{Living Vicariously} Culinary Student & Food Writer: Marcelle Richards, Part 2

Have you ever dreamed of going to culinary school? I have. I fantasize about perfecting a 1/2" dice and saying, "yes, chef." My friend Marcelle is currently living that dream, after earning a bachelors degree at the University of Wisconsin. She attends culinary school at Madison Area Technical College and she writes an awesome food blog called Gastropacalypse. Marcelle also writes about food in The Isthmus and Our Lives Magazine. 


I had the chance to interview Marcelle in february (click here to link back to Part 1 of this {Living Vicariously} segment and get Marcelle's recipe for Buffalo Mac & Cheese), to find out a little bit more about culinary school. 

Copyright flavorfull blog 2011. Produced and edited by Alexandra Rogers.

Who else would you like to live vicariously through? Let me know, and I'll try to make it happen!

Oatmeal Yogurt Muffins with Cranberries and Pecans

The other day, I was craving muffins. I've added working out regularly to my morning routine, and although I couldn't be happier with that choice, it leaves little time to think about breakfast before I run out the door. 

I know muffins aren't the best option for every day, but I've been living off of egg white scrambles and bananas for a little too long now, and I just wanted a treat. Of course, since it is National Nutrition Month, I searched for a healthier way to do muffins, and found some inspiration here. I changed it around to suit my tastes, and I love the results!

I love these dense muffins, and I hope you will too. This recipe is easy to make substitutions with, especially the nuts and dried fruit. Feel free to try any combination that suits your tastes. 

Oatmeal Yogurt Muffins with Cranberries and Pecans
By Alexandra Rogers


Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
2/3 cup craisins (original)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup skim milk
3/4 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, beaten


Recipe
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. 


In a large bowl, mix together rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, pecans and cranberries.


In a small bowl (or cup), mix the yogurt and milk together with a fork until the consistency is smooth and slightly less thick than yogurt. In a medium bowl (I used my mixer for this), combine the yogurt/milk mixture, the melted butter (cooled to room temperature, but not back to solid state), and the vanilla. The mixture will look yellow and possibly slightly curdled. That's okay, that is what you're looking for. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix for no more than 10 seconds--just enough to bring the mixture together. It should still be lumpy. If you over mix, the muffins will be tough. 


Use 1/4 cup measure to pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for approximately 5 minutes, then cool all the way to room temperature on a drying rack. Makes 12 muffins. 

Nutrition Facts: 1 muffin=1 serving
Amount Per Serving: Calories 220.1; Total Fat 10.4 g; Saturated Fat 5.2g; Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0g; Monounsaturated Fat 3.4 g; Cholesterol 36.1 mg; Sodium 399.5 mg; Potassium 108.9 mg; Total Carbohydrate 31.8 g; Dietary Fiber 1.8 g; Sugars 18.3 g; Protein 4.0 g.

Another reason to love mushrooms...

As soon as I could reach the kitchen sink, my job was to help my mother prep our dinner. I'd usually wash vegetables, (when I was old enough, I chopped them too), but not mushrooms.


No, never did I wash the mushrooms. With the mushrooms, I'd take a specially purchased brush and gently wipe the dirt off each mushroom. If I didn't love mushrooms so much, I would have given them up immediately. But, because of my extreme love of mushrooms, I carried on. 


If you experience a similar internal battle every time you cook with mushrooms, I have got some great news for you.

I got this picture of mushrooms here.

STOP BRUSHING YOUR MUSHROOMS IMMEDIATELY. Just wash them. They're dirty aren't they? Do you want to eat that dirt?

I didn't think so.


At a cooking class I took at the Institute of Culinary Education this summer, Chef Instructor Jane Brock told us that washing mushrooms was common place in France, at Le Cordon Bleu (Gasp. Of all places!)


It's true, you can wash your mushrooms. If you'd like a more scientific explanation of why, please see Alton Brown's elaboration on the topic.


