Cool treats make for sweet eats
By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
It seems the new topic of conversation is the weather; even my young children comment on how hot or how “sticky” it is. Yes, it is hot and it is humid, but guess what? We live in Alabama. It’s going to be hot and sticky in the summer.
I think it’s a great time to try out no-bake type recipes. Hot and humid or not everyone still wants yummy food. I recently took a recipe I discovered in a magazine and adapted it to my family’s tastes. The original recipe called for lining a loaf pan with aluminum foil, adding the ingredients upside down, putting the crust on top and then freezing the whole thing and inverting it on a serving plate. This method didn’t work very well for us. The next time I tried it I made it by putting the crust in a pretty serving dish and layering the rest of it normally. It worked much better.
Here’s my recipe for No-Bake Strawberry Dessert. The crust is a half package chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreo’s) crushed. I put them through the food processor. Next, add 4 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine to the crushed cookies. Press this mixture into the bottom of an approximately 8×8 pan or similar size serving dish.
The topping is 4 ounces of very soft cream cheese, 1- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand), one-fourth cup lemon juice, 8 ounces of whipped topping, 1 and a half cups of diced strawberries. Using a mixer beat cream cheese and condensed milk together until smooth. Using a spoon, stir in strawberries and lemon juice mix until it begins to thicken, add two cups of whipped topping and gently stir together. Spread mixture over chocolate crust and freeze or refrigerate until ready to serve. It does need to be chilled for at least two hours. This is a great dish to prepare the night before, however I did notice that on the second day it separated just a bit. Also, to make this just a little more calorie friendly I used light whipped topping.
I had the opportunity to visit with my cousin last weekend and she shared her Strawberry Pie with me. You do have to have a cooled baked pie crust, but that’s just a few minutes in the oven. For the filling you need: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, 4 tablespoons cornstarch, red food coloring, 3 tablespoons strawberry Jello, 2 cups sliced strawberries. First arrange strawberries in cooled pie crust. Next, mix sugar, cornstarch, and water in saucepan, bring to a boil and cook until beginning to thicken. Remove from heat and add Jello and a few drops of red food coloring. Cool slightly and pour over strawberries, refrigerate for a couple of hours.
One of my Mother’s favorite no-bake recipes is Hawaiian Pie. This pie has a graham cracker crust which you can make yourself or buy prepared. The filling is made with 1 can sweetened condensed milk, one-fourth cup of lemon juice, 1 can of drained crushed pineapple, 1-2 large bananas, 8 ounces whipped topping and a few maraschino cherries for garnish.
Mix the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and pineapple together until it begins to thicken. Spread mixture over pie crust, and slice bananas over the top of the pineapple mixture. I do not overlap my bananas, but place them just touching each other. Next spread the whipped topping over the bananas and decorate with cherries as desired. This one also needs to be refrigerated for a couple of hours or overnight. This recipe can be doubled by making your own graham cracker crust and putting it in a 9×13 cake pan.
If you have a no-bake recipe you would like to share, please e-mail it to Mom’s Corner at: moms-corner@juno.com
