Catching Grasshoppers and Poor Child Rearing...

Baking for the church youth group dessert auction has become a yearly tradition.  So has finding fun recipes to try that I hope people will like.  This year I did one that I knew would go over well - the Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes - and truly they were a hit.  I also tried a Grasshopper Pie.
First you have to be sneaky - you have to catch about 25 grasshoppers.  If you don't live near somewhere they can be found you can simply go to the store - or send your loving husband and ask him to buy the chocolate mint cookies oddly named grasshoppers.  In our case we shop at Aldi - so they aren't called grasshoppers.  So I have to explain, "You know where the cookies are?   you know how they have Girl Scout wannabe cookies that are amazing?  Look for cookies that look like thin mints - chocolate cookie covered in chocolate with mint."  Imagine if we went to a normal grocery store and I could just say "hey, please pick up some grasshopper cookies" - that would be too easy.
This pie while boosting some pretty heavy ingredients was actually pretty light and minty.  Certainly a nice cool summer treat.  It was fun to have Bronwyn's help with counting the cookies and crushing them.  The up side of her not liking chocolate, no missing cookies.  In other news… my daughter does not like chocolate… was she switched at birth?  Is she un-American?  She used to not like French fries too… crazy talk.

Grasshopper Pie
8 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz tub Cool Whip
1 Oreo Crust
1/2  (of a 14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
16 Grasshopper Cookies
Green food coloring

Crush cookies in a large Ziploc bag.  Some large chunks are fine, but you want mostly very small, even crushed pieces.
In the bowl of a mixer, beat cream cheese on medium until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk and beat until combined.  Mix in crushed cookies and fold in Cool Whip.  Add food coloring and fold in until desired color is achieved.  Pour into pie shell and chill for at least 4 hours.