Summer is coming closer and closer and with it comes the quest for easier things to serve our families. And especially recipes that don’t require heating up your kitchen for long periods of time, so desserts with fruit or that are served chilled are high on the list. I think you will find these pies can certainly fit the bill. The first recipe is from my late mother-in-law, Joyce. She used to make this recipe as soon as the Louisiana strawberries became available.

Joyce’s

strawberry pie

1 small box strawberry jello

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 cups water

1/3 Karo syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 pints strawberries

2 pie shells, baked and cooled

Cook the sugar, cornstarch, water, Karo and salt over low heat until thick. Stir in the jello, remove from the heat and cool. Wash the berries, remove the leaves, the cores and cut the berries in half. Divide the berries between the two pie shells. Divide the filling between the two pie shells. Let set for at least an hour and serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream.

This daiquiri pie is smooth, creamy, cold and delicious. There’s just enough rum to flavor the filling but not to prevent you from serving it to all ages. If you want it to have a little more color you can add just the tiniest bit of green food coloring. Be careful, this is easy to over do and you don’t want it to be scary looking.

Daiquiri pie

1 small box lemon pudding mix

1 small box lime jello

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

2 eggs slightly beaten

1/2 cup light rum

1 3/4 cup thawed Cool Whip

1 graham cracker crust

Combine the pudding mix, jello mix and sugar in a saucepan and stir in 1/2 cup of water and the eggs. Blend well. Add the remaining water and cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Scrape into a small bowl and chill.

When chilled, blend in the Cool Whip and spoon into the pie crust. Chill until firm.

This last pie is a light, cold way to serve chocolate. I love Bakers German Sweet Chocolate. It is best known as the chocolate used in making a German chocolate cake, but this recipe will give you a whole new reason to keep this chocolate on hand.

German chocolate pie

4 ounces of Bakers German Sweet Chocolate

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

8 ounces Cool whip

1 graham cracker crust or chocolate crumb crust

Heat the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the milk over low heat, stirring until melted remove from heat. In a medium mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and sugar together and then the remaining milk. When blended add in the chocolate mixture and blend well. Fold in the Cool Whip and spoon into crust, freeze until firm. Serve with grated chocolate over the top.

Christina Hall writes a weekly column for The Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.