Reuse Recipe: Cracker crumbs, cookie crumbs, cake crumbs

This post is about never buying a package of graham cracker crumbs or pre-made graham cracker pie crust again. Have you ever noticed that pile of crumbs at the bottom of your package of saltines and felt a twinge of regret at throwing it away? Or had the last 1/3 of a package of cookies, cakes, or pretzels, go so stale that no one wants to eat it?  That is what my "crumb bag" is for. In mine this month (I keep it in the freezer) I had some extra cinnamon crumble topping from a pie, about 6-8 saltines, some bits of a cake that had gone stale, and some crumbs from the bottom of a bag of cereal --sounds yummy so far, right?

I poured the contents into the food processor and ground them up.  It did not amount to the 2 cups requested by the pie crust recipe, so I added about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs.

Then I added 1/2 c. butter and  about 3/4 cup of coconut and pressed it into the glass pie pan. It made pretty nice thick-ish crust about 1/4 inch.

I was in the mood for cheesecake, but I only had about half a package of cream cheese left from making bagels more than a week ago -- so once again, I improvised.  Interested?
Here is how that came together:

•  Half a package of cream cheese
• the driest (topmost) parts of a Costco size sour cream tub to approximately equal the other half of the cream cheese package
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 large tablespoons of flour (for thickening)
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• (It probably could have also used a dash of salt)

I poured it in my improvised pie crust, popped it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes and crossed my fingers.  I was honestly surprised that it turned out great! Like cheese cake, but slightly milder. Lovely.