PawPaw's Birthday and Lemon-Lime Tart

Yesterday was PawPaw's birthday. There are many reasons I like to be back in Houston, but being able to be present for birthday celebrations and the like is probably in the number one spot. And I do love a good birthday celebration, but I think PawPaw's might be my favorite of all. Much like death and taxes, PawPaw's birthday is fixed. This is what I had for dinner last night:

That's right, fried chicken. And not just any fried chicken, it's Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think I heard that it's officially KFC. Yes, my super health-nut grandfather eats fried chicken once a year, on his birthday. And he likes KFC because he says it's the closest flavor to the fried chicken his grandmother used to make. Yesterday evening while we were eating dinner I learned about the Sunday fried chicken dinners PawPaw's family used to have. In the summers he and his family would go to Iowa, where his grandparents lived, and every Sunday his grandmother would make fried chicken for dinner. Apparently sometimes the younger boys would stay around the house to help catch the chickens and summarily prepare them for cooking by snapping the chicken's necks. There were always women around to help with this task, and then de-feathering the chickens, which, if I remember correctly, involves dunking them in boiling water. If you ask me, this sounds like something that would take all day; I don't think I'd have the energy to make dinner after such a task, but PawPaw says they made quick work of it. After the chickens were butchered, his grandmother would shake up the pieces in a brown bag with flour and various seasonings, and they would eventually have fried chicken for dinner. I think this gives new meaning to what I like to refer to as farm to table dining. Apparently I don't even know 1% of what this trendy phrase really and truly means, and my deep thought after PawPaw told this story was, "frying chicken in a kitchen without air conditioning in the summer is NO JOKE."

PawPaw likes his birthdays to be low-key and I'm not even allowed to bake a cake for the occasion. He had my grandmother buy a really fantastic chocolate cake. And, because it's PawPaw's birthday, and it's a really special occasion, I broke Lent and had a slice. It was a huge sacrifice, believe me. I do get to make PawPaw a birthday card, though, and that's where my creative energies have been stored for the past week or so. 

It looks like this. 

 And pages like this make my grandparents do funny things, like this:

Smile and kiss each other!

I didn't get to make PawPaw a cake for his birthday, and yes, that rankles the Singleton. I think, though, if I were going to make something for PawPaw's birthday, it might be sort of like this lemon-lime tart because it's no secret that my grandfather likes a lemon dessert. It's citrus season, and I had a bowl of lemons, limes, and oranges languishing on the counter. Now, we eat the oranges out of hand, but the lemons and limes were just crying to be used. I found a recipe for Lemon-Lime tart on the Good Housekeeping website of all places. I just happened to have all of the ingredients . . . it was kismet. 

The tart is pretty simple:  it's a graham cracker crust with a citrus filling. The filling is made with sweetened condensed milk and the lemon and lime juice and then baked inside of the crust. The recipe doesn't call for a meringue top, but I happen to have scads of egg whites in my freezer, and this seemed like a great opportunity to use up four of them. The general verdict seems to be that this is a very good tart, and worthy of the little time it takes to make it. Beware, the graham cracker crust is QUITE crumbly. I would add at least another tablespoon of melted butter next time. 

   

Lemon-Lime Tart 

Good Housekeeping

• 1 1/4 cup(s) graham-cracker crumbs
• 4 tablespoon(s) margarine or butter, softened
• 2 tablespoon(s) light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
• 1 can(s) (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup(s) lemon juice
• 1/4 cup(s) lime juice
• 1 teaspoon(s) lemon peel, grated
• 1 teaspoon(s) lime peel, grated
• 2 large eggs, separated
• Strips of lemon and lime peel for garnish

Directions

1. In medium bowl, with hand, mix graham-cracker crumbs, margarine or butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon until well blended. Press mixture onto bottom and up side of 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In large bowl, with wire whisk or fork, stir sweetened condensed milk, lemon and lime juice and peel, and egg yolks until mixture is well blended and thick.
3. In small bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. With rubber spatula or wire whisk, gently fold egg whites into lemon-lime mixture.
4. Pour lemon-lime filling into crust. Bake tart 20 to 25 minutes until filling is just firm.
5. Cool pie on wire rack, then refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours. Garnish with strips of lemon and lime peel.

If you're interested, I used Karen DeMasco's recipe for meringue from The Craft of Baking. If you know me, then there's a chance you might know that meringue and I have a long, rather tortuous history. It's kind of like an abusive relationship, and I am definitely the battered wife. Or maybe I'm the abusive spouse. I don't know. Sigh. Anyway, as far as meringues go, I like this recipe. It still wept a little bit, but it didn't shrink up quite as much as usual. I'm thinking that the powdered sugar in the meringue might help with this. I just baked the tart according to the recipe, and then I took the tart out of the oven, and while it was still hot I spooned on the meringue and put it under the broiler.

• eggs whites from 4 large eggs
• 2/3  cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Whisk egg whites on low speed using an electric mixer until bubbles begin to form. Increase speed to medium-low and beat for about 5 minutes until it begins to turn opaque and increase in volume. Add granulated and confectioner’s sugar in a slow and steady stream. Add vanilla and salt. Increase the speed to medium and beat for about 10 minutes until meringue becomes very thick.Spread meringue over the curd and cover up to the edges of the curd. Swirl and create peaks using a spatula.