I Still Dream About You and a Lemon Icebox Pie

I was flummoxed trying to come up with something to make for Fannie Flagg's "I Still Dream About You," which was surprising.  I picked up the book with the expectation that it would have some great options for the blog in it, since Flagg's classic book "Fried Green Tomatoes and The Whistle Stop Cafe" obviously has some great food in it, ya know?  Well, not so much food in I Still Dream About You, and even worse, the book was really no more than just OK.  I struggled to get through it and feel entirely ambivalent about it.  In those circumstances, it is hard to get inspired to whip something up. But, I managed, and here we have a really great lemon icebox pie.  The main character of the book, Maggie, pretty much eats only frozen meals.  The day before she is planning to kill herself however, she gives herself a bit of a treat, and some slices of icebox pie is part of it.   In the midst of all the heavy chocolate and gingerbread and peppermint desserts (all of which I will share recipes with you in the coming weeks), this lemon was a nice, tart break.  I am sorry to say I cannot recommend the book, but the pie, well the pie is definitely something you should make.

This book has none of the spunk or heart of Fried Green Tomatoes.  It is mainly about Maggie Fortenberry, a former Miss Alabama who is in her early 60's and works as a real estate agent in Birmingham, Alabama.  Maggie is very sweet and polite and used to be Miss Alabama, not sure what else there is to say about her.  She is deeply unhappy and the book opens with her internal monologue concerning her plan to kill herself by tying something heavy to her feet and jumping out of a raft on a nearby river.  The plan seems silly, and I found it hard as a reader to connect to why Maggie was considering killing herself.  She was single at an advanced age, was unhappy with how her life turned out, but I just didn't get what pushed her over the edge.  And, frankly, I didn't really care.  She was just not a compelling character.  A few other characters were also part of the book - Maggie's coworkers at the real estate agency, Brenda and Ethel.  Brenda is an overweight woman who struggles mightily with her food issues.   Ethel is the classic cranky old lady with purple hair.  What ties these three together is their grief over the loss of their former boss and owner of the agency, Hazel Whisenknott.  Hazel was one of the only characters I was really interested in here - she was a dwarf who took the real estate world by storm and seemed to have an endless supply of optimism and gumption.   The book begins on the eve of Maggie's suicide attempt, but a series of events keeps making her push the suicide date back - a show of whirling dervishes with Brenda, the most dreamy house in Birmingham going on the market, the discovery of something strange in that house, and a battle royal with the bad girl of Birmingham real estate, Babs Bingington.  The best part of the book for me was the descriptions of Birmingham and tales of its history.  Other than that, I found this book to be full of hokey stereotypes about women of a certain age and the friendships between women.  This could be a middle of the road Lifetime movie.  Just not very good.  On to happier topics, like the yummy pie, below.

Lemon Icebox Pie (printable recipe)
This pie came together easily, though takes some time because you need to chill the lemon filling before the meringue can be added.  I googled around looking for a lemon icebox pie, the recipe I came up with was mostly inspired by this one, with a few changes: http://www.stephsbitebybite.com/?p=1749.
Ingredients
9 full graham cracker cookies
7-8 tablespoons of butter, melted
2 tablespoons of sugar (I used a natural, not very sweet graham cracker, if you use a regular super market brand, you don't need this extra sugar)
1 can condensed milk
3/4 cup lemon juice
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 cup of sugar

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350
2. For crust, pulse graham crackers in food processor until they are all crumbs.  You want about 1 and 1/2 cup of graham crumbs.
3. Mix crumbs with sugar and melted butter so crumbs are moist, you may not need the full 8 tablespoons of butter.
4. Pour crumbs into a 9 inch pie place and using either your hands or the bottom of cup, press the crumb mixture up the sides of the pie plate to form a crust.
5. Bake until golden and firm, about 12 minutes.   Let cool completely.
6. Whisk together lemon juice, egg yolks, condensed milk and powdered sugar until smooth.  Pour into cooled pie shell.
7. Bake in oven until set, about 10-12 minutes.
8. Remove, let cool on rack completely.
9. For meringue, put the egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixture and beat with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form.  Slowly add the sugar and keep beating until glossy and stiff peaks form.  These took my mixer  only 5 minutes. It could take yours more or less.
10. Spread the meringue mixture over the cooled pie and using a spoon or spatula whip up little spikes.
11. Bake until meringue is lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
12. I think this pie tastes best chilled, so chill for 4 or 5 hours before serving.