So, last night, I broke down and went out to buy some crappy fast food. I admit it: I was having a Big Mac Attack. I get those about twice a year, so really …
Since I was taking the car out of the driveway, I decided to stop by the grocery store and pick up some outdoor eats for today. Today, not Monday? What can I say? It’s supposed to rain on Memorial Day and rainy BBQ is not fun.
So, I picked up pork chops (on sale), a bottle of this weird chipotle/honey BBQ sauce (on sale for a buck!!!), some tomatoes, a couple of sweet potatoes (which I will save for another night), crusty bread, and the makings for a strawberry cheesecake pie. Add in a US News and World Distort Report and a pad of stationary. Total cost: $33 and change. Well, shit. Going to the Local Chain is definitely more expensive than shopping in bulk.
The one thing that floored me was the cost of fucking strawberries, which are usually dirt cheap this time of year. They were going for 2 packages for $9. Seeing how they mold easily, I picked up one container because that was all I needed for the pie. When I got home, I looked at the package and was pleased to see that they were organic. However, Local Chain had those things shipped in from … California. Ah, now I know why they were so expensive. I just want to point out that when I used to live in Ohio, our strawberries came from Michigan. I’m still in the Midwest and I can tell you that it’s closer to Michigan than it is to the West Coast. What the Fuck is my Local Chain thinking? Idiots! I really am going to have to get off my ass and go to the Farmers’ Market on Fridays.
Now that my tirade is out of the way, let me tell you about this strawberry pie I made. You see, we had one of my bosses over to dinner earlier this week and I had a hankering for cheesecake. I came across this recipe on the ‘net. It’s not really a cheesecake — it’s not baked and it’s not dense — but it has a similar flavor. Since M. says he’s on a diet (Why? He’s pretty fit for a 50′ish year old) I tinkered with it some. The new recipe ended up looking like this:
- 1 8-oz package of light cream cheese
- 1/3 cup sugar (although I bet you could use Splenda)
- 1 8-oz carton of light sour cream (I use Daisy)
- 1 thing of sugar free Kool Whip
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
Anyhow, start with the cream cheese, mix in the sugar, then the sour cream and vanilla. Then fold in the Kool Whip and put in in the shell. I used one of the oversized graham cracker pie shells so that the cheesecake part of the pie would be thinner. Shove the pie in the ‘fridge and go to work on the strawberries. I hulled mine and mixed them into half a container of the Marzetti sugar free strawberry gel. Trust me – you just want enough of the strawberry goo to make the strawberries stick together! After a couple of hours, the pie should be set up enough to put the strawberries on top.
A lesson I learned from Wednesday night: The pie tastes better the longer you let it set. Really. It tasted better in the morning than it did the night before.
Since I was making a mess in the kitchen, I went ahead and made some of my “cajunified” potato salad and I made a Pear Cobbler. Yeah, I had to use the pear before they went bad and I had all the stuff in the house, so … As for the potato salad, my ‘tatoes were starting to look icky too and I certainly didn’t want to waste them. Yep, there’s a feast for fit for a Memorial Day weekend.
