A Little Slice of Heaven

Are you looking for something fancy and festive to make for your 4Th of July BBQ? How 'bout this sweet little number. She is practically perfect in every way. A light flaky crust, fresh juicy succulent strawberries topped with homemade whipped cream. That's right, you heard me, no cool whip here baby. Now don't get me wrong, cool whip has it's place and heaven knows I've eaten my share of it in my day. But for these sweet ripe berries

only real cream will do.

I made this particular pie a couple of weeks ago for our anniversary. Between Mr. Bird, myself and all the kidletts we downed the whole thing in less than 10 minutes. This recipe actually makes 2 pies so you will have plenty to share at a BBQ. And no, we did not eat 2 whole pies, our neighbor across the street had just had her baby so I took one of them over there for them to enjoy. Hope you enjoy it too!

Ingredients:
2 9 inch pie shells, baked
2 lbs strawberries
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
1 (3 oz) package strawberry flavored gelatin

In a small pan, mix together the sugar and the corn starch; make sure to blend corn starch in completely or you will have lumps or strings in your filling. Add boiling water and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Add gelatin mixture, stir until smooth. Let mixture cool to room temperature. Layer strawberries (remove tops and slice in half) and filling in the baked pie shell. Make three layers of each. Place strawberries in the shell being sure to heap in the middle. Refrigerate until set.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks.

See, now wasn't that easy?
Add dollops of whipped cream around the perimeter of the pie and one large dollop in the middle. To make it more festive add a blueberry to each whipped cream dollop. Can you tell I like the word dollop? You know what else I really like?

This Pie!