The Kid is off of school for a whole week. A WEEK?? I never got a week off when I was a kid!! Must. Find. Things. To. Do.

I thought an easy and fun thing to do together would be to make a pie. A S’mores pie. Is your mouth watering? The Kid loves all things marshmallow so why not kick up a bit?

Sure it’s a reach, but the components are there: graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. I threw this together on the fly this morning and it came out just as I had hoped. Believe it or not, the bittersweet chocolate cuts the sweet – but boy is it rich…n the best possible way.

ingredients:
Graham Cracker Pie crust (see recipe here)
20 large marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 Teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 powdered sugar

Prep your graham cracker crust and set aside. Get a small sous chef to count out 20 marshmallows. Tell him it’s a FUN game. That’s how you get things done.

In a double boiler (witness my janky do it yourself version) heat the marshmallows till they get a little melty. Add the chocolate, then the cream. until it’s all combined. Keep stirring, it may take a while.

Note: Scharffenberger is king of chocolate. You won’t find a richer, smoother chocolate to work with. This 6 ounce bar melts down to a little bit of heaven and really makes all the difference in flavor.

Once everything is melted, add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool for a few minutes.

In the bottom of the pie crust sprinkle around the marshmallows. (Note: the Kid helped and I just let him do what he wanted, so we just mixed them in instead.) On top of the marshmallows and pie crust, pour the chocolate mixture, then put in the fridge to set.

When you are ready to serve, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar and serve with the pie. So good it will make you cry.

This is basically the same thing as the Nilla Wafer pie crust, but you get the idea.

ingredients:
approx. 25 graham crackers (you’re trying to get about 1-1/2 cups or so)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 Tablespoons sugar

In a sealed plastic freezer bag, bash, beat, pulverize the graham crackers.

Get a small child to do the dirty work and combine the crumbs with the melted butter and the sugar – then press into your pie pan.

Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes, let cool before you use it.

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. And FINALLY we’ve come to the end of Lemon Week!
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This dessert is so light you’ll want to eat the whole pie, but don’t fool yourself, it’s chock full of ice cream and whipped cream, aka two of the most fattening fabulous things in the world. But the secret is the crust. I had leftover Nilla Wafers lying around and didn’t want to waste them. Thank goodness, it sent this pie over the top! You just may find yourself eating it straight out of pie plate like I did. Ahem. I’m classy.

ingredients:
1 (9 inch) nilla wafer pie crust (see recipe)
3 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 cup lemon sugar (you can just white sugar if you don’t have lemon)
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Prep your pie crust, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, water, lemon zest and lemon juice. Fold in the ice cream, make sure it’s softened, you’re job will be easier!

In a mixing bowl whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until soft peaks form. PAY ATTENTION: You will only use HALF of this. Fold HALF into the ice cream mixture and pour into the pie crust. Place in the freezer until set!

NOW use the other half of the whipped cream to dollop on top of the pie before you serve! And come on, serve it on a clean plate, let’s be civilized here!

I often have leftover Nilla Wafers lying around, and while I’ve made cupcakes out of them, the obvious thing to do would be to make pie crust!

ingredients:
approx. 36 Nilla wafers
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 Tablespoons sugar

In a sealed plastic freezer bag, bash the heck out of the vanilla wafers. Or use a food processor. Whatever works. Combine the crumbs with the melted butter and the sugar – then press into your pie pan.

As you can tell from my picture I got super lazy and did not crush them that fine.

Now you can bake this or not, depending on how lazy you are. Use it as is, or to make it REALLY NICE, bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool before you use it.