Easter

Yesterday was a wonderful Easter! It was a fun day of egg hunting, eating, games, and fellowship with both my family and church family. Thankfully the 90% chance of rain during the hours of the church picnic didn't happen so we could all have fun outside on the beautiful, albeit humid, day.

Hunting for eggs at church

Killing time while the adults hid the eggs

The sack race, aka a great way to get horrible grass stains

We even found a rabbit hole with five tiny newborn bunnies. 

They're hard to see, but they're there! And what a cute Easter surprise for all the kids to see!

The mini pies all turned out well. I ended up making pecan, apple, and strawberry "cheesecakes."

Why yes, there are only 11 pecan pies in that picture. Taste tests are essential! (Strangely enough, an apple disappeared shortly after this picture was taken...I refuse to take the blame!)
I ended up skipping the lattice crust and making a crumb topping. It was late in the day and the thought of 12 tiny lattices made me cringe. The crumb topping tasted great, but they didn't look much like apple pies.

The little cheesecakes are actually from a no-bake cream cheese pie recipe my Grandma started making years ago. When made as one regular pie, it is a super easy, quick, and yummy recipe! The mini pies crusts take longer to prepare, but they're cute for an event like a potluck.

Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

This is what my Grandma always called it; I always refer to it by her name, even sans cherries!
Makes one 8" or 9" pie

• 8-oz package Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 envelope of Dream Whip (Plus milk and vanilla extract required to prepare Dream Whip)
• Graham Cracker Crust  (recipe below)
• Canned cherry pie filling, or topping of your choice (sweeted strawberries, blueberries, etc)

1. Prepare Dream Whip according to package directions.

Dream Whip is found in the baking aisle. I wandered the grocery store for awhile before finding it, so hopefully you'll have better luck than me. It's actually pretty tasty by itself. I may or may not have licked a beater to find out. (I totally did.)

2. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together until creamy.

Make sure your cream cheese is really soft. It may blend with the sugar if it's still a little firm, but you'll have a hard time on the next step...

3. Gently fold the prepared Dream Whip into the cream cheese mixture.

It's easiest if you start with about a third of the dream whip. Once you get that folded in, the rest of the Dream Whip will fold in even more easily.

Messy spatula = happy boy

4. Pour it into your cooled crust and you're done!

If you wanted to go with the mini pie route, you can either spoon some filling into each crust or pipe it in. I prefer piping because I think it's easier and cleaner. A zipper bag with the corner cut off works just as well as a pastry bag! Don't worry too much about how pretty they look. That's what the topping is for!

This was the first time I've ever served this with anything other that cherry pie filling. I opted for slightly sweetened sliced strawberries and it was delicious! You can serve it plain or with your favorite cheesecake topping.
Now for the crust...

Graham Cracker Crust

Makes one 8" or 9" crust

Double the recipe if you're making mini pies

• One package of graham crackers (Not the whole box, just one of the little envelope/sleeve things)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

1. Place graham crackers and sugar in a food processor and process until crushed.

You can crush and mix everything by hand if you don't have a food processor

2. Add melted butter and mix until crumbly.

3. Press into an 8 or 9 inch pie pan and bake in a 375º oven for about 7 minutes. Let cool before filling.

If you want to make mini pies, spray 2 muffin pans with nonstick spray. I placed a heaping tablespoon into each cup and pressed it into shape using the little wooden tart shaper in the picture. 

I think it's meant for mini-muffin pans, but it worked pretty well. 

Bake these for 4-5 minutes. They might puff up while they're baking, but they'll go back down when they cool. Or if you're impatient like me, you can press them down with the tart shaper. Let them cool completely before removing them from the pan. If you try to remove them when they're the least bit warm, they'll bend and break on you. No fun.

Ready for filling!

 Wow, long post. Apparently I need to work on editing myself!

Have a great Monday!