Fruit Pizza!!!

Summer is officially here (according to our recent weather), and that means lots of yummy, fresh fruit is here! This makes me especially happy because it means it's prime time for making my favorite summer dessert - fruit pizza. I love fruit pizza not only because it's delicious, but also because it's really easy to make...and it's really pretty when you're finished.
I made a fruit pizza last weekend for a get together with some friends and the 6 of us nearly demolished the entire thing in one sitting. So, beware this dessert won't last long - you're going to have to make sure you're ready to grab a slice for yourself before it's gone!
Without further ado, here is the delightfully simple fruit pizza recipe!

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients
1 roll (18 oz.) sugar cookie dough - I use the pre-made rolls of dough you can buy at the store, but you could make your own if you like
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
8 oz. frozen whipped topping (thawed)
1/3 C sugar (optional)
fruit

Start by rolling the sugar cookie dough into a pizza shape on a cookie sheet (any shape will do, really as long as it's one big cookie). Cook dough as directed. You may need to add a few minutes to the cooking time since it's one large cookie. Once baked, let the cookie cool completely.

In a small bowl mix softened cream cheese, thawed whipped topping (I use Cool Whip), and sugar.

Spread mixture over cooled cookie.

Top with your favorite fruit.

You can serve the fruit pizza right away or put it in the refrigerator if you plan on serving it later.
Enjoy the "fruits" of your labor. *sigh* I love a good pun :)

PS - If you have any extra topping left over you can dip the extra fruit in it and enjoy it that way!

Peanut Butter Pie

My friend, Kristina, knows how much I like peanut butter. And, being a stay-at-home-mom, has also gotten into finding and collecting good recipes. She recently shared this peanut butter pie recipe with me. I made it for a parish potluck because I knew that I would devour the whole thing if I made it for something small (or for just me and Will)!

Peanut Butter Pie
1/3 cup peanut butter
4 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
8 oz. Cool Whip thawed
8 in. crumb pie crust (she suggests Oreo)

Process
Blend together the first four ingredients until smooth.  Gently fold in the Cool Whip. Pour into the prepared pie crust and put in freezer until set.  Can be served frozen or thawed.  Keep refrigerated.  To make richer add a layer of chocolate pudding below the peanut butter cream or some chocolate sauce on top or both.




When I made this I was in a bit of a rush since I didn't go to the store for the ingredients until the afternoon when I needed to make it, so this made it a bit more challenging. I think I didn't give the cream cheese quite enough time to get to room temperature, but I didn't feel comfortable zapping it in the microwave. Even with the cream cheese a little firmer than ideal I still think the pie turned out ok.

peanut butter + cream cheese + powdered sugar + milk

I put all of the first 4 ingredients in the bowl at once. This made the mixing a little messy. Next time I think I'll add the first 3 ingredients and blend, then slowly add the milk while continuing to blend.

blended ingredients

As you can see, it still turned out ok, but the mixture isn't as smooth as I would have liked (I think because the cream cheese was a little too firm to begin with).

Peanut Butter Pie

The final pie turned out really well. I opted to add a layer of chocolate pudding to the bottom, but I forgot to take any pictures of that.
I think it's important to note that you should allow several hours for the pie to set in the freezer. I only allowed a little over 2 hours and it wasn't quite set when it was served. But it still tasted great!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 4)

1) Will and I had a low key Valentine's Day. He hates the holiday, but plays along to make me happy :) We went to our favorite mexican restaurant after mass on Sunday then came home in time for the Duke v someone game. That last part was my fault because I was the one who suggested going for a late lunch/early dinner instead of dinner. Oh well, it was still a good time.

2) After I announced that the bathroom was finally finished (like a month ago) I failed to mention that it wasn't completely finished.... yes. All that was left to do was seal the grout and put up a shower curtain. These two simple tasks have, of course, taken me a full month to complete. But I am happy to say that the bathroom is now not only finished, but in full working condition.