Have you begun to wonder, now, if any of your other trusted cooking advisors passed down old wives tales? I'd love to debunk some myths for you. Email me comments at flavorfullblog@gmail.com, find me on twitter @flavorfullblog or facebook.com/flavorfulblog.

Upcoming posts on flavorfull

Thank you so much for reading flavorfull. I really appreciate your interest, and your comments. Please let me know if you have any food questions, comments or other requests! Feel free to comment on the blog, or email me at flavorfullblog@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can find flavorfull blog on facebook.com/flavorfullblog or @flavorfullblog.

Stay tuned for these upcoming posts.

1. Oatmeal Cranberry Muffins

2. Interview with Food Writer and Culinary Student Marcelle Richards

3. How-To Make Ricotta (video post)

4. Penne Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce and Fresh Ricotta Cheese

5. Discover your inner Mixologist

Critique on Google's Recipe Search

This morning, Food52’s Amanda Hesser started a much needed discussion about Google’s new recipe search feature and its ultimate impact on American food culture. 

Effective February 24^th, 2011, the new algorithm allows users to limit search results to only recipes. Within the recipe limitation, users can then refine their search even more—selecting to view only those recipes with a certain amount of calories, cooking time, and certain ingredients. At first glance, this is handy.

Go to google. Search stuffed chicken breasts. Look closely at the top 5 results. Now look at the top 10. If you look closely, you’ll see the results you get range from allrecipes.com to Rachael Ray’s page on the Food Network. My recipe for stuffed chicken breasts does not appear. Nor do the recipes of any other food blogger.

Do you see the problem? I do. My own blogging efforts aside, food bloggers tend to be concerned with thoughtful, personal recipes, made great by testing and years of cooking.  I read food blogs because I often glean new and interesting food information from them. I enjoy the writing style of Deb from smitten kitchen and Heidi on 101 cookbooks. They make you feel connected to the food. To me, and to a lot of food-lovers out there, that is what food is about. I want a stuffed chicken breast and a story, not stuffed chicken breast and a picture of Rachael Ray. 

Hesser takes issue with the influence this advancement in google search capabilities might have on the way Americans cook. Google, after all, has billions of users who are influenced by what they find on, often just the first page of, search results. If google users find only recipes from the food network and all recipes, Hesser argues, that effectively drowns out the other food-voices online. And, the way google search works impacts independent food websites and food bloggers most, because of the time and technology needed to get near the top of the new search process. (Craig Goldwyn goes more in-depth on this topic in the Huffington Post. If you’re a food blogger, read it immediately.)

I agree with Hesser. Google wields an incredible amount of power on the actions of its searchers. Its new recipe search algorithm promotes everything that is wrong in American food culture. Cooking fast and calorie counting can often override the taste and experience of a meal, and as Hesser points out, the way recipe searches are refined does not isolate the best or most loved recipes for searchers.

 “Refining recipe search by time doesn’t result in better recipes rising to the top," said Hesser, in an article on Food52.com. "Rather, the new winners are recipes packaged for the American eating and cooking disorder.”

The local food movement has grown vibrant over the last few years, in part thanks to the internet and ability of individual voices to join the conversation. With one advancement in technology, google may have wiped this ability out. 

Check out the New York Times Dining Journal, and Dianne Jacob's thoughts about this development as well. What do you think of the new google recipe search index and its impact on American food culture? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

10 Good Reads For the Food Obsessed

Top 6 Foodie Novels

Kathleen Flinn writes passionately about her experience as a student at Le Cordon Blue in 

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry. If you've ever dreamed of attending culinary school, you will relish this story of a woman following her lifelong dream. 

Ruth Reichl is a reknowned food writer. Although most recently she hailed as Editor in Chief of the now defunct Gourmet Magazine, she gained serious foodie fame during her time as the New York Times food critic. Garlic and Sapphires is about her time in that post--it details everything from the disguises she wore to avoid recognition, to nights spent awake in bed, panicking that she'd written about rosemary in a dish that had none. Reichl is one of my main inspirations for getting involved in the world of food media.

