A friend of ours shared with me a beautiful phrase..."people come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime."
The people that come into our lives for a "reason" we may not always know or understand at the time, but realize later they leave an impact that lasts forever.
Recently my daughter "Baby B" and I were shopping in
At Home (embarassingly one of my guilty pleasures) for her new apartment she is moving into.
As we were in the middle of a conversation in the area rug section, she stops mid-sentence, looks over my shoulder, and says "Oh, well hello there" (in her 1st Grade teaching voice).
Now knowing my daughter that means there is a dog behind me that she wants to make friends with...I of course would be joining in.
I turned around to meet the mystery dog and to my surprise, there was no dog. Instead, there were two little girls standing there smiling and giggling.
We greeted them and noticed they were both holding "stuffies". One had a bumblebee and the other a pineapple. We commented to the gigglers that there stuffies were so cute and fun.
The little girl holding her pineapple motioned it towards me and said, "Here, you can have it".
I said, "Oh no, that's okay it's yours, you should keep it." She said with the biggest smile on her face, "No, it's okay you can have it"...and proceeded to walk it to me and put into my hands.
And then, like a flash she was gone with her bumblebee friend.
I took a deep breath and put the pineapple stuffy into our cart seat. My daughter looked and me shocked and said, "What are you doing? Are you going to take the pineapple home?"
"Yes, yes I am", I said. I could not break that little girl's heart. Of all the people in the store at that very time and place, she came up to us and wanted to share something very special to her. There's a reason that little Angel came into my life even for the briefest moment. The pineapple is a symbol of friendship and hospitality...both of which she gave me in our momentary interaction. Thank you for touching my heart sweet Angel.
About ten minutes later we finally found my husband on the other side of the store. As we were heading to the checkout area he looked at both of us and said, "Why is there a pineapple in the cart?"...
Our new pineapple friend now sits in my sanctuary nook reading chair. Everytime I look at it, it brings me a tender smile all over again.
This dessert came to us by way of my sister-in-law Cindy. I was going through the family cookbook recently and came across the pink page
(I love how the family thought to color coordinate each section, and desserts recipes are all printed on pink paper...very vintage) and thought what an interesting title, what is this dish?
As I read the recipe, I realized, this is another form of a pineapple cheesecake. Everything about that sounded wonderful...I had to give it a try and am so glad I did (this has also now become one of my guilty pleasures).
I have been in my husband's family for 32 years, hosted and/or attended hundreds of family events. How is it possible that I never heard of this dessert or had it served at one of the family meals? Well, that's about to change.
Pineapple Cheese Pie is a must for spring/summer. It's cold, sweet and refreshing. Enjoy and keep an eye out for your Angels...you never know where they will meet you.
Pineapple Cheese Pie
Courtesy of Cindy
Crust:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbl sugar
6 Tbl softened butter
Pie:
2 - 8 ounce blocks cream cheese, softened, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-16 ounce crushed pineapple, drained well
Cinnamon
Topping:
1-1/2 cups sour cream
2 Tbl sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine the graham cracker crumbs and 2T sugar; add the butter and combine well. Firmly pat onto the bottom and sides of a 9" pie plate.
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is combined.
Add sugar and vanilla, beat 1 minute.
Fold in drained pineapple and transfer mixture to the pie shell. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Let cool. Combine sour cream, 2 Tbl sugar, and vanilla. Spread over pie.
Bake at 375 exactly 5 minutes.
Let cool to room temperature then chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
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Yep, it's that AMAZING!
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