Food and Recipes

How delicious does this pie look! And notice the beautiful flowers!

Jan is one of our very talented mermaids. Not only is she a great housekeeper, but she takes her work very personal and treats the cottages like they were her own beach cottage. She’s also a super cook and chef! She’d emailed me this story about the Lemon’s from Tybee and I received her permission to post the story and recipe. If you’re lucky enough to stay @ Mermories on the Beach, then you’ll have these fabulous lemons right outside your front door of the cottage!

“Tybee Island is known for many wonderful things – our beautiful beaches, cottages and community among many other joys. This year I came to know another bounty of our island – incredible fruit! I am originally from the suburburbs of Atlanta and I know that the only fresh fruit I had ever picked was scopenongs from my backyard – however this year on Tybee I have once again fallen in love with a Meyer. No, not my husband Bobby Meyer – but a lemon named Meyer. I had heard about Meyer lemons, even had a taste from my neighbor (ok – she gave me two slices) – however not until this season did I realize the flavor of these lemons and other citrus grown in Tybee yards! “Memories” one of Mermaid’s recent additions is just down the street from my house. I have never seen as many lemons on a tree – big and beautiful lemons – Meyer lemons are actually a hybrid of a lemon/orange – and the juiciest lemons I have ever tasted, I have never been “excited” about a lemon before – but when you juice one of these – ya get over a half a cup of lemon juice! I’m a good cook – never been known as a baker and I want to share this recipe for a Meyer Lemon Creme Pie – straght from Paula Deen.’

RECIPE
Graham Cracker Crust
1 1/2 cups graham crackers, 1 stick butter(melted). 1/3 cup sugar
Mix finely ground crackers w/ sugar and melted butter – press into pie plate to make crust (be sure to not make to thick around the sides)

Lemon filling:
1 can Eagle Brand Condensed Milk, 1/2 cup fresh Meyer Lemon Juice(or fresh lemons – never that outta a bottle) 3 egg Yolks – blend well with mixer

Meringue topping
3 egg whites 1/4 tsp cream of tarter (blend this w/ mixer till fluffy) then add in 1/4 cup sugar and blend until fluffy

Place Meringue topping and use spoon to make pretty flips in meringue!

Bake 350 degrees for about 15 – 20 minutes – till meringue is slightly brown.

This is best when chilled and set – but my Meyer could not wait and it was still tasty a lil warm!

The welcome for our guests- Paula and Michael!

Our centerpiece, Fresh Flowers and boxes of butter!

Turkey Bacon wrapped around the saltine cracker.
The Finished Product! Yummy!

We decided to show these west coast ladies what all this wonderful southern cookin’ was all about! We invited some friends over with the email invite entitled- “Southern and Sinful”. The food was classica Paula and in fact our centerpiece was the empty boxes of butter we used for the cookin’. The food included one of our favortie appetizers- Saltines wrapped in bacon and parmesan cheese. Yes, I know, it sounds not so good, but I’ve now served this for three parties and it just disappears like you can’t believe. This being California and all that, we decided to use turkey bacon and I will now use that bacon from here on . Not as greasy and you feel you can eat more and not feel guilty. We also make Buffallo Chicken dip and for dessert- Chocolate Bread Pudding. The ladies just loved everything! Thank you Paula for continuing to inspire us with your food! And remember- all these recipes and more are on Paula’s website Pauladeen.com so please visit!