In Heat, Bill Buford goes from writer and amateur gourmet to a full-on kitchen slave, at Babbo no less. If you are, yourself, an amateur gourmet, then you'll certainly connect with the daily fate of an amateur chef working in Babbo's Kitchen. 

A Year in Provence tells the story of a married couple who decided to move to Provence for a year. It is as much an account of food (and the food culture in France) as of the european country lifestyle. Though there is no engrossing mystery in the book, it still manages to be a page turner, if only because everything in it is simply so pleasant. 

Although based in a somewhat morbid context, My Last Supper profiles 50 culinary greats and begs the question: what would you have for your final meal? The answers are intriguing and the photographs are beautiful. 

4 Cookbooks I Can't Put Down

I read this at the gym. Big. Mistake. Although the recipes in the Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook are beyond incredible (just like the food at the restaurant--I actually dream about their pancakes), this is so much more than a cookbook. From cover to cover, the recipes and photographs are accompanied by compelling stories about the restaurant and the couple that runs it. 

This book is a veritable encyclopedia of flavor combinations. Here's how it works: think of a food or flavor. Halibut, you say? The Flavor Bible can help! Simply look up halibut and see a list of proven flavor combinations from a variety of culinary backgrounds. This is an amazing way to start making your own recipes, once you are confident in your recipe technique. I got it as a Christmas present, after putting it on my wish list. 

This cookbook is a necessity. Mark Bittman published How to Cook Everything years ago, and the simplicity is stunning. If you're a novice in the kitchen, this book will give you clear instructions on every basic recipe you can think of. If you're a more accomplished cook, you'll enjoy the variation ideas and techniques Bittman includes at the end of most of the basic recipes. This book has allowed me to develop recipes on my own, since once I learned the basic recipes and the variations, I began to understand how the variations worked. 

This is the first cookbook from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, who also authored Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented (that's where that to-die-for double chocolate loaf with peanut butter cream cheese spread came from). The recipes are daring and any book that calls a photograph of a brownie "seductive" well, that is a cookbook I can get on board with. 

*As a side note, I was not encouraged to write a post about any of these books or compensated for mentioning them in any way. I just love them all, and hope you'll get the same enjoyment from them that I do.

Mixed Greens Salad with Apples, Grapes, Bleu Cheese and Candied Pecans

I must admit, I have never been a salad person. I didn't eat them growing up. I didn't eat them in college, when my more conscientious female friends chose them for lunch over say, a burger and fries. It wasn't because I had something against healthy food. It's just...well...up until I was about 21, I had never met a salad whose butt I could not kick. In the culinary sense. (Excuse the language.)

But then, my friends, I began to discover that salads can be a lot more than washed out lettuce and cucumber slices floating in ranch dressing. (You know what I'm talking about. It was at the end of the hot lunch line.) This salad, in particular, has changed my feelings about leafy greens for lunch. It is a serious flavor explosion; the vinaigrette and bleu cheese provide tart flavors, and the grapes and candied pecans provide two different types of sweet. The texture varies, with crunchy apples and candied pecans meeting soft mixed greens from bite to bite. People, this is salad heaven. Just make it. It is very, very good. And, with a nod to the theme of this year's National Nutrition Month, it is also very colorful.

 

Mixed Greens Salad with Apple, Grapes, Bleu Cheese and Candied Pecans

By Alexandra Rogers

Ingredients

Salad

1 bag of mixed greens (I prefer the baby spring mix), washed and dried

1 cup of red grapes, washed 

2 fuji apples, cut into 1/2"-1" cubes

3/4 cup bleu cheese crumbles (a 4 oz. package gives you a little less, but that'll be more than enough)

1 cup Candied Pecans 

Apple Cider Vinaigrette

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 teaspoon mustard (the good, grainy stuff is best)

a dash of salt

a dash of pepper

Recipe

In a large bowl, mix grapes, cubed apples, bleu cheese crumbles and mixed greens together.

