Strawberry Margarita Cream Cheese Pie

Technically the end of summer is a bit later in September, usually on or around my birthday. But most of us tend to think of Labor Day as the end. What better way to say “goodbye” and enjoy a 3-day weekend than with slightly boozy pie? (Spirits are completely optional, and the pie is still delicious.)

If you are a child of the 1970s or 80s, you may be acquainted with a mostly no-bake pie that contained a graham cracker crust, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. It was topped with canned cherry pie filling. I believe the recipe was on the inside label of Borden’s condensed milk, and perhaps in a few ladies’ magazines.

This recipe shares some similarities, such as a graham cracker crust (my favorite) and cream cheese in the filling. And there the similarities end. The great thing about this pie is the ease with which it can be customized. Start with the crust. If you want something saltier, use crushed pretzels or butter crackers.

Crumb Crust for 9” pie dish

1 ½ c. Cookie or Cracker Crumbs

1/3 c. Sugar

¼ c. Butter

2 tbsp. Organic Coconut Oil

1 tbsp. Lime Zest

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Crush your cookies or crackers into fine crumbs. If you end up with more than needed for your crust, save them to top something else. Melt the oils (I usually do this in my glass pie dish) and add the sugar. When the sugar has melted a bit, stir in the crumbs and lime zest. Press the mixture over the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool.

Filling

(2) 8 oz. Packages Cream Cheese

(1) 8 oz. Carton Mascarpone Cheese

1 c. Powdered Sugar

¼ c. Fresh Lime Juice

½ c. Strawberry Syrup (I used Torani)

1 tbsp. Triple Sec

Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth, but before turning on, mash the beaters down into the cheese several times to break it apart and minimize splattering. Pour the filling into the crust and let it chill at least 6 hours, but overnight is better. It’s best to allow the pie to set before topping with fruit.

Strawberry Topping

1 lb. Fresh Strawberries

¼ c. sugar

1/8 c. Fresh Lime Juice

1 tbsp. Triple Sec

1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. thickener (Your choice. I use tapioca starch, but corn would be fine)

Hull and quarter the strawberries into a small bowl, preferably one that has a lid. Add remaining ingredients and stir to coat the berries. Cover and chill. There should be juice in an hour or two. If adding thickener, drain off the juice. Stir a small amount of juice into the starch, then stir the mixture into the juice. Once no trace of the starch remains pour the juice back into the strawberries. If using tapioca, it isn’t necessary to heat the juice. Put the topping on the pie when ready to serve.

 

Not feeling the use of an oven? Cream pies with crumb crusts are great

for the deconstructed treatment.

(I believe the British call them trifles.)

Small jam jars are great for individual servings.

Layer crumbs, filling and fruit. The number of layers will be determined

by the number of servings you want.

Bonus! With this method you can cut the sugar and fat that binds a crumb crust.

If you feel the need to cut further, use lower fat cheeses.

I make desserts like this once or twice a year, so I don't worry too much

about removing the fun stuff.

 The Project Queen

Passion Flower

This exotic beauty is one of the few plants in my garden that seems to enjoy 95°+ heat. It’s been blooming for about a month now, opening one or two flowers at a time as the plant creeps up my arbor. When I got home from South Dakota a week and a half ago, it had 5 buds at the top. The last flower bloomed today. So I’ll see if the plant stretches to make anymore. I’ve also been leaving the spent buds in the hopes that there might be fruit.

The Project Queen

Know Your Caterpillars

 Depending on your geographic location, this post might be a bit late for some people. I took the above photo almost a month ago. (Don’t know where the summer went, but it seems like I should have gotten a lot more accomplished.)

Why caterpillars as a subject? If you garden, or even keep a few container plants outside, you probably understand. Sooner or later, you will find the many-legged creepy-crawlies on your leafy babies. Let’s be honest here. Mankind has a love-hate relationship with caterpillars. The nature of the relationship depends on your age and interests. (Play with wooly caterpillars as child? I did.)

When it comes to dealing with these “pests” you find devouring your favorite plants, the first thing you need to do is identify them. I am not going to make any moral judgments here about how anyone decides which of nature’s creatures have value or not. I will say this however. Most creatures we label as pests have remarkable survival skills and don’t require any help from us. But in the insect world, some creatures are truly fragile, as well as beneficial (pollinators). Butterflies are a prime example. Why not give them all the assistance we can?

I first noticed these caterpillars when I went to cut some herbs in my raised bed. It had only been a few days since I had last visited, so imagine my surprise when I discovered the bronze fennel and flat leaf parsley were covered with the same larvae in varying sizes. It made me a little sad to see my plants practically eaten to the ground, but I was pretty sure my visitors were butterfly babies. Before doing anything about the uninvited dinner guests, I did some research to identify them. I suspected they were Black Swallowtails. A few weeks prior to the caterpillar explosion, I noticed several butterflies visiting my yard. I wasn’t sure what was attracting them since I didn’t have many blooming plants at the time. (Unless a plant is a true heat lover, things either die or go dormant during a Texas summer.)

My research confirmed my suspicions and taught me something I didn’t know. Fennel and parsley are much loved by Black Swallowtail caterpillars. I wasn’t intentionally planning a butterfly garden by including those plants. This brings up an important point for those of you who want to plant a butterfly garden. Educate yourself on the butterfly species that visit your area, and make sure you include food for the caterpillars. Yes, the adults are beautiful, but you can’t have them without the voracious babies. If you have those favorite food plants mixed in with things they won’t bother, the damage won’t be as obvious. In my case, the fennel and parsley were starting to feel the heat anyway, meaning I would need to cut them back. The caterpillars just beat me to them. In any event, they won’t be in your garden very long. Within a week of my noticing them, they were suddenly gone. I’m hoping most of them got to make a chrysalis. I haven’t made an effort to find any of them, but once fall finally arrives, we have plans to upgrade the raised bed with masonry products. Perhaps, I’ll discover a few then.

The Project Queen