"KeyLimePie" news and stories

Ice cream is the great equalizer. Every person from every walk of life loves ice cream. (Except for lactose intolerant people, but they're obviously being punished by God.)

While it's perfectly acceptable to march into Baskin-Robbins and demand a triple cone of Jamoca Almond Fudge (you weirdos), or dive head-first into the Haagen-Dazs freezer for a pint of Sticky Toffee Pudding (you English people), wouldn't it feel exponentially more gratifying to make your own?

With a little bit of patience (or an ice cream maker), you can stop begrudging that Sesame, Soybean and Dried Kelp Ice Cream that you couldn't afford to have dry-frozen and shipped from Japan - and just make your own!

Here, eight ice cream recipes worth a whip:

1. Thomas Keller's Red Beet Ice Cream
2. Fig & Rosewater Ice-Cream with Crushed Pistachios & Dark Chocolate
3. Candied Bacon Ice Cream
4. Fennel Ice Cream
5. Key Lime Pie Ice Cream
6. Cherry Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips
7. Tamarind Coconut Ice Cream
8. Roasted Peach Ice Cream

An informal poll: Whether homemade, store bought, or imaginary, what is your ultimate ice cream flavor?

On the Today show, Epicurious.com Editor Tanya Steel shows Hota Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford how to make a simple key lime pie.

Even if you can make a key lime pie in your sleep, it's a fun video (even though they say to use pre-squeezed key lime juice if you can't find limes - eek! That's like using lemon juice instead of real lemons in lemon squares!) The taste just can't compare.

Well, the video is fine until good ol' Kathie Lee ruins the moment by first commenting on the amount of calories in the condensed can of milk (Steel smartly replies "Yeah, but who's counting calories?") and then likens the ingredient to colostrum (and Kotb remarks, "Buzzkill.")

Cook much, Kathie Lee? Yeesh - don't invite her over when you're making key lime pie. She'll totally ruin your appetite.

With key lime pie well on its way to becoming the official baked good of the state of Florida, I think it's worth noting the results of the recent key lime pie eating contest at the Spinnaker Beach Club in Panama City, FL. Patrick Bertoletti (right), a young upstart on the competitive eating circuit, took home $1,500 by eating 10.8 pounds of key lime pie in eight minutes, according to the IFOCE. Runner-up Tim Janus took down 10.2 pounds of pie in the same amount of time. The event was part of the GoldenPalace.net World Series of Competitive Eating. Interestingly enough, Golden Palace's eating competitions are listed in the site's 'sports' category.