Key Lime Pie Recipe

My aunt's delicious key lime pie recipe:

Graham Cracker Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (she uses Honey Maid)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pie Filling:
6 large egg yolks
One 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
3/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 6 limes)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
2. To make the crust, combine the crumbs sugar, almonds, and butter in a bowl. Blend well. Use the mixture to line the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.
3. Bake for 8 to ten minutes. Remove the crust and let it cool on a rack. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and lime zest and uice. Mix well.
3. Pour the mixture into graham cracker crust.
3. Bake in preheated over for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Top with whipped cream and garnish with lime slices.

Key Lime Pie and Cheesecake

Recipes to follow....

The Chocolate Duck

For Easter, my family received a basket of assorted baked goods including cookies, jelly beans and a beautifully decorated giant chocolate egg from The Chocolate Duck.


Just by looking at the display, I knew The Chocolate Duck was my kind of bakery. The chocolate egg is creatively adorned with flowers, butterflies, ladybugs and bumblebees. Even the "grass" inside of the egg was edible, made out of chocolate covered coconut. Inside the shell was even more chocolate, from milk chocolate to peanut butter eggs.

My family has been raving about the melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies while I've been keeping it my little secret that the chocolate chip cookies are to die for. They almost taste like Entenmann's chocolate chip cookies except bigger and better.

If you have a special event coming up or in need of a thoughtful gift, I would definitely recommend The Chocolate Duck. I've never been to the actual store but members of citysearch.com give it 4 out of 5 stars and say that it has a huge selection of candy making and cake decorating supplies.

Newsday calls The Chocolate Duck, located at 310 Main Street in Farmingdale, one of the best in the metropolitan region.

Edy's Samoas Ice Cream

Image by Edy's

As you can tell, I was pretty devastated when I realized the Girl Scouts skipped my house this year. Every spring my cabinets are usually stocked with my two favorites, thin mints and samoas. Fortunately I got my thin mint fix with the Cupcake Corner's cupcake. How, I thought, would I ever satisfy my craving for samoas?

Edy's read my mind. Available for a limited time only, Edy's offers Girl Scouts Samoas ice cream. Samoas are out of this world, for those of you who aren't familiar, this cookie consists of caramel, coconut, and chocolate.

This limited edition item features Samoas cookie pieces and fudge swirls in caramel flavor ice cream. When I heard about this ice cream, I couldn't wait to try it out. I bought it from Stop and Shop in the Glen Cove shopping center on Old Country Road, after finding out the grocery stores on Seventh Street in Garden City don't stock this ice cream.

I love Samoas and ice cream and I couldn't think of a better combination. This ice cream is amazing and I recommend anyone who's a Samoas lover to try it out.

In addition to this ice cream, I'm pleased to know that Edy's also offers Thin Mint ice cream as well. I'll let you know if it's as much of a hit as the Samoas flavor.

Thin Mint Cupcakes

If you missed out on Girl Scout cookies this year, head to the Cupcake Corner in Garden City to try out their cupcake of the week, thin mint cupcakes.

I love thin mints and couldn't wait to get to the Cupcake Corner to try them out. For $2.50, you get a large cupcake that tastes just like the cookie. A minty/chocolate cake with a delicious chocolate icing sprinkled with thin mints on top.

The cupcake was even better than I had expected it to be as this place never seems to disappoint. The only recommendation I have is to eat half of the cupcake and save the rest for later since it's a bit of a chocolate overload.

If you're interested in the Cupcake Corners weekly specials check out their facebook page, call 516-328-2253, or just head to the bakery located at 61 New Hyde Park Road in Garden City.

Ralph's Famous Italian Ices

Ralph's is known as the home of the world's finest Italian ices. With locations all over Long Island, it's usually a debate between Ralph's and Rita's, I personally like Ralph's the best.

I was introduced to this place by one of my childhood friends when I was 10-years-old and it was love at first sight. With an overwhelming amount of flavors to choose from, this place has something for everybody.

My favorite flavor of all time is the Milky Way Ice which consists of chocolate Italian ice with little bits of milky way and caramel; it's simply out of this world.

With 60 degree weather today, I knew it was time to kick start the warm breeze with a delicious summer treat. My sister Lili and I went to Ralph's in Franklin Square on 531 Franklin Avenue for sundaes, something we've never tried from here before.

I got a chocolate chip cookie sundae that had a warm jumbo cookie split in half on top of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge topped with homemade whipped cream and chocolate chips.

My eyes were way bigger than my stomach and I couldn't even get through half of the cup. Though the ice cream and whipped cream was really good, the cookie was a little too hard for my liking.

Unfortunately, my sister was disappointed with her choice as well. She got a toasted marshmallow sundae that had vanilla ice cream, mini marshmallows, hot fudge and whipped cream.

"I think they call it toasted marshmallow sundae because the marshmallows are so old and hard that they taste toasted," Lili said adding, "But that doesn't stop me from eating it."


Ralph's is closed throughout winter and just recently opened for the season. I recommend to go get it while the lines are still short since there's lines down the block during the summer. Try out the creme flavors: milky way, canoli, and rocky road as well as class flavors: rainbow, strawberry, mango, and lemon.

Though today was a disappointment I took it as a lesson to stick to what Ralph's knows best, Italian ices. After all, you wouldn't go to Baskin Robbins for an Italian ice would you?