Strawberry Cheesecake Pie (I got the cheesecake recipe from a woman in my SnB -- I also saw it at the Kraft website. The strawberries are all me.)

1 8-oz package cream cheese (low fat or fat free is fine)
1/3 cup of sugar
1 8-oz container of cool whip (low fat or fat free is fine), thawed (I microwaved it for 15 seconds)
1 premade graham cracker crust
1 lb strawberries, sliced very thinly (about 1/8" thick)

Let the cream cheese soften (mine sat on the counter for about 30 minutes in summer weather), and place in bowl with sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat for 3 -4 minutes, making sure that the cream cheese is whipped (you do not want "chunks" of cream cheese). (I left my hand mixer at home when I moved -- I did it in a food processor and it took about 30 seconds to mix.)

Add the container of cool whip and mix for a few minutes until everything is fluffy. (Again, about 30 seconds in the food processor.)

Spread a small amount of the cream cheese mixture onto the pie crust. Add one layer of sliced strawberries. Alternate cream cheese and strawberries, ending with cream cheese. Decorate the top with strawberries and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours. (This is really good, but it tends to ooze a little once it's cut -- and it also doesn't cut cleanly. So have a spoon nearby...)

[Step 1]

There are 2 versions of this recipe -- the lazy one (which I make) and the prettier-looking one reserved for special guests. Lazy version first (so that all of us lazy people don't have to read extra words) and then the complicated steps if you so choose.

Step 1: (This one's a pain, but it's necessary, and makes leftovers for next time. Idea courtesy of Mollie Katzen.) Pour 1 cup of balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan. Open kitchen window, and bring the vinegar to a boil. (Boiling vinegar gives off nasty fumes.) Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered until volume of vinegar is reduced by about half, between 20 and 30 minutes. Pour into a small glass bowl or bottle -- vinegar will thicken and become syrupy as it cools.
Step 2: Chop a few Roma tomatoes and put them on a plate. Sprinkle very lightly with salt.
Step 3: Take about a half a package of water-packed firm tofu and cube it. Put the cubes on top of the chopped tomato.
Step 4: Rip up some fresh basil leaves and sprinkle them over the tofu.
Step 5: Drizzle with a little bit of the balsamic syrup (maybe a tablespoon?) and grind some black pepper over the top.
You can substitute thinly sliced green onions for the basil -- it'll be a totally different flavor but it will still be wonderful.

If you want to make it more complicated, you can slice the tomatoes (rather than chopping them), press the tofu (line a rimmed baking sheet with cotton towels or paper towels, slice the tofu about 1/2" thick and place the slices on the baking sheet, cover with a second baking sheet and then place a weight on top -- a book or some cans -- then wait about an hour), and chiffonade the basil (stack the leaves on top of one another, roll them lengthwise, and slice the roll thinly to get basil confetti). And then do nifty overlapping layers of tofu and tomato, drizzled with balsamic syrup and sprinkled with the chiffonade. And it will be beautiful.  (And tasty too!  )

Yep, that's right, another self-designed berry-baby hat.  But that's kinda like saying, yep, that's right, another baby.  They're all unique and wonderful and that's why we love 'em.    Acrylic yarn, knit in the round (which I hate but it makes Fair Isle about 10,000 times easier), made it up as I went along.  The leaves are my favorite part because they stick out in all directions.  It's a little larger than I intended -- hopefully my friend's daughter will grow into it during a cold time of the year. 

With apologies to Bob Dylan   It's done in laceweight (I think) Twisted Sisters yarn on size 6 needles.  I probably would have used size 4s but I didn't have any...



Close-up of the pattern:


Action shot:


The bead pattern is from http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/aa111797.htm and it's meant to "parallel" the lace.

It's fast...it's unisex...it uses (almost) only knit stitches...that's right, it's the garter-stitch gift set!  The fingerless mitts are from Weekend Knitting and the scarf is modified from SnB.  They're from the same yarn...the flash bleached out the pic where I'm wearing the mitt.





Details on my blog:
http://pequalsmd.blogspot.com/2006/12/garter-stitch-gift-set.html

Great for last-minute gifts...only about 8 hours of knitting total