Mini Pumpkin Filo Pies

A while back we talked about spectacular failures. That feeling you get when you realize your house smells like a broken fire extinguisher factory. The moment when you look at the garbage can and think, "no one has to know I even attempted this". Websites like Pinterest and Brit & Co give us access to anything. We convince ourselves that we can turn large men's shirts into cute little dresses. We live in this crafty delusion where if we can just get our hands on 59878 buttons we could make a really, really awesome lamp.

And I fall for it every time.

I Don't Know How I Made it Through High School Or Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

For those of you who might not be avid readers of my high school transcripts, I have always been pretty poor at math. In fact, in my sophomore (?) year of high school school I repeated geometry. I can't remember if I had failed miserably the year before, or if it was just close enough to failing to warrant giving it another shot, but there was something about that class that just made my brain shut down. So I took it again.

I don't want to say I'm more of a creative type because I know people a lot more creative than me. I'm easy with ideas, I can picture what the thing should look like, but when it comes to engineering it I'm basically useless. To support a bunch of half marathon runners a few weeks ago I had an idea for a sign that had a back part that would spin around to reveal 8 different names - keeping me from having to make 8 different signs. In my head, the sign would spin around a gold fastener which I figured would be easy to find (they weren't), and it would be no big deal to sit down and measure it all out to make sure each name fit in the space I provided. This would be my greatest running achievement.

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie: Part II The Two Towers

My last post was all about what I had deemed the second coming of pie. I hadn't had the chance to make it when I wrote about it, but I was pretty positive that it would be amazing. Now, two weeks or so later, I can officially say it's a pie you HAVE to make. Have to! Like, go now and make this pie! I will wait.

I included the directions in my last post, but I'm reposting here for easiness. That's how much you need to go to the grocery store to get the FOUR ingredients you need for this pie.

Ingredients:

1 (15 or 18 oz) package of chocolate chip cookies

1 cup milk

1 (9 oz) commercial graham cracker crust

1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1. Dip 8 cookies in milk, and place in a single layer in crust. Top with one third of whipped topping. Dip 8 more cookies in milk, place on top; spread with one third of whipped topping. Repeat layers with 8 more cookies, milk and remaining whipped cream.

I'm pretty sure that the cookies dipped in milk is what makes this
recipe so amazing. 

Keep layering!

2. Crumble 2 cookies and sprinkle over pie.

 

3. Cover and chill for 8 hours before serving.

Pie glamour shot

We enjoyed our pie at the Wallover residence for Labor Day Fondue! It was an excellent accompaniment to fondue and the famous blue t-shirts:

This is where lucky readers get to see pie enthusiasts! 

And the cutest child in America! 

(obviously, bottom right. not the cute one in the bottom left)

So go forth my people, make this pie. Today! Or tomorrow! Or never, your loss.

By the way, I have a ton of sweet recipes coming up. Including but not limited to:
-The easiest creme puffs on earth*
-Icing that looks like you got the cookies from the bakery*
-Black and white cookies like you buy in NY*
-Turtle brownies
-Caramel Popcorn

*Names have been changed to provide emphasis





Source:
Food.com/Southern Living
http://www.food.com/recipe/no-bake-chocolate-chip-cookie-pie-253048
Posted by: Knitaholic

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

I've been trying to think of a nice way to say this, but...I've been ignoring you all. It's not you, it's me.

Okay, it's a little you.

But mostly me.

For the past couple months we've been working like crazy people trying to finish our documentary and readying the hundreds of dollars in DVDs and CDs we bought for people to purchase. At the same time, I've been preparing everything (financial aid) to start the next semester, and it's been storming a lot.

That last part doesn't really affect much, but it's rained like 100 inches in the past couple weeks.

Anyway, I've been super busy and wasn't sure what to post until Kevin and I practically bought every book in a Border's going out of business sale this past weekend. Between the two of us we easily bought over $100 in books. I literally walked away with an armload of cookbooks. In particular, this one book is amazing and has a super delicious recipe on just about every page - particularly this one for No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie.