In a small Tupperware container or lidded jar, mix vinaigrette ingredients together. Make a "lazy man's emulsion" by covering the container and shaking vigorously until combined. 

Toss the salad with just enough of the vinaigrette to lightly coat. Add candied pecans and mix. You will probably have some vinaigrette left over. Serve immediately. Serves 5-6

*As a side note, the ingredients keep fairly well for a few days (the apples brown unless you spritz them with lemon juice when you cut them), but if you're making it on a Sunday and having it for lunch on Monday, then don't put the dressing or candied pecans on until the day you're eating it.

Candied Pecans

I know, I know, it is National Nutrition Month. No place for anything candied, you say? I beg to differ. These make a welcome addition, in moderation, to the Mixed Greens Salad I am posting this week. They add a much needed deep sugar flavor and intense crunch. They are also lovely to munch on (again, in moderation) if you need a small fix of something sweet. 

Candied Pecans

By Alexandra Rogers

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups chopped pecan pieces, toasted (at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5-7 minutes)

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt 

 

Recipe

Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and have two forks nearby. Set aside, very near the stove.

Pour sugar into a small pot. Cook sugar on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. The sugar will begin to melt, and within a few minutes will begin to turn an amber color. When the sugar has just turned amber (no white sugar should be left) pour toasted pecan pieces into the pot and stir very quickly to coat pecan pieces with sugar mixture. Once the nuts are coated (this should happen within 30 seconds), pour the pecans onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet and work quickly with a fork to separate the clump into separate pieces. After about 1 minute, sprinkle with salt.

Crêpes

During summertime in New York City, there is a rotating street fair. Happenstancing upon these random markets is one of those little luxuries in life and most of the luxury comes from one reliable presence at these street fairs: crêpes, prepared when you order, as you like them, and wrapped in a little cone. I can't tell you how many times I have shown up to work with powdered sugar all over my face because I tried to eat a crêpe (and succeeded) while running up first avenue. 

Anyway, point is, crêpes are delightful. I'd been craving something sweet after cooking tons of savory, healthy recipes in honor of National Nutrition Month, when I realized: crêpes are light, not to sugary at all and make for a sweet and guilt-free end to a healthy meal. I get to missing dessert sometimes, and I figured you might too. Plus, making crêpes is an undeniably awesome party trick. They're really easy to make, but let's just keep that our little secret, okay?

Crêpes
By Alton Brown


Ingredients
2 large eggs
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
Butter for coating the pan


Recipe
Mix all ingredients together in a blender (pulse for 10 seconds) or whisk together in a large mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate mixture for 1 hour (it will keep as batter for 48 hours).


Pull batter from fridge and heat a crepe pan over medium/medium-high heat. Coat the pan with butter. Once the pan is hot and the butter is melted, use a 1/4 cup measure to make each crepe. Pour mixture into pan and swirl around very quickly. (It might take you a couple tries to get this right. Don't worry about it. Practice makes perfect.)  Cook for 30 seconds, until slightly browned on bottom side. Flip and cook for another 10-15 seconds. Slide the crêpe off the pan and onto a cutting board (lay flat) to cool.  Yields about 10 crepes. 


I garnished mine with lemon juice, sugar and fresh raspberries. Other sweet options include a light spread of nutella (otherwise we can't call it healthy anymore) and fresh cut bananas. These crêpes can also be made savory via toppings.


Enjoy!

Bell Pepper & Basil "Stir Fry"

For many people, Mondays are insane. When you finally head home, after a barrage of emails and voice mails and meetings, nothing sounds better than a warm meal. And, for a lot of people (even people like me, who love to cook), making dinner seems like a lot more energy than it is worth. This stir fry, however, is easy. Seriously, really easy. 

