Pies

	2 graham cracker pie crusts
	1 large container of Cool Whip
	8-ounce cream cheese
	1 cup sugar
	4 bananas
	1 can blueberry pie filling

Blend cream cheese, sugar, and Cool Whip until there are no lumps. Line bottom of pie crusts with sliced bananas. Pour Cool Whip mixture over bananas. Add blueberry filling for topping. Chill 2 hours. (Makes 2 pies.)

	1 ¼ cups sugar
	½ cup all purpose flour
	¼ cup cocoa
	dash of salt
	4 egg yolks
	2 cups milk
	½ cup butter or margarine
	1 teaspoon vanilla extract
	1 9-inch pastry shell, deep dish, baked
	Meringue
	4 egg whites
	¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
	4 tablespoons sugar

Make meringue first. Beat together egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed of electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add 1 tablespoon sugar for each egg white and continue beating for a few minutes.

Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, and salt in a saucepan; set aside.
Combine egg yolks and milk; stir into sugar mixture. Add butter.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Spoon into pastry shell.
Spread meringue over hot filling sealing to edge of pastry.
Bake at 325° F for 25 to 28 minutes

	3 eggs
	1 ½ cups sugar
	¾ stick of butter or margarine
	3 tablespoons flour
	1 teaspoon vanilla
	1 large can evaporated milk

Melt butter, blend flour with sugar, beat eggs and flour sugar mixture together, add vanilla and milk. Add butter as you mix other ingredients. Pour into a pie plate and bake at 350° F for 30 to 35 minutes.

For a variation, you can mix coconut into mixture and make an easy coconut pie.

After I had my heart attack I started trying to make recipes more healthy. So I changed this as follows:

Instead of real eggs, use egg beaters. Use low fat margarine instead of regular margarine. Use low fat evaporated milk instead of regular. Mix and bake as usual.

	1 can sweetened condensed milk
	½ cup key lime juice (Or, ¼ cup lime juice and ¼ cup lemon juice)
	4 eggs, separated
	graham cracker crust

Mix the milk, lime juice, and egg yolks together. Pour into the crust and bake for 20 minutes at 325° F. While it’s baking, make a meringue by beating the egg whites with a few tablespoons of sugar until stiff. When the pie is done baking, top with the meringue. Put in oven set on “broil” for a few minutes until the meringue is light brown. Chill in fridge and serve cold. (If you want a truly fail-proof recipe, you can discard the egg whites and just top with Cool Whip instead!)

When I was in South Africa, I had every Friday off, and so Fridays became my “baking therapy” days. My roommates were always excited to come home on Friday and sample my creations. However, my experience with this pie was the opposite of “loaves and fishes”-- no matter how much I made, it was always gone by Saturday afternoon!

	1 3-ounce lemon Jello
	1 8-ounce lemon yogurt
	1 8-ounce Cool Whip
	1 cup boiling water
	½ cup cold water
	1 "2 extra slices" graham cracker crust

Combine Jello and hot water. Stir 2 minutes. Add cold water. Chill until consistency of egg whites. Fold in yogurt and ½ Cool Whip. Pour into crust. Refrigerate until firm. Cover top with rest of the Cool Whip.

	3 eggs, slightly beaten
	1 cup Karo light syrup
	1 cup sugar
	2 tablespoons margarine or butter
	1 heaping tablespoon flour
	2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
	1 deep dish 9-inch pie crust
	1 ½ cups pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 325° F. In a large bowl, stir eggs, syrup, sugar, butter, flour and vanilla, until well blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake 50 - 55 minutes (check it at 45 minutes) or until knife inserted halfway between center and the edge comes out almost clean.

Makes about 8 servings.

	3 eggs
	½ cup sugar
	1 teaspoon flour
	1 cup dark red Karo syrup
	1 teaspoon vanilla
	1 stick butter or margarine, melted
	1 cup pecans, chopped
	1 deep dish pie shell, uncooked

Combine flour and sugar. Beat eggs well. Cream in sugar and flour. Add vanilla, syrup, butter and pecans. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 350° F for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

My Mother was a wonderful cook. Most things she cooked were done by measuring a “pinch” of this and a “dab” of that or a “handful” of something else. She very seldom used a measuring cup or measuring spoons. I watched her cook this pie one day and as she did I measured the ingredients and wrote the recipe.

	1 box Nilla vanilla wafers
	½ stick margarine or butter
	1 can sweetened condensed milk
	½ cup lemon juice
	2 egg yolks
	2 egg whites
	¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
	¼ cup sugar

Separate egg whites and yolks. Crush enough wafers to make one cup of crumbs. Mix with ½ stick of melted margarine (butter) and spread evenly (to desired thickness) in a lightly sprayed 8-inch pie pan. Line the outside edge of the pan with whole vanilla wafers. Set in refrigerator to chill. Mix together egg yolks, lemon juice, and sweetened condensed milk, beat until thickened, and spread evenly in the chilled pie crust.

Beat room temperature egg whites with cream of tartar until they hold a soft peak. Gradually add sugar, while beating, until the whites hold a hard peak. Pile onto the pie filling, being sure to seal meringue against the sides of the crust. Place in pre-heated oven at 350° F, and cook until the top is golden brown (about 15 minutes). Allow to cool before serving.

This lemon meringue pie was one of Anthony’s favorites growing up. With three boys and a hungry Dad at home, it wasn’t unusual for Mom to make two at a time. Meringue wasn’t Dad’s favorite thing, so we all got equal portions of this dessert. When Sylvia and I married, we had “words” over the proper way to make this dessert. Sylvia’s family made it the same, except they didn’t put meringue on it. Daddy would have loved her version. If there are any vanilla wafers left over, fill them liberally with peanut butter and eat them without remorse. My cardiologist says that the peanut butter is good for you.

	½ stick butter or margarine
	½ cup white sugar
	½ cup white Karo syrup
	2 eggs, beaten well
	1 cup chopped pecans
	1 pie crust
	½ to 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large skillet, melt butter. Remove from heat and cool. Stir in sugar. Add syrup, beaten eggs, pecan pieces, and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 325-350° F for about 30 minutes or until fairly firm. (If using a frozen crust, set pie on iron skillet turned upside down in oven. This will help crust to bake and it will not be soggy on the bottom.) Freezes well.