tickets for last nights game against the Washington Wizards. That was my first basketball game and now I'm hooked. We won 98 to 94 which was a close game the whole time. Go Rockets!!

It's almost April 1st and you know what that means? Pranks will be played on unsuspecting people all over. My poor hubby gets the prank played on him when I offer this moldy key lime pie. There's nothing moldy about it, I just tinted the green to a swamp green color. I was going to do the meringue as well, but figured he would pass on this for sure. So go forth and prank someone just be nice about it!

I used a premade crust I had, but still included the crust directions below in case you wanted to make your own.

Don't forget to enter my cookbook giveaway HERE. Deadline is Friday!

Key Lime Pie

(Adapted from Southern Living 40 Years of Our Best Recipes)

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk

1 cup fresh key lime juice

2 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

2 tablespoons garnulated sugar

garnish: lime slices

Combine first 3 ingredients. Press into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes; cool. Stir together milk and lime juice until blended. Add a couple of drops of food coloring. Pour into crust.

Beat egg whites and cream of tarter at high speed with an electric mixer just until foamy. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until soft peaks form and sugar dissolves (2 to 4 minutes).

Spread meringue over filling. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 25 to 28 minutes. Chill 8 hours. Garnish, if desired.

Maple-Glazed Potatoes and Coobook Giveaway

Wow another busy weekend and I'm beat. We unloaded 1 yard of sand to level out the yard Friday night and another Saturday morning. Then we had a bunch of friends over to smoke some meat and boil crawfish. Yummy!! Sunday I planted some flowers I bought and also a little pot of rosemary, basil and cilantro. Now if the summer heat doesn't kill them I'll be able to enjoy them. I love steak night! I tried a new experiment with potatoes and it turned out terrific. I scaled it back for the two of use so it doesn't look like much in the picture but it worked with the amount of food we had. I can't wait to whip up a batch of these for Easter.

I just realized I promised to start doing more giveaways, but I haven't done any in March. Good news is I've teamed up with a great sponsor so be on the lookout soon because I'll be doing a monthly giveaway for them that'll get you ready for summer in no time. So for this month I've been going through all the cookbooks I have (I umm....I kinda sorta maybe have a slight addiction to cookbooks) so I've decided to clean out some that I've bought and never used and who better to give them to then my readers.

-Leave a comment telling me which book you would like and if you normally host Easter at your house or do you head over to someone else's?

-For an extra entry become a Finding Inspiration In Food follower and be sure to leave a separate comment telling me you are.

Be sure to leave me an email to contact you if you don't have a blog. Contest ends this Friday, April 2nd at midnight central time and I'll pick 2 winners then. Good Luck!!

Maple-Glazed Potatoes

3 pounds fingerling potatoes
1/4 cup butter, melted
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped thyme or rosemary
splash of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine potatoes, butter, salt and pepper in a shallow baking dish. Roast uncovered for 45 minutes, tossing once or twice during roasting.

Stir together vinegar, syrup and garlic. Drizzle potatoes with mixture and toss with a spoon to coat. Continue to roast an additional 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender and glazed.

To serve, sprinkle potatoes with green onions, herbs and splash of lemon juice.

Rosemary-Garlic Pork with Roasted Vegetables and Caramelized Apples

Parsnips are something I don't think I've ever had and seem to be a vegetable that pops up in all the recipes I've been seeing lately. I had to do some research to figure out what they would taste like and how to pick them out at the grocery store. They're similar to carrots but have a stronger flavor. The thinner they are the sweeter they are. I picked up a bag of them which looked like this:

I decided to give them a try and figured the best thing to do was find a recipe with a lot of mixed vegetables in case parsnips didn't turn out like I thought they would. Turns out we loved them so next time I'll make them the star of dish. I was also excited for any use I can find that uses my new handy dandy apple core/slicer my mother in law gave me. (Yes I'm a simple girl and doesn't take much to amuse me.)

Rosemary-Garlic Pork with Roasted Vegetables & Caramelized Apples

(Adapted from Southern Living October 2009 magazine)

1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium-size sweet onions, quartered
3 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper, divided
1/3 cup olive oil, divided
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, divided
1 (4-lb.) boneless pork loin roast
Kitchen string
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
6 large garlic bulbs
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Caramelized Apples (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper.

Sauté vegetables in 3 Tbsp. hot oil in a 7 1/2-qt. roasting pan over medium-high heat 8 minutes or until caramelized. Remove from heat, and stir in 1 Tbsp. rosemary.

Tie pork with kitchen string, securing at 1-inch intervals. Sprinkle pork with remaining 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper, and place on top of vegetables in pan. Stir together mustard, chopped garlic, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and remaining 2 Tbsp. rosemary; spread over pork.

Cut off pointed ends of garlic bulbs. Drizzle with remaining 1 tsp. oil. Arrange garlic bulbs, cut sides down, around pork in pan.

Bake at 425° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion of pork registers 160°. Let stand 10 minutes.

Transfer pork and vegetables to a serving platter, reserving drippings in pan. Add apple cider vinegar to pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring often, 3 minutes or until thickened. Pour over vegetables.

Slice pork, and serve with roasted vegetables, garlic bulbs, and Caramelized Apples.

Caramelized Apples

1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 Pink Lady apples, quartered
4 Granny Smith apples, quartered
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Rub brown sugar on cut sides of apples; sprinkle with desired amount of salt and pepper.


Cook apples in hot oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat 8 minutes or until caramelized and crisp-tender.

Lemon-Cream Pasta Toss

Yee-haw rodeo is over and it's nice to get things back to normal around here! Friday was our actual last day of the rodeo we decided to skip Saturday and Sunday. It rained cats and dogs here on Saturday and temps dropped again. What's up with this crazy weather we where having really nice weather with sun shine and in the 70's? Instead we hung out with our niece and nephew for the evening, then on Sunday while the weather was clear we had gusty winds. There's always a catch! Despite the cooler weather and high winds our friend threw a crawfish boil and boy was it good. I took home some of the shells and I have a recipe coming up I think you're gonna like.

When we where building our house and I was designing the kitchen I drooled over the Viking appliances. My husband was not drooling so much due to the price tags attached to it. The website is pretty neat and they also have recipes on there, which is where I got today's dish. Over all we really liked it and will be making it again. No on to finding a recipe contest giving away appliances. :)

Lemon-Cream Pasta Toss
(Adapted from Viking Range)

1 pound linguine
1 tablespoon butter, plus ¼ cup, divided
1 pound chicken tenderloin fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Zest from 1 lemon and Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice)
2 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup shredded Asiago or Parmesan cheese, plus additional cheese for garnish
1/2 cup slivered sun dried tomatoes, re hydrated according to package directions
1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced into thin slivers

Bring a large pot of water and about a teaspoon of salt to a boil. Add linguine and cook according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid, then drain linguine.

While linguine cooks, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until chicken is cooked through, and no pink remains in the center. Add lemon juice to the chicken and simmer 1 minute, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Combine egg yolks, cream, shredded cheese, and lemon zest in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain pasta and return to the pot. Add the 1/4 cup of butter, stirring until all noodles are coated.

Stir in chicken and lemon juice, cream mixture, sundried tomatoes and slivered basil. Add reserved pasta water, a little at a time, until the sauce is creamy. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if necessary. Pass additional shredded Asiago or Parmesan at the table.