It has been so long since I managed this whole farmette by myself that yesterday I lost track of time as I trotted about and ended up coming up to the house way too late to make any dinner so we went out to The Local for fried chicken and by the time I got home and sorted out some family business it was way too late to start loading pictures and thinking about writing and I got an early head start on everything this morning because it is not raining and now I have time to post. (Was that really all one sentence!?)
Everything is settled down this morning and well in control. More relaxed today.
Yesterday I started to make my Mothers lemon meringue pie. You know that saying Don’t cook like your mother cook like your Grandmother. Well I took this recipe of Mums and turned it back into my Grandmothers recipe.
It called for a can of condensed milk, a packet of cookies to crumble and yellow lemon juice. Yellow?
So first I had to make the condensed milk. To make this I mixed 2 quarts of milk with 4 cups of sugar and half a vanilla bean (basically Dulce de Leche from Fede’s cook book) and cooked it on low for four hours (popping in and out to check on it) until it was thick and caramel coloured. Then I put this aside to chill and went back outside to work.
This morning I took the last of Allison’s breakfast cookies crumbled them and added 90 g melted home made butter. Sorry Allison but they are so tasty!
Then mixed the condensed milk with 4 eggs yolks and 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Then I whipped the 4 egg whites with 1/2 cup of sugar. Spooned on top. 
Cook at 350 for 15 minutes then down to 300 for twenty minutes then turn the oven off. Back away slowly. Do NOT open the door. As the oven cools the meringue with crisp up. (This works better in an electric oven and in the winter when it is not so humid).
A lovely pie for our Sunday lunch. I will cut it when cold and let you know the result.
Poppy’s farrowing area and Piglet Baby Cradle Warm Spot are all in place. She spends all her time lying quietly these last few days. She has extra rations now we are into her last week and she is locked out of the mud so she stays clean. Her straw will be replaced with wood chips so we don’t have that problem with hiding piglets getting stepped on. I have a peep hole to observe her without causing her to get up and while she is sleeping I can see her piglets lurching about in there, her belly rippling. The pig pregnancy calculator say she should be due July 3rd or 4th.
Her udder is beginning to take on a starfish shape. (She is lying on it in these images – that can’t be comfortable!)
I think we might get some piglets in a week. Maybe. Fingers crossed. Touch wood – all that stuff. And if I am not imagining things.
I will chat again in the morning – we have sun again so back out I go to shift some chickens.
Love your friend on a farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
47 responses to “Poppy and Pie”
That’s a beautiful pie! Love the splattered hand written recipe too – very nostalgic 🙂
I was wondering where you were! Glad all is in hand, and with a lovely homemade pie at that! Have a wonderful day!
I think it may be less than a week! Good luck, Poppy! 🙂
So exciting waiting for the arrival of piglets!
OMG That pie has me swallowing and swallowing it is SOOO delicious sounding and delicious looking.
Oh I hope everything goes well for dear little Poppy. Well she IS little in comparison to Sheila. I love that you have a peephole. Thank God you don’t have to worry about the sou ds of fireworks. In Chicago it is an abomination to the poor dogs and cats, birds and all sensitive creatures who are forced to endure the terror.
I had thought of that – we do have neighbours half a mile away – hopefully she does not get afraid.. c
Fingers crossed for happy, healthy little piglets and a mother pig who settles down to do her job.
You inspire me Celi, HOMEMADE condensed milk… 🙂 I cannot wait to see piglets and how Poppy does with them.
The pie sequence is lovely. I know it was superb
Count down has just begun… – Hope that all goes well with poppy & birth…
I’d like to have one pie like this – right now.
And I hope you can take a little rest today, you have earned it very much.
Have a nice day, Celi.
I have never heard of making lemon meringue pie with condensed milk and cookies! We make it with a lemon curd made from egg yolks, sugar, butter and lemons and then use the whites for the meringue. We also make a lemon sponge pie which has the whites folded into the curd. Wish I could stop by to taste your version…
Yours Sounds delicious.. I love lemon curd.. c
July 4th Independence Day…..that would be a good day for piglets to be born….
Squeals to both. I’ll take a slice of pie and be on piglet patrol for you 🙂 Can’t wait to see the babies. XOXO – Bacon
I am wondering how your pie tastes… it looks and sounds wonderful. However, and this may not be the case with kiwi baking, for me there is a huge difference between ‘condensed milk’ and ‘sweetened condensed milk’ and I do believe you made the latter. A regular tin of condensed milk here can have water, plain water, added to it half and half to bring it back to regular milk for baking… even drinking if one is desperate, I suppose. But the sweetened condensed milk is what I have used to make the dulce de leche with; it is thick and sticky and sweet, very unlike regular condensed milk. Now you didn’t say you added sugar to the mix of egg yolks, lemon and condensed milk, so perhaps you already had that in mind. 🙂
Having new baby piggies to fawn over will be exciting, specially for the Cadet. For some reason, I am today remembering how Johnny Carson (of Tonight Show fame) had a long running debate with his side kick, Ed McMahan (don’t know how to spell it, sorry) about how pigs were the most intelligent of animals, more so than dogs or cats or any others. I think Ed used to argue that horses were the more intelligent… but Johnny Carson was convinced it was piggies. Not terribly relevant but fun, nonetheless… heh heh
Hope it is staying dry and sunny for you today! ~ Mame 🙂
What you are calling “condensed milk” is called “evaporated milk” in the U.S. But obviously, the pie is being made with sweetened condensed milk, or a homemade version thereof. I absolutely can’t speak for the New Zealand usage.
In the UK condensed milk and evaporated milk are completely different, chalk and cheese in fact! Evaporated milk is pretty revolting, but condensed milk is my idea of heaven.
Your explanation is correct for Australia, so I imagine it is so for NZ 🙂
Yes, Mum just wrote condensed milk which in my memory was always sweetened. This recipe only uses a small amount of the one I made so is not as sweet as it sounds – with half a cup of lemon juice in there. And yes the evaporated milk is the unsweetened camping version of milk and quite dreadful!. And interesting discussion though.. c
Ahhhhh, thanks so much for the explanation! I have always thought of evaporated and condensed to be the same thing… I guess not… lol And it must just be my mistake and not one of region because it seems English and U.S. and New Zealand all have in their minds they are quite different. Right, evaporated milk is quite disgusting in flavour but it works just wonderfully for baking and, as I don’t drink milk myself, I usually have a small supply of it on hand for that purpose. Again, thanks for the clarity 🙂
Interesting how we are all different in our different countries – this is what i love about the fellowship – we are all teaching each other all the time/.. c
Sounds like a delicious crust! Good idea. Nothing like REAL butter!
It worked really well, Muesli has so many different uses!
I have my mother’s old cookbooks. The cookbooks themselves are nothing special – it’s the recipe cards tucked in, some in her writing, some for our dear friend Mildred’s pickles. Some much loved recipes like Hand Me Down Chocolate Cake, much loved and stapled into the cake book. These are the recipes I love the most. I suppose I could pull them out of the books and tuck them into my own book. Some I’ve sorted into the digital age. But there is something special about those written down on cards with Mom’s notes that makes them so much more valuable.
I agree – I store all my old handwritten recipes very carefully.. c