That's right.

I flipped open the book (Simply Chocolate), and that was the page it opened to. One of the few recipes that actually came with a picture, if I didn't walk out of the store with this book I was an idiot. For god sakes, there's only 4 ingredients!

So in honor of my recent absence, and to try and win back your hearts -- I'm posting this amazing recipe which I have yet to try myself but can see absolutely no fault in.

You can see the recipe from that link, or below:

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Ingredients:
1 (15 or 18 oz) package of chocolate chip cookies
1 cup milk
1 (9 oz) commercial graham cracker crust
1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1. Dip 8 cookies in milk, and place in a single layer in crust. Top with one third of whipped topping. Dip 8 more cookies in milk, place on top; spread with one third of whipped topping. Repeat layers with 8 more cookies, milk and remaining whipped cream.

2. Crumble 2 cookies and sprinkle over pie.

3. Cover and chill for 8 hours before serving.


I haven't made it yet, so I have no photos to post and the link I gave you is photoless too. But I imagine if you make it, people will look like this:

I do not know this man, but I think he would like this pie just as much.

I will be making this pie soon, so check back for an updated blog with pics! In the mean time, check out our FINISHED documentary (that has pictures!) at www.christymathewsondayfilm.com
^How's that for some cross promotion?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie: Part II Tokyo Drift

This chocolate peanut butter ice cream-heaven-you-could-eat-it-every-day pie might be the best pie you ever make. (this is my best bill mays impression) On terms of ease, this is on par with just about everything else I bake. On terms of taste? This is ridiculously good. Too good. I mean come on, it's a pie! Pies are for Thanksgiving, and dinners with extended family members. But this pie, whoa. This recipe rivals only the chocolate dump cake in terms of how easy it is to make vs. how good it tastes.

Before we get started, I have to make some confessions. I didn't have time to make the crust myself, so I bought a chocolate pie crust. I didn't think that I may have to scale the amount of ice cream back a little, and as a result I got a chocolately stream that ran down my counter, and into my dog's crate. He liked it though, he was so excited he looked like this:

Okay, we were both excited.

If you decide to go the same route, you definitely don't need the full 2 cups of chocolate ice cream. I was following the recipe and everything was going well until it was time to put the second layer of vanilla/peanut butter ice cream in. That was when I had created an overflow of chocolate ice cream and needless to say, there are no photos of that.

I also had a lot of left over vanilla/peanut butter ice cream filling, so you could afford to scale back on that as well. I imagine the left overs would make for a pretty sweet milkshake, but I didn't have the time or the energy to figure out how to create a machine to make a milkshake. Especially after my experience with the homemade double boiler.

So here's the recipe for your family's new favorite pie: 
According to the recipe:
Prep time: 35 minutes
Baking time: 6 minutes
Total time: 41 minutes  (that's some great math, but don't forget you need to freeze it for 6 HOURS)

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs
- 2 tbsp. finely chopped nuts
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 2 cups chocolate ice cream (or a little less if you don't make the crust yourself)
- 4 cups vanilla ice cream (again, less if you're using a store bought crust)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup of chopped nuts

Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If you're making your own crust, mix the cookie crumbs, the 2 tbsp. of finely chopped nuts and melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom and up the sides of your 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 for 5-6 minutes until set. Then cool. If you're not making your own crust, skip ahead!

This is how I cheated.

- If your crust already came assembled, spread the soft chocolate ice cream in the bottom of the crust. Freeze for 30 minutes.

You can (and I should have) clearly seen here that I had too much
chocolate ice cream, but how is that ever a problem?

- While the chocolate ice cream is getting hard in the freezer, mix the vanilla ice cream and peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended. It's best to have all of the ice cream sitting out to get soft before you begin. When blended, spread over the chocolate ice cream and top with remaining peanuts. Cover and freeze for at least 6 hours. Before you serve, let it sit for about 10 minutes or just 2 if it's 100 degrees outside.

