Lemon Meringue Pie Please?

Today I biked to the grocery store to get lemons to make a lemon meringue pie for my parents anniversary.  I biked.  With a backpack on my back.  I'm really cool.

But then I made the pie (and shrimp scampi!) and it was really good and I took some pikshures for you to see here.

LEZZ MAKE A PIE!!!

Start by combining four egg whites and a pinch of cream of tartar (save the egg yolks!).  Whip in your REALLY AWESOME YELLOW KITCHENAID STAND MIXER until they form soft peaks, then add in two tablespoons sugar.

Keep whipping until they form stiff peaks.  I almost just said hard peaks.  That would be incorrect.

You need a baked pie shell, so bake it if you have an unbaked one.  Unbaked + the oven = baked.  I got a 5 on my Calculus AP.

In a saucepan, throw in 1/3 cup cornstarch...

1 1/3 cups sugar...

1 1/2 cups water...

And a pinch of salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until boiling.

My hand looks really weird in this picture and I hate it.

While you're waiting for it to boil, you gotta zest some lemon.  I had a really difficult time at this part.  Is this what you use to zest a lemon?

I mangled this poor lemon.  I definitely didn't do this correctly.  Good thing I don't pretend to be perfect.

I even forgot to take a picture of the zest.  You need a tablespoon.  Imagine that here.

Next, you need 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  It took me 4 lemons, probably because I juiced them wrong.

This is what a half cup looks like, in case you were wondering.

Remember those egg yolks I told you to save?  This is why!  You're going to...

WHISK THEM!!  Good job.

Does your cornstarch/water/sugar mixture look goopy and gross now?  Good!  You're ready for the next step.  Remove that pan from that there heat!

Now, this part is very important... you need to temper the eggs.  Basically, you need to add the hot hot mixture to the eggs slowly so that you don't cook the eggs instantly.  Otherwise, you'd have scrambled eggs instead of a pie, and I really hate eggs.  Which is weird, I know, but they just gross me out.

So, as you are whisking the yolks, add the hot mixture into the eggs one ladle at a time, until at least half of the hot stuff is mixed in.

I added in pretty much all of the mix.  This is what it should look like if you did it right!

Now, pour the egg mix back into the saucepan and cook over low heat for another minute or two.  Then, remove from heat.

Add in three tablespoons of buttah...

...and the zest and juice.  I'm silly and knocked the zest into the juice while I was taking pictures.  Don't be like me.

Stir until completely combined!

Like this!  This tastes really good, but don't eat a lot of it because it has raw egg yolks, and while I've never gotten salmonella, it's just a little yucky.

Pour the yellow goo into the pie shell.

Nom!  Now comes the fun part.  Take your meringue (if it has fallen a little like mine did, whip it back into shape again!)...

...and if you like to be cool and creative and make more work for yourself you can put it in a bag, cut a hole in it, and pipe it on the pie.

It looks like packing peanuts!

Or a cloud.  No, mostly just packing peanuts.  Make sure the meringue covers all the filling, even to the edge, then pop it in the oven (375F for 10-14 minutes!).

And then it will look like this yummm!

Deliciouso.  Stick the pie in the fridge after a little while or else it will turn into soup like mine.  But it still tasted really good!

Ta-da!  You made a pie.  If you want the original recipe, you can find it on the Food Network site. 

So now I have a raging headache and I'm going to go to seeps seeing as I have to wake up tomorrow and unpack.  I have no clothes.  None.  My life is in the garage.  Ahhh!

It was really a pie not soup I swear,
Courtney