A Fateful Dessert

The older I get, the more I realize we are not at all in charge of our lives. Whether coincidence, kismet or simply a case of irony, our destinies are preordained. Plain and simple.

I had a super successful yard sale last weekend which included nothing really big or important, no furniture, nothing expensive, but lots of little things. The idea was to "lean out" the house and clean out the garage and we did. There was plenty of dated home decor stuff, not-so-nice knick knacks, old garden tools, gently used books (hardback and paper), unused small garden pots, extra glass ware, plastic food containers, glass bottles, kitchen and bake ware goodies and more.

While planning the yard sale, I took advantage of the opportunity and cleaned and reorganized all of my kitchen drawers, cabinets and storage areas. Did I really need five Pyrex pie pans? No, so I kept three and put two in the sale for $3 each. These two lovely glass pie pans did not sell, so I am back to a collection of five because you never know, maybe I will be invited to a July 4th bash and be asked to bring five homemade pies. If so, I am armed and ready.

I also tossed my popsicle making kit into the mix since I have only used it once in seven years. When we went to bed on Friday night before the Saturday sale, David was asking about this key lime pie popsicle post I made on The Cowgirl Gourmet Facebook page. It was a recipe from the fabulous Deb Perelman of smitten kitchen and the picture alone made me weak in the knees.

"So, are you going to make those popsicles?" he asked.

"No, I am selling the popsicle molds at the yard sale tomorrow," I said.

"What? I need those popsicles, Heather."

"Argg," I sighed, "I have only used the molds once and the pops weren't even that good. So it is going to find a new home tomorrow where they can be more appreciated and get more use."

That is when it dawned on me. Why had I posted that recipe if I wasn't going to make the popsicles?

David concluded it was a tease and a mean one at that, especially considering how much he loves key lime pie.

"OK," I said. "Here's the deal. If the popsicle molds do not sell, I will keep them and we can make the key lime pie popsicles."

David cheered with sheer happiness, because, for some reason, he knew the popsicle molds were not going to sell and he could already taste a puckery tart and perfectly sweet key lime pie popsicle.

At the end of the day, the popsicle molds remained on a display table, just waiting to be returned to their safe place in our kitchen pantry and contemplating the chance to finally win us over for good with key lime pie popsicles.

Somehow, the popsicles knew their fate even before I did. And that is kismet, indeed.

Buen provecho!

Key Lime Pie Popsicles
The Cowgirl Gourmet slightly adapted the recipe from smitten kitchen

Print recipe

Who doesn't love key lime pie? Tart, but sweet, utterly rich and a most delightful way to end a summer meal. This popsicle version is pretty cool and now that we have tried it, it may be our new favorite way to capture the taste of the Keys and Miami on a stick. Because everything is better on a stick. And the fact that this dessert requires no heat, no oven, no nothing other than zesting, squeezing and stirring makes it that much more of a great way to beat the heat.

Makes 10 1/3-cup popsicles

2 teaspoons lime zest
3/4 cup fresh key lime juice, approximately 24 key limes, rinsed (you can use regular limes, but I highly recommend purchasing a 2 pound bag of key limes--and then make some margaritas with the leftover key limes)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup organic half and half
Pinch of salt
Finely crushed graham crackers (I crushed gluten-free graham crackers by kinnikinnick)

Before you do anything, zest the key limes into a big bowl until you get 2 teaspoons. I used about 6-8 key limes.

Now cut the key limes in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl or a large measuring cup until you get 3/4 cup.

Using a sieve, pour the lime juice into the bowl with the zest, catching any small seeds that may have slipped in. Pour in the condensed milk, add the half and half and the pinch of salt.

Whisk well to incorporate everything together. Taste to make sure it is as good as you thought it would be.

Pour into the popsicle molds and freeze for 5 hours or until completely frozen. (My popsicle molds are a set of six, so I refrigerated the remaining mixture and made more popsicles as we ate them...which did not take long.)

Dip each popsicle mold into warm water for 10 seconds to help free it from the mold and then press each side into finely crushed graham crackers (which mine are not), coating completely.