Tang Pie

I didn't see many of this years Oscar movies. In fact, I think in all the major categories, we saw only three of the nominated films. The annual Oscar party that we normally go to was cancelled. Which means my yearly cooking up Oscar foods and joining in the festivities of researching food from the movies wasn't a priority. On Oscar night I did make some Corn Chowder (sort of for Nebraska, not a movie I saw) and I made blue jello with whipped cream (for Frozen which I did see).

The one dish that I planned on making, if we had gone to an Oscar party, was Tang Pie, since one of the two movies we did see that was up for best picture was Gravity (the other movie was Dallas Buyers Club). I grew up with Tang being synonymous with space travel. Everyone wanted to be an astronaut growing up and everybody (yes adults) drank Tang just to be able to say that they were drinking what the astronauts drank. I can't remember really liking Tang back then, but I do know that I drank it.

I honestly didn't even know they still made Tang until my friend Pillownaut* who blogs for NASA came across a recipe last year and decided we should try it. She procured a container of Tang and we proceed to make Tang Pie which we figured was going to be too sweet and not that appetizing. Au contraire! The dang thing turned out to be quite tasty. Somewhat like an orange mousse with a tarter orange creamsicle flavor. And super easy to make. I think if anyone is having a retro party, a kids birthday party with a space theme or heck, just wants to make a conversational dessert, Tang Pie is the way to go! And congratulations to Gravity for it's many Oscar awards Sunday.

TANG PIE

1 can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup Tang powder drink mix
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (9 oz) tub Cool Whip
1 graham cracker pie crust

Mix condensed milk and Tang. Add in sour cream until well blended. Then fold in tub of Cool Whip. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate for 4 hours until set and cold.

Note: You can read Pillownauts post about Tang Pie here. She said that if she was to make the dish again she would "cut the sour cream to 1/4 cup (it was too tasteable), and replace with ditto amount of whipped cream, or light cream cheese".

Note: We used a standard 9" premade graham cracker pie crust you can buy at the store. I had no trouble using a premade crust. I figured if we were using Tang, making your own crust from scratch was a bit ridiculous.

Note: I think the Cool Whip containers come in 8 ounce tubs these days so you may have to buy two tubs to make this dish. Just think...you'll have leftover Cool Whip to decorate that Jello dessert you'll also make.

Note: Don't worry about all that leftover Tang you'll have from the container you buy. You'll find lots of recipes for desserts, drinks and yes, savory dishes that use Tang as an ingredient!

*If you are a space buff you should check out Pillownauts blog and Twitter feed!