Hollyday Mint Pie for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is here! What a great day for cooking, and sharing a meal with friends and family. Of course, we are having Corned Beef and Cabbage. I'm trying a new recipe. We'll see how it goes. I've made several desserts as well. When I asked my husband what he'd like me to make, I was surprised that he chose this pie. This recipe goes back to our first year of marriage. 21 years ago! We were only 20 when we got married and while I had watched my grandma cook and had also prepared many meals for my family while growing up, I still lacked experience and knowledge. We had our own apartment and planned on having my grandparents and his mom over for Christmas. Looking back, it was a pretty pitiful meal. So simple, it's actually embarrassing now. I'm all for simple and easy, but I honestly didn't have a clue about technique or creativity. I only knew the basics. Guess that's not a bad place to start though. I found this recipe on the back of a package of Keebler Grasshopper Cookies. It is called Hollyday Mint Pie and actually calls for Spearmint Leaf Candies and Red Hots to resemble holly. I changed it up a bit since this is not being served as a Christmas dessert. I also wondered why my husband suggested this recipe since he doesn't like mint flavor all that much. He never eats Mint & Chip ice cream, it's one of my favorites. The flavor of this pie resembles Shamrock Shakes from Mc Donalds'! Even with all the sugar, cream cheese, whipped cream and cookies, I'm sure that this pie is still healthier than one of those shakes!
A little story about the book in the photo. It is one of those blank journal books you can buy practically anywhere. The year I met my husband (1989), I started writing favorite recipes in this book. In addition to lots of my own, there are recipes from Grandma Myrtle, Grandma Ina, my mother in law and my aunt. I could never part with this little book. There was a six month period that I thought I had lost this book. I searched the entire house! This was the only place that I had some of these family recipes written down. It's irreplaceable. I was in a panic and not very happy with myself for being so careless and unorganized. We finally found it behind a bookcase. What a relief. Eventually, I will post every recipe in this book, except for cheesecake. That one stays a secret. We all have those recipes that we could never share, don't we?
So, here's the recipe for Hollyday Mint Pie. Reminds me of my 20 year old self, attempting to be a good cook. Sort of brings a smile to my face that I'm still cooking and still loving it after 21 years.

Hollyday Mint Pie

1 cup crushed Keebler Grasshopper Cookies
3 tbs hot water
graham cracker crust
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/.3 cup sugar
2 tbs milk
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
3 1/2 cups whipped topping (Cool Whip)
6-10 drops green food coloring

Mix cookies and hot water. Spoon into crust. Gently spread to cover bottom of pie shell. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in sugar, milk and peppermint. Fold in whipped topping. Stir food coloring into half of the mixture. Fill pie crust with white mixture, then green. Chill 3 hours.
Garnish according to season. I used three Grasshopper Cookies and a sprinkling of cookie crumbs.

Enjoy!