 

And, in honor of national nutrition month, it is a colorful and healthy meal as well. Bell peppers, basil and a (reasonable size portion of) brown rice. To prepare myself for Monday nights, I usually do the prep work on Saturday or Sunday so all that is left to do is throw things in a pan and eat the delicious results. And, you know what happens to be a great thing to munch on while you're waiting for this to cook? Sweet potato wedges, of course.

Pepper & Basil "Stir Fry"

By Alexandra Rogers


Ingredients
1 cup brown rice, cooked
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2-3 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, julienne
1/2 large Red onion, sliced into half rounds
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce


Recipe
In a large pan, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, separating into separate pieces, and stir once to coat with oil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until onions have begin to caramelize and become tender. Do not stir often, as this interrupts the caramelization process.


Add peppers and cook for 3-5 minutes, until peppers are slightly tender and browned in spots. 


Add garlic and ginger to the pan, stir thoroughly, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and cook for 2 minutes. 


Lastly, add the fresh, torn basil leaves and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until basil is wilted and sticking to peppers and onions. 


Serves 3. Serve warm, accompanied by 1/3 cup rice. 

Sweet Potato Wedges

I have had an addiction to sweet potatoes since I was about 8 years old. I was a vegetarian then, and thanksgiving generally consisted of green bean casserole, a biscuit and these lovely boiled (and drenched in brown sugar) sweet potatoes my grandma always made. That was, and still is, a delicious way to prepare sweet potatoes, but in the interest of healthy and colorful food, I decided to share a recipe that lets the sweet potato speak for itself and does not cancel out its many health properties. 

Sweet potatoes are low in sodium and very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. They are a good source o Dietary Fiber and several other vitamins. Like kale, sweet potatoes are anti-inflammatory, making this snack especially good for you after a workout. Plus, they taste great and it seems like a thoughtful appetizer before serving a stir fry or a burger or, just about anything!

Sweet Potato Wedges

By Alexandra Rogers

Ingredients

2 Sweet Potatoes/Yams, sliced into wedges

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

heavy pinch of salt

Recipe

Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. In a tall-sided baking pan or sheet, place sweet potato wedges. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil, cumin and salt. Cook for 15 minutes, then shake the pan to flip the wedges. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with soy sauce and chopped scallions. 

Happy National Nutrition Month!

I was recently informed, by a nutritionist friend, that March is National Nutrition Month. Now, although my love for all-things-delicious usually leads me somewhat off course when it comes to a healthy diet, I think healthy eating is incredibly important. I'm also inspired by the theme this year, which is, "Eat right. With color." 

So, with that in mind, flavorfull will focus on healthy eating for the rest of March. I'm really excited to share ideas and techniques that produce healthy meals without sacrificing flavor. If you have questions, comments or advice (or, best of all, recipes), I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me through blog comment, or at:
facebook.com/flavorfullblog
@flavorfullblog
flavorfullblog@gmail.com

White Bean and Kale Soup

Hold it right there, readers. Don't go anywhere. I know the mere sight of kale might send some people running, but I promise you: I would never dream of giving you a recipe that didn't taste delicious. But, kale? You say. Yes, Kale, I say. 

I understand your hesitation. My relationship with Kale wasn't exactly love at first sight. My mother often forced  encouraged me to eat kale, and I wasn't keen on it. But now, because of this recipe, I'm madly in love with Kale. (It's true.) Give me a few minutes of your time, and I'm sure you will be, too. My kale-paradigm-shift happened one afternoon at the coffee shop across the street. Feeling guilty for a particularly indulgent blog post, I ordered Kale and White Bean soup for lunch. It was, after all, the healthiest option on the menu. Much to my surprise, it was light, delicious and full of flavor, with none of the bitterness I remembered from the kale of lunches past. The soup had a slightly salty broth and the kale had softened from boiling in the soup. The white beans added some much needed texture to the mix. 

