lemon-lovers' pie

My friend Julie (of the silken tofu peanut-butter choco pie fame) kindly gave me an extra pre-made cookie pie crust (hard to come by in Japan), and I'd been craving lemon pie for a while.

One time I brought a bottle of key-lime juice back from Florida and once the juice was used up, I just converted the recipe on the back to a lemon pie recipe (you can get bottled lemon juice or fresh lemons here pretty easily).

So here is Mrs. Biddle's Key Lime Pie, morphed into lemon.

You'll need:

• One cookie pie crust (homemade or storebought)
• 14 oz. (414 ml) can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 or 4 oz. (6 to 8 T.) of lemon juice (better with fresh if you have it)
• Doesn't call for it, but I also add the zest of two lemons

Do this:

Combine the milk and egg yolks on low speed and then slowly add the juice, mixing until well blended. Pour into a cookie crust and bake at 350/180 for 15 minutes. Cool and then refrigerate. (You could probably pour it into individual oven-proof serving cups and nix the crust if you didn't have the energy, resources, or inclination for it. More like lemon custard.)

I really could eat the whole dang pie, but I was generous and shared half with hubby (over 2 nights running).

I'm a sucker for lemons in any form.