Key Lime Pie and Some Like It Hot

I'm back! Did you miss me? I certainly missed blogging. These past few weeks have been crazy. I have a bunch of family over from overseas, and it's been really fun showing them around Boston. We even went on a ghost tour! Now that I've graduated from college, I've also been going to a job interviews hoping to snag my dream career as a high school history teacher. I keep getting frustrated by that odious catch-22 that consistently rears its head: they want to hire people with experience, but how will I get that experience if I don't get a job? (For the record, I do have a job as a tutor lined up for the fall). But in any event, no matter what changes are going on around you, food and cooking are always consistent. They're like comforting friends that wait for you with a cup of hot chocolate after a long day. I revel in the knowledge that even if I won't be teaching next year, I'll still have my cookbooks and my baking.

Summer is still in full swing here. If you don't live in Boston, you should know that it gets wicked humid in the summer (did you like the "wicked" I added for local flavor?). We've had a stretch of days where the air was too muggy to go outside and the trees hung limp and sagging with the heat. Supposedly, the worse is yet to come. It's supposed to be 100 degrees and oppressively humid at the end of this week! This leads to me a confession: the dessert I created for this post isn't baked. I think you will forgive me, though, when you find out that the movie of the week is the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (I swear this isn't supposed to be a pun on the weather. It's just a coincidence). Some Like It Hot is one of my favorite films because the humor is just so crisp and refreshing. It is witty dialogue-based comedy, which is one of the kinds I liked best. You can tell that the screenwriters put a lot of effort into the wisecracks and the zingers in the film, which proves that comedy really is the hardest genre to pull off! Here are Dan's thoughts on the film:

Yes, that is an EW magazine with Spider-Man on it.

Some It Like Hot:
Seeing Some Like It Hot today and losing yourself in the zany joy that is this brilliantly-written comedy, it's a little hard to imagine that together with Billy Wilder's next film, The Apartment, this load of laughs helped to bring down the Production Code. The story involves two 1920s Chicago musicians (played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) who, to escape a crew of tough moonshing gangsters, hitch a ride on a Florida-bound train disguised as women. Why this disguise? Because they have to blend in with a female orchestra led by Marilyn Monroe and also because...well, because it's funny, that's why.

More complications and shenanigans follow them to the Sunshine State, creating such memorable scenes as a lovestruck geezer's (played by veteran comedian Joe E. Brown) pursuit of the woman he doesn't know is actually Jack Lemmon in disguise, and Tony Curtis's imitation of his screen idol Cary Grant. Sure, they fall for Marilyn Monroe and the gangsters wind up in the same posh resort, continuing the complications that lead up to the perfect conclusion (even though "nobody's perfect" in this delightfully wacky comedy).

Some Like It Hot is everything a comedy should be. It's intelligent, the pacing is zippy, the dialogue sizzles ("your glasses are fogging up"), and it all works perfectly.

Thanks, Dan! Now stop...recipe time!

This key lime pie was so, so good. I was actually surprised at how good it was. See, the luxurious setting of Some Like It Hot's seaside Florida resort made me long to return to the Sunshine State, where key lime pie is the characteristic dessert. And since this recipe is no-bake, it is perfect for a sweltering summer day. The lime custard is smoothly creamy with just enough a lime flavor...it's subtle enough to remind you of the tropics, but not at all overwhelming like in other key lime pies I've tried. In true Floridian fashion, do NOT tint the custard green when you are making this. This recipe comes from a a cookbook entitled The Quick Cook: No-Bake Desserts. According to this book, key lime pie has been around since the 1890s. Therefore, it's possible that the Some Like It Hot characters could have shared a piece of this pie during their Jazz Age stay in Florida!

Key Lime Pie
From The Quick Cook: No-Bake Desserts
Ingredients:

• 1 can (14 oz) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp grated lime zest (if possible, use key limes)
• 1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
• 2 cups fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

1) In a medium bowl, beat the condensed milk and the lime juice with an electric mixer until combined. Stir in the lime zest.
2) Pour the mixture into the crust. Spread the whipped topping on top. Refridgerate at least 2 hours.

Quick, healthy, and cool!

Next week: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and Jurassic Park