As I was enjoying this fabulous soup, I remembered some things I'd been told by various kale-lovers. Kale is good  great for you. It is a source of Protein and Dietary Fiber and it's low in Saturated Fat and very low in Cholesterol. On top of all that, it contains great vitamins. Oh, also, it contains anti-oxidants and is considered an anti-inflammatory. For more on the awesomeness of Kale, go here. Or, just make the recipe I've posted here. 

White Bean and Kale Soup

By Alexandra Rogers 

Ingredients

1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil

1 cup diced yellow onion (about 1 small-medium onion will do)

2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 cups kale leaves, torn into small pieces
1 1/2 cups great northern/white beans *use beans from a can, here, not dried beans*
3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)

parmesan cheese rind (optional)

Recipe

In a medium or large pot, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, stirring once to coat with oil, cover and reduce heat to medium. Let the onions sweat for about 3 minutes, then add minced garlic. Cook for 2-3 more minutes, until garlic is fragrant but softened, and onions are tender and browning. 


In a separate bowl (or large liquid measuring cup) mix together vegetable broth and water. Pour about 1/4 cup broth mixture into the hot pot containing the onions, and scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Do this twice. This process is called deglazing the pan. Add the rest of the broth mixture and bring to a boil. At this point, add the rind, if you're using it.


Once the broth, onions and garlic are boiling, add kale leaves. Cover and boil for 10 minutes. 


After 10 minutes, add salt to taste. Then, add the beans and boil, covered, for 5 minutes. Add a crack or two of pepper, stir and serve. Makes 5-6 servings of healthy, delicious soup.

Key Lime Pie

Hello readers. I'm writing today to ask you for help. What started as a citrus-phase (as seen here) has now gone spinning out of control into a pie phase. There are two slices of this key lime pie left sitting in my fridge and I am doing everything I can not to finish the pie tin and lick it clean. Do any of you happen to have some extra self-control you can lend me? I'm a sucker for a graham cracker crust. 

Especially a graham cracker crust with coconut. And the creamy, tangy filling in this pie? Well, I'm a sucker for that, too. This recipe is made with regular, grocery store limes, instead of juiced key limes or persian limes. My mother has perfected it, adapted from The New Best Recipe cookbook. We like to serve it with a bowl of freshly whipped cream and allow guests to garnish their own slice, instead of pre-decorating the pie.There's nothing like topping your own slice of heaven with a gigantic spoonful of airy whipped cream. 

Key Lime Pie

Adapted by Marcella Rogers from The New Best Recipe

Ingredients

Lime Filling

4 teaspoons grated lime zest

1/2 cup strained lime juice (from 3 or 4 regular limes)

5 large egg yolks

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Graham Cracker Crust

9 graham crackers (5 ounces), broken into rough pieces

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

5 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut 

Whipped Cream Topping

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 lime, sliced paper thin

Recipe

Whisk zest and yolks in a medium glass, plastic or clay bowl for about 2 minutes, or until it takes on a light green color. Beat in milk and lime juice. To thicken, set aside at room temperature for at about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and adjust oven rack to center position. In a food processor, pulse graham crackers until they are fine crumbs (about 30 seconds)--this should result in 1 cup of crumbs. Add the sugar and coconut, then slowly add the butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press mixture into a 9-inch pie pan, evenly. cover with saran wrap and refrigerate lined pie plate for at least 20 minutes to firm up the crumbs. Bake until lightly browned and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Cool pie crust to room temperature--this will take at least 20 minutes.

Now, your lime filling should have thickened a bit. Pour the lime filling into the prepared graham cracker crust and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until the center of the of the pie is set. This should take about 15-17 minutes. Let pie cool to room temperature, then refrigerate to chill (for at least 3 hours). 

Right before serving (within an hour), make your whipped cream. In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. Gradually add the confectioners sugar while whipping. Serve the whipped cream with your key lime pie and garnish with thinly cut lime slices, if you wish. 

This pie can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to one day. 

Serves 8-12  (depending on how big you cut the slices).