how to make someone happy. At least when they are three.

I have this book Fun to Cook Book from Carnation. Mary Blake was the face of Carnation milk back in the day (my Grandma had some of the booklets since she worked for the firm.) and this book that was supposed to be written by her younger daughter, was a staple of the 50s and 60s. My Mom has a copy that she has had since she was a little kid, and I picked up a copy a few years back. If you run across anyone who grew up with this book, they will immediately tell you about the two page color spread where the girl "Dreams of being in Dessert Land". The little girl is illustrated lying in a bed of clouds surrounded by gorgeous looking desserts. The whole book is filled with great little illustrations but those two pages are pure magic to a the young eye. Even now I still love it. Miss Biscuit REALLY loves it. She is always taking the book off the shelf and opening it up to that page and saying that she is using a recipe to cook something with her play kitchen stuff. (She mostly makes pink cakes that have extra sprinkles.) One of the desserts on the page is a pink strawberry pie. I think my Mom may have had that as a kid. (I will have to ask her.) Miss Biscuit has been asking for weeks to make this. She who loves pink with a gasping passion. You show her something pink and she will clutch her hands together and whisper, "Pink!"
You see, pink isn't for girls. Pink is for Miss Biscuit. Pink was invented for her. Just ask her. She likes other colors but pink? Pink is made of magic. It is like it is her personality presented in some kind of physical form.
Today was the day to make this strawberry pie. It is rather simple, since it is for a children's cook book. You can make/buy a pastry shell. (we had fun mixing it up in the food processor) You bake your pastry shell and cool it.
For the filling you pour about 3/4 of a cup of boiling water into a bowl with a package of strawberry jello. Pop that in the fridge for about twenty minutes to let it begin gelling. Traditionally the recipe calls for you to partially freeze some Carnation evaporated milk and then whip it up -a poor man's whipped topping. I just whipped up some cream. Then you fold that into the partially gelled jello, and then mix in about 1 of sliced strawberries. It will make things a pale pink that would be great for a shoe color. In fact my Mother did own a pair of high heels that were the exact same shade of pink as this dessert. I remember them with envy. She had these heels in like five or six different colors but I loved the pink ones the most. You pour the filling into the pie shell and put it in the fridge to chill for about an hour or two. It sets up beautifully and you get these lovely firm slices with bits of bright red strawberry. Mr. Jenner described it as tasting like ice cream that wasn't cold. Miss Biscuit thought it was perfect. She ate all of it up and kept saying, "It's Pink for me!"