Monday to Friday, 5 days, 3 days in bed with a muscle spasm in my back, 1 day with a raging headache, 1 day when all systems were set on "go'". Hard to get much done with a week like that.
I have worked outside for 15 minutes for 3 days. Not bad, considering.
I had planned to can pork Friday, but after consulting my inventory, I decided not to do that after all. I have some pork chops, some country ribs, a pork tenderloin, but only1 small pork roast. I decided it made no sense to fire up the canner for 75 minutes til I have more pork to fill more jars. If I have to pay for the gas, I'd rather run the canner as full as possible. I could always can up some dried beans. Dried beans that have been canned work out to cheaper per ounce than those commercial cans of beans you can buy at the store. I'll have to work on canning some beans. Right now I only have some spicy red kidney beans and some garbanzos on my shelf. I can do better than that!
You probably know that I was raised in the south if you've been around here for long. But I was raised by "yankees" in the south. Maybe that explains it............ Apparently icebox pie is a big thing in the south. I know that somewhere along the way I've heard of it, but I don't think I heard about it and I'm sure I didn't eat it when I was growing up. Nevertheless, I made one during the past week and it was scrumptious. And it was SO easy! No wonder those southern ladies like making this kind of no bake pie!
I've done some research since I did this. I found out there are MANY different ways to make this. Some ways to do it are way more trouble than I want to mess with, and some require some ingredients I'd never have around. I'll give you the ingredients: 1 8-ounce block of cream cheese, 1 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 packet of your favorite Kool Aid flavor, and 8 ounces of Cool Whip.
I happened to have unsweetened Lemon Kool Aid in the house. So My icebox pie was lemon flavored. The lemon flavoring was not overpowering. It was light and all around delightful. First you whip the softened cream cheese. Then you pour in the sweetened condensed milk and whip it with the cream cheese. Then, into the cream cheese-sweetened condensed milk you add the Kool Whip and mix again. Finally add the Cool Whip and thoroughly fold it into the other ingredients. Then add the mixture to a prepared graham cracker crust. Chill about an hour and you can serve it. Prepare to be amazed with how good it tastes, especially considering it took you less than 10 minutes to make it. If you wanted to get fancy, you could decorate the top of the pie by piping some additional Cool Whip around the edge, or a dollop in the center of the pie with a slice of lemon artfully placed in the dollop of Cool Whip, or even by sprinkling some additional graham cracker crumbs over the top.
My mind has been churning on other ways to use the basic mixed ingredients. How about strawberry Kool Aid and either adding some sliced strawberries to the mix, or using sliced strawberries to decorate the top. I think next I am going to try making it with no Kool Aid, but substituting a can of thoroughly drained crushed pineapple. I think that would be good. I've also thought of using lime flavored Kool Aid to make a sort of mock key lime pie. I think the possibilities are only limited by the flavors of Kool Aid and your imagination! But, no matter what Kool Aid flavor you select, I think it would be pretty hard to mess up the combined flavors of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and Cool Whip! Bon Appetit!
If you have ideas for other flavorings, please comment. I plan to explore this icebox pie in many renditions in the coming weeks/months.
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