Riding on a Cloud...with this Pink Cloud Pie!

 Can I just tell you, I am riding on a cloud right now! My Spartans just made it to the Final Four!!! Woo Hoo!! Okay, had to show some love to my boys. And now on to the "real" content of this puffy post. Karen at DomesticMuse is hosting a challenge called Everything Old is New Again; I love the idea of this challenge! My grandma has so many recipes tucked into her recipe box and I'm always asking her how do you make such-n-such, so this is a great opportunity to get down & dirty with some vintage recipes. I actually chose to update a recipe that grandma makes for almost every holiday. Green Salad or Lime Salad or Green Jello Salad are all names that it answers to. Truth...I've never really liked it. Everyone else seems to, though. I was inspired a while back by a recipe Joy the Baker posted. She used a jello salad much like my grandmas and turned it into a pie. I thought...I HAVE to try that with my grandma's Green Salad. I bookmarked the recipe and have thought on it ever since. When Karen's challenge surfaced, I figured it'd be the perfect time to give it a go. I did decide to update the recipe a bit...change it to something I would actually like to eat (sorry Gram). Have you ever seen the movie Waitress? Love it! In a nutshell, Kerry Russell's character is a pie maker...all kinds of pies for all kinds of reasons. One of the pies she makes is called Mermaid Marshmallow Pie...this is another inspiration for my creation.

I'm also gonna do double-duty here and make this my entry for this month's You Want Pies With That? The theme being Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous...you create and bake a pie with a rich & famous person in mind. Picking someone to attribute this to, taking the Everything Old is New Again theme into consideration as well...it's going to be....ah, I'll tell you at the end of the post! I want you to see it first!

Old Recipe- Grandma's Green Jello Salad
1 pkg. Lime Jello

1 c. hot water

1/2 c. pineapple juice

1/2 pint whipped cream

1 (10 cent!!) small jar maraschino cherries, drained

1 small pkg. Philly cream cheese

chopped nuts

1 can crushed pineapple, drained well

Dissolve jello in hot water and pineapple juice. Let cool until slightly set. Add cream cheese and fold in whipped cream, cherries, nuts and pineapple. Pour into mold and let set.

...and now, changed to make it "new again"....

Pink Cloud Pie

by girlichef

Graham Cracker Crust:

9 graham crackers

1/4 c. brown sugar

7-8 Tbs. melted butter

Place crackers in a large zipper bag. Crush to fine crumbs. Place in bowl and mix w/ brown sugar. Have your quality control people in place to check the texture of the graham crackers (um, that would be the munchkins). Drizzle in butter and mix. Press into pie pan. Bake in preheated 325°F oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Let cool completely.

1 (3 oz) pkg raspberry jello

1 c. hot water

1/2 c. pineapple juice

1 c. heavy cream- whipped until stiff peaks

1 c. raspberries, fresh or frozen

8 oz. cream cheese or neufchatel, softened

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 can (20 oz. can) crushed pineapple, drained well

Dissolve jello in hot water. Stir in pineapple juice. Put in refrigerator until slightly set, about 1-1 1/2 hrs. Stir in cream cheese (I used stick blender). Fold in whipped cream. Add raspberries, nuts and crushed pineapple.

Mix all together gently. Pour into prepared graham cracker shell. Put in refrigerator until set, about one more hour. 

Now, take:

2 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

juice from 1/2 c. crushed raspberries

pink mini-marshmallows (I picked them from a mixed bag)

Place all in bowl and whip until stiff peaks form. Blop it onto the chilled pie and spread gently. Top with pink mini-marshmallows.

Serve. Will keep wrapped in foil for a day or two...not sure, it hasn't been that long yet.

This was such a fun challenge...well, two fun challenges! Are you wondering which rich & famous person I'm dedicating this pie to? It's all pink and fluffy and girly, so it's got to be Anna Nicole Smith. I wasn't really a big fan of hers, but I know she idolized Marilyn Monroe (old) and went to Hollywood to remake herself (new), just as Norma Jean did. Anna Nicole loved pink and was often "riding on a cloud".  Hers is a tragic story...sad, I think. But wouldn't she have loved this pie?

*Update 4/3/11--->I am sharing this post with: