My Other Hobby

I know, I know -- YOU DO MORE THAN WRITE STUFF??

Maybe. A little. BUT I HAVE IT UNDER CONTROL, GUYS. I can totally stop WHENEVER I WANT TO.

*ahem*

Anyway. I thought about writing something inspirational about finishing outlines today (I finished the outline for Ghost Book 2. Did I mention that? I did? On Twitter? Oh, well. I FINISHED THE OUTLINE. *dances*), but then I decided, no, I don't want to do that. I'd rather blog about cooking.

This is due in no small part to the watching of Julie and Julia that the Boyfriend and I undertook this past week. And now an even smaller part of me hopes that in blogging about cooking, I too will come home from work one day to 65 voice mails from various editors/agents going I MUST HAVE YOU. Hey, dream big, yo.

So thus begins my first attempt at posting a recipe for one of my Famous Homemade Dishes. I concocted this recipe this past weekend when I got the desperate urge to bake something fluffy and we had a few containers of frozen plums in the freezer. Thus, Meringue Plum Pie was born, a tarty-yet-mellowed hybrid child of Lemon Meringue Pie and Plum Pudding.

Firstly, a photo, because recipes without photos are SNEAKY SNEAKY recipes.



Now, the recipe.

PLUM FILLING:

3 cups plums (or whatever tarty fruit your heart desires)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Cinnamon and Cloves to taste (I know some people don't like these flavors, so add them or don't -- your choice)

MERINGUE TOPPING:

3 tablespoons ice water
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar

CRUST:

I used a pre-made crust (I know, CHEATER), but you can of course make your own.

DIRECTIONS:

Combine ingredients for plum filling -- let stand in fridge overnight (I did this for gelatinous/flavor purposes, but it is not necessary).

Bake crust according to instructions on box. Let cool. Add plum filling.

To make meringue: mix egg whites and cold water until frothy. Slowly add sugar and baking soda and continue beating with an electric mixer (trust me, you do NOT want to do this by hand) until glossy and stiff. You can tell it is stiff when you stop mixing, hold the mixer up, and the peak stays up instead of falling over.

Spread meringue over plum mixture on crust, being sure to get meringue to touch all crust sides (this keeps it from shrinking).

Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes (or until golden brown).

The plum filling is also REALLY good as an ice cream syrup.