Sometimes I’ll ask my husband what sounds good — to smack his lips together and let me know.  It’s only fair since I’m the one who always decides what we’ll eat.  He barely gets a request in edgewise, so I give him the chance once every other blue moon.

“Key Lime Pie,” he answered when I asked a few days ago.  Not a question — a statement.  Okay.

I’m fairly good at anticipating much of what he comes up with — dinner or dessertwise — but this one threw me for a loop.  Even though we’re experiencing typical San Diego weather now (it’s always hotter in the early Fall…) I’ve had baked apples and braised meat swirling through my head for weeks.  Key Lime?  Talk about shifting gears.

It sounded so tropical and fresh — so summery.  Not to mention that my regular market doesn’t always have them.  But it must have been his lucky day, because not only did I find them, I found a bag of them — tiny green orbs of heaven from Mexico.

Key limes are quite a bit smaller than regular limes and often have skin that is more yellow than green.  To me, the taste isn’t as bitter as that of a regular or Persian lime, and the aroma more sweet. They’re so tiny, I have to get out my wooden router instead of using my old glass juicer which is so much neater.  Yes, the wooden one works, but somehow, my technique must be rotten; I end up with lime juice everywhere but the bowl I want it it!

So how did we end up with cheesecake instead of key lime pie?  I’m still working on that cheese drawer and happened to have two packages of cream cheese that needed to be used.  Besides, I couldn’t resist the lime custard in this recipe.  Oh.  My.

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