Broken Oven Strawberry Pie

  Life Happens.....
     Our oven is broken. Or, to be more specific, the touch pad that controls our oven is broken. A replacement part has been ordered, but it will take 7-10 days to arrive, so we remain oven-less until that time. Thankfully though, since it is the touch pad and not any of the heating elements, our stove still works :) Last weekend we had a cookout for Father's Day and my parent's wedding anniversary, which happened to fall on the same day this year. The strawberries are in full swing, *insert Lynn's happy dance of summer berry glee here*, and our original plan was to either make strawberry shortcake or take a crack at this luscious looking strawberry cake, but our sans-oven status pretty-much negated that. Perusing my Mom's cookbook shelves I came across a small, paperback cookbook from the late 1970's that was published by the Pulaski, NY, ABE Program (basically an Adult Continuing Education program). Seeing that I had taken it out, my Mom flipped through the book also and noticed this Strawberry Pie recipe. It called for a graham cracker crust, and she happened to have a pre-made crust on hand. It looked quite easy, didn't call for the oven since we already had the crust, and we had just gotten a flat of strawberries at the Farmer's Market. It was meant to be :)

   This pie is sweet and simple. Strawberries, Cream Cheese, Sugar, Cornstarch, Water. Yup, that looks a lot like just FIVE ingredients to me!  Okay, five ingredients not counting the pre-made crust that we already had. There are certainly some decent pre-made pie crusts out there, choose your favorite brand or label read until you find one that doesn't have a lot of junk in it. Or, heck, if you have one on hand that YOU made, so much the better :)

Broken Oven Strawberry Pie
- taken from the *Pulaski ABE Recipes* Book, 1979 edition. Inspired by "Glazed Strawberry Pie", submitted by Maureen Labrake of Oswego, NY.

- Pre-baked 9 inch graham cracker pie crust (a regular pie shell would be fine too)
- 1qt drained, hulled strawberries (fresh, local, in season strawberries will be best, but out of season strawberries will do in a pinch)
- One 3oz package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup of sugar (or to taste, depending on sweetness of berries)
- 3 tbsp. cornstarch

- Spread softened cream cheese over the bottom the pie shell and cover with half the berries (use the choicest and most attractive berries for this)

- Mash the remaining berries and add a little water to them if necessary until you have about 1& 1/2 cups. Transfer the berries to a saucepan, bring to a boil and stir in sugar and cornstarch. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture returns to a boil. Boil one minute.

- Allow mixture to cool slightly. Pour mixture over berries in pie shell. Chill pie for at least two hours or overnight. Serve with whipped cream :) Enjoy the berries while they last :)