My husband made me a lemon meringue pie once.
With meringue a mile high it was the most beautiful looking pie I had ever seen! I was so excited that he had baked it for me, because it is my favorite pie in the world.
Later that night after dinner, we served it up… took a bite, and for an instant we were in heaven…mmmmmm…
Then suddenly, and with a simultaneous “GaaaACK,” we spit it out. (You see, the pie tasted perfect at first, but then a vile and bitter taste burst into our mouth.) Both of us where prune faced, and he said, “I don’t know what I did wrong!” We looked over the recipe and talked through the steps together trying to discover his mistake. The instructions said to add the zest of one whole lemon. He had added the whole lemon peel!
Now you need a bit of back story here…
I loved my mother but she had a few bad habits. One of which was to help herself to anything good in the refrigerator. She would walk in and just go straight to the refrigerator and help herself! No “may I?” or “Is this for later?” or “Are you saving this for someone?” She just got it out and ate it!
So, after laughing heartily we decided to keep the pie, and placed it back into the refrigerator for mother’s visit the next day.
Do you think me evil? 😉
As predicted, Mom came the next day, walked in and put her purse down, chatted a bit, and then hit the refrigerator. From the living room we could hear her little squeak of delight at seeing that perfect looking pie in the fridge. The silverware tinkled, a desert plate clinked onto the counter, and all the while we were dying of stuffing back our guffaws in the living room.
Mom came back, pie in one hand, fork in the other, sporting a look of delicious anticipation, and sat gingerly onto the couch.
She took the first bite…
We soberly watched as a smile of perfect delight radiated across her face, which was suddenly replaced by one I can only describe as abject disgust. She swallowed, shuddered, and then meekly asked, “What’s wrong with this pie?”
By this time we were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks. Quickly recovering we told her the whole story, with only a little fib at the end about not wanting to throw it away because it was so pretty. This got her to laughing too, and from then on the incident was spoken of more than once in the family, and was referred to as, “Bob’s Trick Pie.” Not surprisingly, for a long while afterward, she would always ask before eating pie at our house…
“Is this real pie or one of Bob’s trick pies?”
And we would laugh all over again.
Lemon Meringue Pie 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
~*~
Related articles
- August 15 – National Lemon Meringue Pie Day (budgetcouponcooking.wordpress.com)
- ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and Lemon Meringue Pie (theepochtimes.com)
Life on the Farmlet 
We love anything lemon in our family and each family member has a lemon tree growing in their garden (except me living in an inner city flat) – I have to beg for lemons from any source possible, as they are far too expensive to buy when I use them so often.
They are very expensive here too Victoria. We have to buy them because it gets to cold in winter for citrus to survive here. But I am cheating! I am growing one in a planter and I move it into the well house on the nasty cold nights, and then back out to get sun in the day. So far it is working! 🙂
But no lemons yet because the tree is too young. 😦
Delightful story
Thanks, Holly! ~ L
Love this story! Don’t know how you managed to hold it in until the first mouthful was taken 😀 Almost worth making this trick pie for greedy house pests…
It was hard, but it was worth not spoiling the reaction. You have greedy house pests too? 😉
~ L
What a great picture you’ve painted in my head! You guys are SO mean (snicker, snicker: )
But, did you know that the pith of citrus contains massive amounts of Vit C and, if eaten with the fruit (kinda like the icing on a cake) it makes a great taste combo – well, not with lemons necessarily, LOL – but the real citrussy flavours hide in the essential oils of the zest and that “bitter” taste is actually GOOD for you(and your liver)? Funny how Nature throws these pleasure/pain things at us, isn’t it? (“sorry”; )
Glad you enjoyed it, Deb. I did know about the vitamin C in the peels, but few of us are able to tolerate the bitter flavor in foods. You can decrease the flavor by adding tons of sugar as in marmalade, but then the heat of the cooking process destroys the vitamin C. Ah well, it is a quandary. ~ L
Yes, some things are definitely an acquired taste (I hated beer when I was a kid; ) but bitter is GOOD for you (and your liver…)
Hah! I love it!! Sweet revenge…. served cold too!! 😉 (OK, maybe not so sweet with the after taste… but you know what i mean)!!
Thank you for visiting my blog, I have made a note of the pet relocaters you mentioned for their next rip overseas… I have used a local Calgary one for this trip and she has been fabulous but obviously won’t be able to do the next one.
Revenge served cold, LOL, I hadn’t thought of that one! I enjoyed my visit with you today! ~ L
hahaha – love it and no I don’t think you are evil!
Thanks, Diana!
HA! Back in the day, I made a roasted chicken with the entire lemon peels shoved under the chicken’s skin. BLECH! I know the exact flavor you are referring to in your blog.
Great story and I am very impressed with Bob’s ability to make a pretty pie…I always cheat and use Lem mix. Go Bob! 🙂
Marianna, it is nasty isn’t it? I really don’t like lemon peel cooked into anything. The zest is ok, but not the peel, and there are a lot of recipes that tell you to add lemon slices under or over a fish or chicken meal. Nope, I would prefer the zest or to squeeze the lemon juice on afterward.
Seems the pie was a one shot deal. LOL! I don’t know if he lost interest or if it was the failure of the first one. He does however often help with making the crust for me. He seems to have a knack with Gluten Free crust. 😉
Ha ha ha ha!! This had me remembering the pie part in the movie, “The Help”… only the trick pie was not so wicked – just fun! What a funny memory which has carried on through the years! Great post!
Thanks, Lori! I haven’t seen that movie. Guess I will have to look it up so I can see their version of trick pie!
~L
Thank you for the awards, Sawsan!
Oh you are wicked… but I love it! 😉
Glad you liked it, Anke! ~L
Oh, my gosh. Now I want lemon meringue pie. The only thing better is lemon chiffon pie. Lemon pound cake’s ok, but lemon pie…. ymmmmm!
I’d even be willing to try the trick pie – just to be sure, you understand!
Your mom and my dad had the same tendencies. And when we went to grandma’s house, my dad and all of my aunts and uncles would do the same thing – head straight to the pantry and just look. They didn’t necessarily want anything, they just liked to look.
Of course, it never occurred to me until the last ten years that they might have been doing exactly what I used to do when I went down to Mom’s – checking to be sure “the folks” had plenty of supplies on hand.
This is perfectly wonderful!
What an absolutely delightful story. Thanks for the giggle.
You’re welcome, Cindy!
Too funny! Love that your mind works that way! Thanks for visiting my blog.
Thank you, and you’re welcome! ~ L