How to celebrate Pi Day? Key lime, of course.

So I conducted a poll on Twitter and Facebook yesterday to see what kind of pie I should make for Pi Day. Lots of folks made suggestions (thanks!) and the winner was KEY LIME.

Which is awesome 'cause I love me some key lime pie.

Four years ago, I blogged the recipe. It's really easy. If you use a premade crust, there are only 3 other ingredients. CINCH.

Here's how today's pie went down...

Big bowl o' key limes.

Decided to add lime zest to the filling...

Time to juice the limes...

Things that happened while I was juicing the limes:

• Pi Day came and went
• The LOST series finale aired. Sawyer looks good in a dress, am I right?!
• Michael Phelps got a record 37 gold medals at London 2012

Whew. Ok, so here's what 30 juiced limes look like...

On to the crust...

Pulverized these with my bare hands. Shannon SMASH!!!

Stirred in the butter, then into the pan...

...and this happened...

OK, remember in chemistry class, when your teacher put a crystal on an overhead transparency, put it on the projector, then took this big beaker of liquid and totally POURED it onto the transparency, and you were all OMG THAT'S VALUABLE SCHOOL PROPERTY!!! but then the liquid became this crazy solid pyramid of crystallized something-or-other because it turned out the liquid was a supersaturated solution of something-or-other and when it hit the crystal on the transparency, it crystallized?

Sweetened condensed milk is just like that. Milk, supersaturated with sugar. So, of course, this pie calls for two cans...

Next up, egg yolks...

Can you tell which come from my mother-in-law's pastured chickens? (Hint: it's in the color)...

Then the zest...

Then the juice. Do this step slow and steady, mixing thoroughly...

If you make this at home, you may notice the juice thickens the filling. The lime juice sort of cooks the milk-egg mixture, like it does for seafood in ceviche. That's why this pie has such a short baking time. SCIENCE!

Into the crust...

And out of the oven after just 10 minutes...

And onto my plate...

HAPPY PI DAY!

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