This Offbeat Life
New Economy Cooking
Backpacking by Bus

The Casual Cook
Martha Strom

Strawberry Season Again!
Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries

Gorgeous red, ripe strawberries are beginning to arrive at our neighborhood grocery stores and I’m inspired. Resisting those beautiful, glistening berries is for me impossible. In our family we’re down to two people but I don’t seem to be able to get it through my head that I shouldn’t buy a six basket carton. Where strawberries are concerned I have no will power.

I make shortcake, I slice them on cereal, I make Strawberry Pie and Strawberry Spinach salad––and Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries. If I still have strawberries left over I sugar them and freeze them. They’re great on vanilla or, for true strawberry addicts, on strawberry ice cream.

When you walk in to the grocery store and are met with tantalizing, eye popping stacks of strawberry boxes give the strawberries the sniff test. Choose strawberries that not only look luscious, dark red and juicy but ones that have a mouth watering smell as well. Commercially grown berries (usually from California where 80% of our strawberries are grown) are picked partially green so that they’ll travel well and arrive at the grocers in near perfect condition. Strawberries will continue to ripen after picking but they won’t continue to sweeten so sniff the berries for that ripe sweet aroma.

Not only are strawberries delicious but they’re good for you. Eating 8 strawberries can give you 160 % of your daily requirement of vitamin C and eating 8 strawberries is pretty darned easy to do. They also contain lots of vitamin A and B6 and contain only 50 calories per cup. That’s of course before you add gobs of sugar and mounds of whipped cream. So indulge yourself.

Here is one of my favorite recipes. It was a real treat for bridge luncheons when we were based at Lajes Field in the Azores (islands off the coast of Portugal) with the U.S. Air Force. That makes the recipe over 20 years old––and it’s still one of the best. It’s simple and delicious, a perfect recipe for a Casual Cook. A great recipe is a great recipe no matter how old it is.

Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries

• 1 baked 9 inch pie shell
• 1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, beaten
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. grated rind
• 2 to 4 cups fresh strawberries, halved
• 1/4 cup currant jelly
• Fresh mint sprigs and a dollop of whipped cream (optional)

Beat cream cheese well and add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add sugar, lemon juice and grated rind. Mix well and pour in to baked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool and refrigerate. Place strawberries completely over pie top or around the edges, depending on the amount of strawberries you’re using.

Heat jelly in the microwave until soft and brush tops of berries until thoroughly glazed.

Garnish with mint sprigs and a dollop of whipped cream at serving time if desired.

Enjoy spring. Enjoy strawberries every way you can think of. And enjoy Cheese Pie with Fresh Strawberries for your next party. It will be another feather in your cooking cap.

Bon Appetit!
Martha

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Strawberry Season! Strawberry recipes for all occasions, mostly ones where you eat.