. This recipe has been in my family for years and has always gone over well, especially at the holidays. I don’t ever remember a Thanksgiving or Christmas without one.

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Ingredients:

1 pound strawberries sliced

1 graham cracker crust, or 1 box vanilla wafers and pie pan

1  8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 can condensed milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

 I mentioned the vanilla wafers, because this is how my daddy always liked his crust for this pie. Just line the bottom and sides of a pie pan with them and you have a crust. I prefer the graham cracker crust which you can buy pre-made in a disposable pie pan.

 Wash and remove stems from strawberries, then slice them leaving just one whole.

 Next, put the cream cheese, condensed milk and 1/4 cup of lemon juice in a mixing bowl, mixing on medium speed until cream cheese is smooth. Stir in the sliced strawberries with a fork, leaving enough to garnish the top of your pie. You can beat them in if you like, but I like the them whole. It works just as well either way though.

 Pour your filling into the pie crust and garnish with remaining strawberries placing the whole one in the middle. Chill over night and it’s ready to be served the following day. I hope you and your family enjoy this pie as much as me and my family do.

 See my recipes for banana cream cheese pie and pineapple cream cheese pie to see how to make this work with bananas or pineapples.