Dream Pie Update

I got back from my reading with Richard Scrimger (author of Into the Ravine, and a million other books) and there was a little white plastic bag resting on my bed like a present.  Hmmm… I thought, what could this be?  Felt kind of like Christmas.  It didn’t even enter my mind that it was Maureen’s dream pie.  When she didn’t show up at the theater, I figured life ran away with her, as life is apt to do and there simply wasn’t time for dream pie.  But no.  There was, two containers, lids and all, encased in two ice packs so if I came back late I wouldn’t get botulism.  Another example of Maureen’s thoughtfulness.  Inside was a note saying that she forgot to say in the recipe that instead of regular cream cheese she uses light cream cheese and skimmed milk.  I stood over the hotel bathroom sink and scooped out fingerfulls into my mouth, thinking “I can’t believe something that taste this rich, could be so low in calories!” And the taste of the Cool Whip brought back memories of my grandmother, who passed away in 1988.  And how I visited her when I was 7 and she served me oatmeal, but she didn’t have any milk because she was was allergic to it. 
“What about Cool Whip?” I said.  “You eat that.  We had it last night on our Jello.”
“Oh,” she said “Cool whip isn’t made from dairy.  It’s an oil product.” And I was flabbergasted! 
“So..."I said tentatively, “If you wanted you could eat Cool Whip on your oatmeal”
She laughed. “I guess so.”
I paused, working up my courage.  “Grandmother?”
“Yes?”
“Could...I… would it be okay if I had a spoonful of Cool Whip in my oatmeal?”
She thought that was a real funny idea, but then after thinking about it for a while she said, “I don’t see why not.”
So we both had Cool whip on our oatmeal and she wrote to me when I returned home and told me that she eats Cool Whip with her oatmeal every morning and thinks of me.  And I felt so proud.

And I was thinking as I was eating Maureen’s Dream Pie that this is a perfect recipe for someone who is trying to lose weight and yet still craves rich, fluffy desserts.  And if somebody else wants to say, “Calories be damned!” Then they could substitute butter for margarine, use regular cream cheese, whole milk, and real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip.  What a versatile recipe!  I was also thinking sliced bananas on top would make another delicious addition.

Thank you Maureen for your thoughtfulness and the memories of my Grandmother. 

Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, October 12, 2007 in Recipes

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