Dessert, Anyone?

I woke up this morning with the anticipation of one of my nephews coming to join us for dinner.  Thinking to myself, "Self... what would make him feel really special?" I remembered what he'd told me on one of his last few visits.  That visit I had wanted to surprise him with his favorite pie, only to realize that cherry is not only NOT his favorite, but one he doesn't like at all.  Oops!  So in light of that faux pas, today became "Favorite Pie ~ Take Two" and hopefully tonight it will be a big hit.

Now I realize that technically pie is not a cookie, cake or cupcake, but Oh My since it's my site I can bake and blog whatever I want. This recipe is super easy and fully "manufactured" thanks to the Crisco and Dr. Oetker products I used to make... Lemon Meringue Pie.  If you've never made a lemon meringue pie before, don't be intimated.  It's much easier than you might think.

I always make my own pastry which is where my favorite pie-making ingredient (besides Cake and Pastry flour) comes into play.  

My paternal Grandma was a fabulous piemaker and she swore by Crisco so that is what I've always used.  Tradition or habit?  Whose to know after all this time!  Making pastry is fairly easy with practice but I often find the most difficult part is putting it into the pie plate without it breaking apart.  Sometimes I'll lay the ball of pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap to roll out.  This makes transfer very simple, but today I just rolled out my pie shell on my handy Tupperware rolling mat.  Do you have one of these?  If not you really must.  I use it to roll and cut my cookies and  pie dough.  My Mom had one when I was growing up and it's one of the few Tupperware musts I own!  Here's what it looks like:

Once my pie shell was baked (following the directions on the Crisco box) I let it cool.  Hours later I followed directions on my box of Dr. Oetker's Shirriff Lemon Pie Filling before pouring it into the cooled shell.

Again, I let the pie cool on the counter before making the meringue with the leftover egg whites (the egg yolks are in the lemon pie filling) and sugar.  Once it nicely baked in the 350F oven it came out looking like this:

Dessert Anyone?