In which your humble writer whips an avocado and only some of the cream

It's that most wonderful time of the year: the day I present my Pieathalon work, devoid of any context, assuming that everyone already knows what the Pieathalon is or will at least pick up on it quickly enough that I don't need to explain! Okay, I'm trying to be a little better for once, so just in case the Pieathalon is a new concept for you, the delightful Yinzerella of Dinner Is Served 1972 facilitates a recipe exchange among a group of people who blog about old recipes and cookbooks. We all send in our most weird/ entertaining/ delightful (depending on our personalities-- I am sure you can guess which I am if you've ever read this before) vintage pie recipes, receive one in return, bake it, and post our results.

This blog is almost entirely scans of old cookbooks. I only actually cook something once or maybe twice a year, so the Pieathalon is kind of a big deal for me. Plus the infrequency of my cooking posts is a good excuse for why my creations so often end up... well... a little lacking. What was I assigned to mess up try to make this year?

I was pretty excited to get Avocado Lime Pie from The Nostalgic Cook's copy of The Woman's Club Cook Book (Bryan, Texas, 2nd ed., 1949-50). (The club is still going, by the way!) I love lime, I love cream cheese, and I suspect the flavor of this will be at least cheesecake-adjacent, so I will try not to be too alarmed by the surprise addition of avocado.

The Nostalgic Cook's cat approves! Hi, little orange kitty!

Gathering the ingredients took some work. You'll notice a couple of different store brands because of course no single store has everything in stock anymore.

Luckily, the recipe was pretty easy. I mixed up the gelatin and set it to chill in the fridge. Then I decided to use my hand mixer to mash the avocado into the cream cheese so it wouldn't end up being too lumpy.

If you've ever wondered what cream-cheese-avocado spread might look like, you're in luck! (And yes, I did remember to use only six of the eight ounces in the brick of cheese.)

Then the pineapple made it kind of soupy even though I'd drained the juice.

Yum!

I finally whipped up the cream, mixed everything together, dumped it all (Okay-- most of it. I usually have more filling than the shell can hold, and this time was no exception.) into a pie shell, and waited for everything to set up.

I was supposed to whip up some more cream to use as a garnish, but I'd already whipped cream once. That's enough cream whipping for the year for me, so I just called in my special guest taster. Ready to dive in, Captain Spaulding?

"What? And get green muck all over my second-best clown suit?"

"Fine. I'll cut you a slice."

"Nothing looks more appetizing than a saggy-ass slice of sludge-green pie."

"What does it taste like, though?" I asked.

He took a big bite. "This is just some floofy horseshit. Ain't my type." 

Captain Spaulding stalked out, so I decided to try a slice of my own. I'm not sure how he tastes anything over his rotting teeth anyway.

It's actually pretty good. It's a little more tart than I would expect, but it's got decent lime flavor, some dairy fat (Yay!), a bit of crunch from the crust, and a bit of awkward stringiness from crushed pineapple. It's not quite as cheesecakey as my tongue hoped it would be, but it's lighter and kind of refreshing, so a pretty good treat for summer. This recipe is worth a shot if you like lime gelatin-based desserts, and I would never have guessed the avocado was there if I hadn't added it myself.

Thanks to Yinzerella for putting this together and The Nostalgic Cook for a fun recipe! Now, check out the other pieathletes and their creations. (If a link doesn't work now, keep checking, as things go live at different times for different blogs.)

• Kelly at The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en was subjected to the Chocolate Mint Prune Pie I evilly submitted.
• Judy at Book Club Cookbook has a secret: Pumpkin Pie with aSecret.
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm tried to make the farm smell better with Cherry Blossom Pie.
• Taryn at Retro Food for Modern Times salad-ified a pie with Easy as Pie Chicken Salad.
• S.S. at A Book of Cookrye made the sweet Honey Fruit Pie.
• Surly at Vintage Recipe Cards got another pie that's hopefully not too crummy, Crumb Pie.
• Jenny at Silver Screen Suppers feels pretty with her Party Pink Pie.
• Greg at Recipes4Rebels got the (hopefully not crummy!) Apple Crumb Pie.
• Yinzerella at Dinner is Served 1972 got the festive Betty Crocker Sombrero Pie.
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla had the fancy Lattice Pineapple Pie.
• Dr. Bobb at Dr. Bobb’s Kitschen tried the exotic Empenada Mariscada.
• Battenburgbelle at Kitchen Confidence was hopefully not soured on her Sour Cream Apricot Pie.
• Kari at The Nostalgic Cook found out if Lemon Pie Reliable was really, well, reliable.

My previous pies:

Year One: Four-Step Black Bottom Pie
Year Two: Brandy Alexander Pie
Year Three: Lemon Meringue Pie
Year Four: Nutty Caramel Pies
Year Five: Strawberry Ginger Pie

Year Six: Banana Split Pie