What I learned about coconut pies

Every Thanksgiving for the last three years, I have brought the same thing to my classmates' massive potluck feast: Wild rice and chestnut vegetarian stuffing, pumpkin pie and green beans. So this year I changed things up! I decided on roasted brussels sprouts, a corn pudding and... a coconut cream pie! No one would expect coconut on Thanksgiving. They all turned out pretty well, but I did learn some things about making a coconut cream pies:

• The filling is super easy. The person who blogged the recipe was so surprised that there were no eggs in the coconut cream, but if you've made pudding before, you know that that is normal. Cornstarch and milk somehow become magically silky without the help of eggs. Have I mentioned how easy chocolate pudding is? It could easily go into the pie shell instead of coconut.
• But speaking of coconut filling, a shot of some spiced rum would have really kicked it up a notch.
• Meringue - definitely not so easy. This was my very first time making a meringue and it basically failed. Everyone should know that you should not attempt to whip egg whites by hand unless you want to get carpal tunnel, but even with a hand mixer, I just couldn't get enough volume. I think I may have added the sugar too fast. I recommend making a few practice batched of meringues first before topping your pie with it. 

And as for that corn pudding - I would not add ANY sugar and add a dash of chipotle or paprika or chili powder and cayenne instead. I also had to bake it much longer than the recipe called for. But it was a hit!

So I hope everyone had a happy, filling Thanksgiving. Sorry there are no pictures but we just demolished everything - all 16 of us!