extra pie crust and

I had extra pie crust from last week's dinner party, but not enough pumpkin pie filling to make two pies,  so I froze the unbaked crust and waited for inspiration to strike. there are a lot of things you can do with pie crust. I like eating my mum's pie crust recipe completely raw, which was pretty tempting--but a whole pie's worth of crust seems like too much to eat straight. you can bake it with cinnamon and sugar. make crakery-chip-like-things. twist it with cheese or herbs, or make tarts. friend Jackie just posted this awesome idea. lots of options.

but I didn't want to go out and acquire new ingredients for anything crazy fancy. strawberry chocolate truffle pie? chocolate caramel cheesecake? no. cooking is most fun if you have to be resourceful. so maybe it's risky to substitute sour cream for buttermilk or pretzels for graham crackers--but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? 

yesterday during the tail end of a most delightful luncheon with friends Maddy and Jake, it came to me: ice cream pie. yes.

all we had in the fridge was an old two-thirds-eaten half gallon of Blue Bell vanilla, and Blue Bell makes great ice cream, but vanilla is boring. so. enter a few ounces baking chocolate, a half-eaten box of mango creme girl scout cookies, some ice cream toppings, and the whipped cream also leftover from last week's dinner party.

I chopped up the chocolate and the cookies, mixed it all with the softened ice cream, added a bit of caramel topping, and folded in the whipped cream. it was pretty melty at that point, so after giving the stuff a few minutes to re-solidify, I mushed it all into the baked and cooled pie shell.

I saved some whipped cream, one cookie, and a few pinches of chocolate dust to garnish the top. I think it turned out pretty well for a total improvisation. mango chocolate caramel vanilla cream pie.

now I feel like I need an occasion and some friends to help me eat the thing. I promise there isn't anything weird like tofu or sour cream in it.