Frozen Strawberry Margarita Pie

Ray handed me a page from the travel magazine he was reading. He gave me puppy eyes and said, “This sounds good.”

Garnish with strawberries, not chocolate easter candy.

So I made it. About half the recipe was made without kick, another pie from the same original recipe was made with kick. Both are good but there is something fun about the over 21 version.

For the crust: Pre-heat your oven to 350*F. (Chill your bowl and beaters for the whipped cream) Process two packages (sleeves?) graham crackers (yield @ 2 cups of fine crumbs) in your food processor. You can also put the crackers into a heavy plastic bag (like a zipper bag) and crush them with a rolling-pin. Add three tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of melted butter to the crumbs.

Press the crumbs into an 8 or 9 inch spring-form or regular pie pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Set on a rack to cool.

For the filling: In a blender jar or food processor add

• 3 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 Tablespoon finely grated organic lime zest
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 Tablespoons tequila
• 2 tablespoons orange liquor (triple sec, Grand Marnier, Cointreau or the new one from Brazil)

Puree. You will have a prettier pie if you do not liquefy. There should be bits of strawberries in the finished pie.

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip 1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream until it is stiff (whipped cream does not really make “peaks” like egg whites but the recipe tells me to whip it until there are stiff peaks)

Fold about 1/3 of the strawberry mixture into the whipped cream. Blend well. Add the remaining strawberries and fold in. Pour the cream-strawberry mixture into the cooled crust. Freeze the pie for 4 hours.

To serve, allow the pie to soften in the refrigerator about 40 minutes (you can skip this step if you made your pie in a spring-form pan.) Garnish with strawberries and thin slices of lime.

note: To make this pie without the alcohol, omit the tequila and orange liquor. Add 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract. It is just as good, you just won’t giggle as much.