3) I am now beginning to understand how easy it is to pack on those pregnancy pounds. It's just so tempting to say "yes" to that extra snack (or two) every day! But, I really don't need all those extra calories. I've recently had to resort to having salads for dinner to counteract those other extra calories I consume throughout the day (not to mention that I can pack a ton of nutrients into a salad).

4) I got my oil changed last Friday and was informed that I needed a new car battery. I know next to nothing about cars, but my car place seems to only let me know when something is actually wrong with my car. So I trusted what they said and had my battery replaced for fear of being stuck somewhere with a dead battery. Now my car should be in good shape for a while. Although I'm still waiting for them to tell me I need to replace my tires (53K+ miles and still going strong)....

5) I'm going to visit my sister in Arizona this weekend! Woohoo! She's lived there now for several years, and I have yet to go visit her. It's about time I make my way out there :) I'm not sure exactly what is planned for the long weekend, but I'm sure it will be fun times.

6) I've given up on trying to find a hair stylist for the moment and have decided I'm going to let my hair grow out so I can donate it to Locks of Love. I had my husband measure how long my ponytail is so far (about 7") and I only need 3 more inches. That should give me enough time to scope out someone to cut my hair.

7) Favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Sarah (because it made me drool):

"Wow. This is some serious cookie-on-cookie action."

Cookie-Stuffed Cookies | Serious Eats

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‎[Photographs: Adam Kuban] Have you seen Pinterest yet? (Yeah, we're on there — go follow us if you'd like.) I was on that site a couple weeks ago when I saw the most friggin' amazing thing: Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip...

Peanut Butter Bites

This is the second of the two new cookie recipes I tried for cookie exchanges this year. I was particularly attracted to this Peanut Butter Bites recipe because it involves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (mini). How could you go wrong when Reese's are involved? Yes. This was my theory, and it turns out I was right. The recipe is basically a light peanut butter cookie - I say "light" because it isn't quite as heavy as a regular PB cookie - with half a mini Reese Cup in the middle. Here are some pictures from the making of these gems.

The dough doesn't really spread at all, so I was able to fit quite a few cookies on each cookie sheet. So, you should know that however they look going into the oven is pretty much how they'll look once they're cooked .


Peanut Butter Bites right out of the oven.

I decided to take a picture of one of the cookies cut in half, so you can see what I mean when I say there's a peanut butter cup on the INSIDE :)

DELICIOUS!!!

And the final picture I took was of all the cookies ready to be taken to the cookie exchange. There are actually a little over 3 dozen cookies in the dish even though it doesn't look like very many.

I really liked this recipe because it was super easy to follow, called for ingredients that I had readily available(except for the mini Reese Cups), and incorporated one of my favorite food combinations - peanut butter and chocolate! The cookies were a hit at the party. So, if you want to make these I have only one warning for you: be sure you have an event to take them to otherwise you may gain a few unwanted pounds within a couple days because these cookies are irresistible!!

Mint Crinkles

This year I was invited to 2 cookie exchanges. Until this year I don't think I had ever even HEARD of a cookie exchange, but I was excited nonetheless. For the second party I needed to bring 2 different kinds of cookies, so one of the cookies I chose to make are called Mint Crinkles. You can find the recipe here.  I needed to make 3 dozen of these cookies, so I doubled the recipe.
The very first step in the recipe requires you to melt little mint candies (like those little Andes mints).

These aren't quite melted, but don't they look delicious?

The part about "let the candies cool for 15 minutes" - yea - they mean that. I touched the chocolate after about 8 minutes and nearly burned by finger. I don't suggest you try that at home.
Anyway, here's my dough ready to be chilled for 3 hours.

Being the genius that I am I left my spatula in the dough and I didn't cover the dough with anything while it was in the refrigerator. It turned out fine, but next time I think I'll cover the dough with plastic wrap so the top doesn't dry out.

The first batch of cookies I made the were a little too big - they ended up running into each other. They also didn't "crinkle" as much as they should have because I used too much dough.

Oops!

Luckily, the second batch turned out much better even though they weren't all the same size.

The cookies turned out well and were pretty good. If you like mint flavored things these are definitely the cookies for you!