In praise of meringue

Look at that beautiful thing up there!  I don't just want to eat it, I want to paint it.  I probably will!

Yesterday I made a lemon meringue pie, a dessert that used to be my specialty.  I made this pie frequently throughout the mid- to late-90s.  I used to call it Homicide Pie because I generally made it on Friday nights when Homicide was on.  I'd idly stand over the stove, enduring one of the recipe's many tiresome "cook and stir" directions, sometimes with a box fan blowing full blast in my face, and meanwhile Pembleton would be in "The Box" grilling some lowlife.  Pie making and Homicide?  Soup and sandwich.  I miss that show.  Canceling it was really the beginning of the end for NBC, if you ask me.

Anyway, I'd make the pie on Friday night, slide it into the refrigerator, and serve it to friends and family the following day.  The overnight refrigeration provided the perfect amount of time for it to set up. 

So confident was I in the quality of this pie that one time I made it while visiting people in Germany who did not even know what pie was. 

Let's allow this horrifying idea to sink in a little: Some people do not even know what pie is.

Imagine!  A world without pie, and then some American woman presents that world with this:

I was changing lives in Germany, people.

After making this particular pie at least six times a year, I mysteriously stopped for about a decade, probably because a boyfriend did not like lemon meringue pie for whatever unfathomable reason.  But yesterday I decided a L.M.P. renaissance was in order.  A sort of muscle memory kicked in during the cooking and stirring, and I felt a loving nostalgia for the 90s and that Homicide telephone sound.  I allowed the pie to cool and refrigerated it for what seemed like a reasonable amount of time before cutting into it as the Oscars began.

Big mistake.  Apparently the filling needed more time to set up, because as soon as I removed a slice: LEMON DELUGE.  The filling spread into the void like nobody's business.  FAIL.  Still, we are managing to eat this lemon soup with crust and meringue topping.  We are in fact having no trouble at all consuming this sloppy, sloppy pie.  But the pie's like, "NO PHOTOS PLEASE!" and I have to respect its wishes.  It is not pretty. 

But oh man, that meringue is gorgeous.

Comments

[Tiffany]

That is gorgeous right down to the pie pan! Darn it, now I'm craving lemony goodness and all I have are some unacceptable lemon slush cups.

Is that your mother's crust recipe you used in a previous post? Your crusts always look so perfectly lightly baked.

[JimRhino]

As UN-American as it may sound, I am not a pie guy, but do have to admit that this is an extraordinarily beautiful pie. It makes me want to try a slice...er...bowl. Nice job!

[GinaE]

A thing of beauty, really!!! I am going to need one of my own now. Great post, you always make me laugh!

[The Beautiful Kind]

S P E C T A C U L A R!!!!