Cookie Therapy

Ok, this is getting more challenging.  I had such a busy day at work today and a 2.5 hour meeting with my advisor to go over some code that was not working as it should, so I definitely didn't come across anything during the day to cheer me up.  Oh, except that it's Pi day! I was reminded just in time to bring half of a strawberry jello pie to work that I made a few days ago.

One thing that always cheers me up is baking.  I really love baking, almost to the point of obsession.  I think about baking during the day and I look up recipes in my free time.  My food-related Pinterest board has almost twice as many pins as all (7) of the others combined. 

15  My Grandmother, Sittie Bell's Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
A 9" pie crust
1 pint of strawberries
2 cups of water
1 small box of strawberry Jello
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp corn starch (dissolved in water)


Cook the pie crust.  I used Pillsbury pre-made crust and followed the box directions which were:  Line the pie pan with the crust, poke holes in the bottom and sides with a fork, place baking weights on the bottom (optional).  Bake on 450 for 15 minutes.

While the crust cools, boil the water in a saucepan.  Dissolve the Jello and sugar in the water.  Heat over medium heat and add corn starch.  Stir until the mix thickens.  (This part gave me trouble.. the recipe doesn't give any hints as to how long this should take.  So just keep stirring and watching until you're tired of it or you're sure it's thickened.  Mine came out a bit soft because I quit early.  But it was still delicious!)

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.  Let the Jello mix cool before putting the pie together.

Slice the strawberries in half and arrange them in the cool crust.  Pour the Jello over the strawberries, cover, and refrigerate for a few hours until set.

I didn't get a picture before we ate it, but if you google 'strawberry jello pie' you can see what it looks like.

16   I love holidays, because that means I get to try out a new themed recipe, and then eat the results.  Tonight I made shamrock cookies from this recipe.  The soda bread on that page looks awesome as well. 

If you don't have a cookie gun just do what I did:  call your mom and borrow hers.

I was sure that between 3 (yeah, 3) cookie gun sets at my parents' house one would have a clover-shaped disc for spritz cookies.  This was not the case.  I picked the closest thing - a 5-sided flower - and made it look like a 4-leaf clover.  Here are the results:

I just squished one petal between the handles of 2 spoons to make a 'stem.'  I really like how they came out.  My mother won't miss one of her cookie guns.. right?