A cream Pie like no other

Hello my freaky darlings!! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday. Ours was wonderful and relaxing.... till I realized we were out of dog food and made the mistake of all mistakes and went to walmart to save my dogs from a foodless thanksgiving night around 5 pm. Yes 5pm on thanksgiving ... now known as black Thursday. The day I swore I was not gift shopping. OH EM GEE! It was a mad house. Every parking spot was taken and I was scared to death to go in. Thankfully Dragon volunteered to just carry the food on his shoulder and fight his way to a register, that was roped off and people were in line with empty baskets waiting for family who were strategically placed through out the store. He had to get stern and say " I just need this dog food" so they would let him get to the registers. NEVER again! I will always make sure we have dog food from this thanksgiving on.  

So now onto the dessert I made for our family get together. The first time I had this dessert Oh Em Gee I thought I had died and gone to heaven.... It is THAT good. I was intimidated by this dessert for the longest time. It took our 365 days of new meals to get up the nerve to step out of my comfort zone and ask for the directions from my MIL.  Now she always made it in pie form. Well now with a family of 6 a pie just would not be enough so Dragon and I put our creative hats on and tried it in a 13 x 9. IT WORKED! Now we can ALL have some at family get togethers and no one has to wrestle for a piece. YAY!!  It is really a very simple dessert and is VERY worth the stages of cooking. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we have.

Graham Cracker Cream Pie

Graham cracker crust:

3 c graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp flour
2/3 c butter flavored Crisco
2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 c sugar

Mix together for pie crust. 
Take 2/3 of mixture and pack it into the bottom and up the sides of a 13 x 9 cake pan. Leaving the remaining 1/3 cup for top of dessert.

Custard Filling:

4 egg yolks
2/3 c sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
4 c milk
3 tsp vanilla

Cook together until thickened. Stirring constantly. 
Pour into cake pan.

Meringue:

4 egg whites
8 tbsp sugar

In a stand mix pour room temp egg whites and whisk on medium high speed till soft peek stage.
Reduce speed to medium and add in sugar a tablespoon at a time.
Return to medium high and beat until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue on top of the custard.
Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over top of meringue.   
Bake at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes or until meringue has browned. This can happen quickly so keep an eye on it.

Can be served warm but not HOT out of the oven, room temp or cold.