Bob went on a short business trip to preview some equipment auctions. A few days before he left I told Fern that I want to make a special dessert for when he got back. She said that she wanted to make strawberry cake with marshmallows. Bob doesn’t really care for cake (crazy, right?) so I told her we would ask him what he thought about a strawberry pie. When I said strawberry pie I had visions of a flour-based crust filled with strawberry filling and baked until it was bubbling. When I mentioned it to Bob, Fern made sure to add that it was going to have marshmallows also. I was still trying to reconcile the marshmallows with the image of a baked pie but I was willing to go with it for the sake of not stifling her creativity. When Bob heard strawberries and marshmallows he asked what the salad was called with the fruit and sour cream and marshmallows.

“Ambrosia Salad?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, “Why don’t you chop up strawberries, mix them with some sugar, mini marshmallows and sour cream and put it in a graham cracker crust?”

I tell you, I married a genius! As soon as he suggested it, I knew those elements would come together nicely.

So, the afternoon he was supposed to get home I sliced some strawberries and mixed them with some sugar, vanilla extract and a dash of salt. After all that rested a bit I dumped in an unmeasured amount of sour cream.

Fern had been napping (notice the post nap hair) but she got up just in time to help me put the marshmallows in the bowl. I asked her to sprinkle them in slowly but she chose to put them in one at a time to avoid over pouring. We finally got enough marshmallows into the bowl to call it a strawberry and marshmallow pie.

We put the mixture into a store bought graham cracker crust and made it fancy with a strawberry fan and marshmallow garnish.

So with the pie, some pesto chicken and a Lemony Asparagus Tart, we had a proper welcome home meal for Bob.