Creative Cooking

Sometimes, rarely, I get the urge to do something fun in the kitchen. Sadly, this does not extend to cooking dinner most days. Rather I prefer to cook up something tasty yet unusual (in my diet anyway). Toward that end, I made 2 tasty pies from my past last week and both were a bit disappointing.

First some history. These pies have been popular in my family since the 1970s or 1980s. Every family get together featured one or both. The Lemon Cream Cheese Icebox Pie was my Dad's favorite while the Cherry Cream Cheese Pie remains the favorite of several family members today. Anyway, I decided to make them with a dash of creativity and achieved mixed results.

The recipe for the Lemon Cream Cheese Icebox Pie is as follows.

• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks

• 1 cup of frozen lemonade concentrate note that this generally comes in a 12oz can and this is important to my creativity

• 8 oz evaporated milk again, this usually comes in a 12oz can so watch for some more of that creativity

• 1 small pkg lemon flavored instant pudding mix

• 1 9 or 10 inch graham cracker pie crust

• combine all ingredients except the crust, of course, and mix until smooth and creamy

• pour into crust and refrigerate until set; a few hours is best here

• serve and enjoy

Notice the creativity points above. I used all 12oz of the lemonade and all 12oz of the milk. The pie didn't set up as nicely as I would have wished but was very yummy.

The recipe for the Cherry Cream Cheese Pie is as follows.

• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

• 1/2 cup lemon juice you could squeeze this yourself or just get it from a bottle

• 1 9 or 10 inch graham cracker pie crust

• 1 large-ish can cherry pie filling, chilled

• combine first 3 ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy

• pour into pie crust and chill until firm, a couple of hours

• pour pie filling onto top of pie and serve

• enjoy

This one didn't have the lemony undercurrents that I remembered from childhood. Disappointment.

All of this led to Today's Experiment: What if I tweek the lemon pie a bit and put the cherries on it?

So, the fix for the lemon pie is to increase the pudding mix from 1 to 2 pkgs. This should make it set up more firmly. Otherwise, make it exactly the same as last week. Then add the cherries after it sets up, which should be better than last week.

Well, hours later, you can see from the picture at left that the pie didn't firm up quite as well as I had hoped. Note to self: try sweetened condensed milk rather than evaporated milk next time. Maybe add some lemon juice? Perhaps one variable at a time.

I also forgot to get a photo before slicing ... oops!

Given all that, it tastes wonderful. Much more of the lemony taste and it's great with the cherries, which I hope to have more of next time.

Well, so much for creativity today. One nice thing about creating in the kitchen -- you get to eat your experiments. I'll be eating this one for several days.

Remember: "Creativity favors the prepared mind." So, while you're thinking about creating also remember to learn from those who have come before and prepare your mind for creativity.

dks, 25 September 2025