No Bake Cherry Cheesecake and our recent wanderings

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious dessert my friend Mindy showed my girls (which means they ran off to the store to get ingredients and made it ASAP, love that). 

But first, a little peek at where we've been lately.

YES, back to the blueberry farm for more hard labor! Not only hard labor, but child labor. Poor wee things. But I told them that we were picking Rekas this time. Last time it was Dukes, which are large, mild and good for eating fresh. Rekas are good for COOKING. Pies, muffin, pancakes. They freeze well, too. 

                                      
The bushes were loaded. It was 104F that day. I was melting into a puddle. The kids were fine. Unfair.

 Getting lost in the patch is easy to do. Reka bushes are much higher than Duke.

 If we wanted to pick Dukes, we could have picked right near the parking area. I wanted Rekas, which meant a little hike. (The owner said to head toward that van, and the best bushes were after the second star to the right and straight on until morning... or something like that.)
                                                   
This guy was worried about spiders but I told him all the spiders had gone on vacation to avoid the tourists. He didn't believe me.

 After we came home, a few of us took a little nap in the cool living room.

 Meanwhile an older sibling built a marble run.

 He left a sign so I would know not to clean it off. It wasn't finished, just a WIP.

 Random pictures of our clematis.

 We love this plant. We use a lot of water just keeping it happy. In the desert where not much grows naturally, we avoid prissy plants. But not this one. The water bill is worth it!

 After a little while, the napping people woke up and decided to torture... I mean PLAY WITH the cat.
                                                        
We went to visit my friend Barbara, who lives over the fence from my dad. Literally... right over the fence. We hardly ever walk down the lane, turn the corner, and walk up the other lane. We just heave ourselves over the fence. Much faster.
                                           
She has the best swing! Everyone feels like a giant on it.

 Barbara has a family Bible from Germany. Isn't it amazing? She graciously took it down from the mantel (she doesn't read German, so she studies her own Bible) so we could look inside.

 Such beautiful illustrations!

 The side view. (I think Jan shared a family Bible of hers once. I can't remember if it was in English or not, but I remember it was very old!)
                                         
Down the road from her is this old school that was left empty for years, until a family bought it. I was so jealous! I always wanted to live in that old place. Funny thing, they homeschooled! A real home school. LOL

And now we're back to playing with the cat. He's such a big goof. Almost as big as my five year old and he KNOWS he's a handsome dude.

 
So, we're finally at the No Bake Cherry Cheesecake part of the post. And was this delicious! I'm not a fan of those layered desserts that sit in the fridge. They always taste a bit like onion or whatever was left open in there, or seem a bit soggy. But this one was a winner!

          One box Nilla Wafer Minis-or use regular sized Nilla Wafers
           8 ounces soft cream cheese
          ⅓ cup sugar
          8 ounce tub cool whip
         ½ cup cherry preserves (we used raspberry jam because we had it on hand)
         1 can cherry pie filling
   
      Line a loaf pan with Nilla Wafers across bottom and mix the cream cheese and sugar together. Beat in cool whip. Spread half of the mixture over the cookies and then spread the preserves or jam over the cream cheese mix. Add another layer of wafers and more cheesecake mix. Pour on the cherry pie filling and DO NOT EAT out of the can. Make sure someone is watching you. Put it in the fridge and padlock the door. Go to bed and try not to think about it sitting in there, all lonely and uneaten.

To be honest, we waited about four hours. Sorry, this place moves fast. Ain't nobody got time for an overnight dessert. (Ok, maybe when we make croissants but those HAVE to chill on a schedule.)

I hope you all enjoyed this little post and now I'm back to chasing little people... and writing. 

My latest book, Only Through Love is almost here! Just one more month! My last book, These Sheltering Walls, was based on the Louis Untermeyer poem A Prayer for This Home  (which I shared before but is linked in case you want to read it again and you know you do). This book is based on a Sara Teasdale poem called Child, Child. (Click the link. You know you want to read more poetry. You really do.) I thought it was a good choice because we first meet Charlie, the heroine, when she's just a teenager in The Pepper in the Gumbo. 

Ok, until next time my friends! (Oh, but since it will be 110+ here this weekend, you may not hear from me. I may be melted into a giant puddle.)