Grandmama's Strawberry Pie

First and foremost, Lent is over so we can now eat meat again! Carl and I had bacon on Easter morning, and it was so good! But I'm not going to share a recipe with meat quite yet. For Easter the past few years I have made my grandmother's strawberry pie. This is the best strawberry pie I have ever had, and I think it's great for Easter. So this year, I'm going to share this wonderful strawberry pie with you!

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. fresh strawberries (this would be 3 of the small packages)
• 1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 baked 9 inch pie shell (I know the crust in the picture doesn't look that great; I don't know why, but it just crumbled, and it took all I had to try to keep it together for the photo shoot!)
  
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• whipped cream (optional)
  

Spread the cream cheese on the bottom of the pie shell. Pick out the smallest strawberries, and after you chop the stems off, place them upside down in the cream cheese until the pie shell is full. Juice the remaining strawberries until you have 2 cups of strawberry juice. The easiest way to do this is to puree the strawberries in the blender and then put the mashed strawberries in a strainer and stir them in order to get all the juice out. Discard the remaining strawberry pulp (I personally like to add a couple tablespoons of sugar to the pulp and then put it on my waffles or bagels in the morning for breakfast). Once you have 2 cups of juice, put the juice in a medium saucepan and sift the cornstarch into the juice, stirring continuously (you MUST stir in the cornstarch slowly because otherwise it will clump in the juice and it's a huge pain to un-clump it; if it does clump, you may need to strain it). On medium-low heat gradually stir in the sugar. Stir continuously until the juice thickens and changes from a light, opaque pink to a dark clearer red, about 20 minutes. Pour the juice into a pie shell and chill for at least two hours, preferably over night. Can decorate with whipped cream if desired (I never put whipped cream on it; I think 8-oz of cream cheese is plenty of dairy!).

I love this recipe, not only because it's the best strawberry pie out there, but also because it's like having a piece of my grandmother, who passed away 12 year ago, with us during the holidays. Do you have any great family recipes you'd like to share? Send them along! I'd love to try them out!