This was the next day. I had to reinforce the pie crust with a Pyrex dish to make sure it wouldn't collapse. This was a solid ice cream pie. I added the swirls on the top to make it look more appetizing. I'm still not positive that worked.

- Pie serves 8-10 or one Kevin.

This is clearly not your mom's apple pie. Or anyone else's for that matter.

There's no apples in it.

This pie can't come with enough recommendations, you just have to try it. I can assure you that it won't disappoint. And if it does, let me know and I'll stop making such strong assurances.

Also, here's a quick shot of my peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate butter cream krispie icing:

But that's a recipe for a different day my friend!



Source: About.com 'Busy Cooks'
http://busycooks.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/chocpbicepie.htm
Posted by: Linda Larsen

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

This is a quick post because I'm actually supposed to be making dinner and not perusing the internet for potential recipes. If you've noticed any sort of pattern in this blog so far, it's definitely peanut butter. Well, and sarcasm. Almost every recipe I post has something to do with peanut butter because it's easily the most coveted ingredient of any dish I make, take somewhere, or bookmark to make later.

I found this recipe today when I was looking for something easy, (and oven-less) to make. In my estimation, there's nothing you could possibly do to mess this up. It seems like a perfect recipe. As true as that may be, I haven't tried it yet.

This recipe is for chocolate peanut butter ice cream pie. It sounds amazing just typing it!
Here's the link: http://busycooks.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/chocpbicepie.htm

I haven't made it yet, but I will when I get an excuse to. So it's fair to say that yeah, I would bake that. I would bake the hell out of this pie.

Leave me some comments if you try it and let me know how it goes.

p.s. I already have the title ready for this blog's sequel, so it better be good!


Source: About.com 'Busy Cooks'
http://busycooks.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/chocpbicepie.htm
Posted by: Linda Larsen

The Best Damn Banana Creme Pie

If you're anything like me, you spend a lot of time in the baking aisle at the grocery store. I am that annoying person who just stares at the shelves. I can't help it. Most of the time I'm looking for something but I never know what it is until I actually find it. One Saturday I stood in the baking aisle at an Acme in South Jersey for almost 25 minutes. I was looking at all of the graham cracker pie crusts because there's hidden recipes on the back of all the paper lids. Don't worry, I carefully put them all back in and I bet they went off to all their respective homes as happy pie crusts.

For me, grocery shopping is more like a fact finding mission than an easy trip to the store. If I'm making a particular recipe, it probably takes me two separate trips because chances are I started wandering down aisle 7 looking at cereal and I totally forgot about the eggs and butter. I always forget about the butter.

But anyway, the 25 minutes I spent in the baking aisle that one time resulted in the best damn banana creme pie I've ever tasted. Now, you're probably asking yourself (perhaps even out loud) "Danielle, why the profanity? This is a family blog" Well, inquisitive stranger, you've obviously never tried this recipe - it'll make you want to use profanity and maybe even join a motorcycle gang.

A lot of my surprise about this recipe came from the fact that I'd never had a piece of banana creme pie before. So, automatically, I was happy with it because it tasted good. I'm posting it today because it's actually 100 degrees in Philadelphia right now, and way too hot to put anything in the oven because we're actually living in an oven at the moment. This recipe is excellent for warm days because the thing spends more time in the refridgerator than anywhere else. The final product tastes amazing, as witnessed by the guests at our Christmas party this past year. Was it seasonally appropriate? No. Did it taste good? Hell yes.

So I urge you to try it if you need to make a dessert when it's hot out. It's only got 5 ingredients!

Here's the recipe: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-banana-cream-pie-51072.aspx

No photos on this post, it's too hot :)

Source: Kraft Foods' Easy Banana Creme Pie Recipe

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-banana-cream-pie-51072.aspx