Fruit Pizza

At the last potluck I was at, someone brought in one of those fruit pizzas on a cookie crust and while I thought it was delish...I wanted to make my own. And it was a huge success. (see above) So here's the recipe;

Crust
1 stick marg. softened
1/2 C sugar
1 egg *
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp vinegar
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

Icing
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 T. cool whip
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 T milk

Toppings
Strawberries, sliced
Kiwi, sliced
raspberries, blueberries, drained mandarin oranges, toasted coconut (bananas don't work too well as they brown quickly)


Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Cream margarine and sugar together with mixer, beat the egg in a small bowl and only add half to mixer bowl, beat in vanilla and vinegar until well blended, mixture will look curdled. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly to wet mixture and mix until flour is no longer visible. Form into a small disk on a floured board and transfer to a 13" pizza pan sprayed lightly with vegetable spray. With a rolling pin roll out the cookie dough to the edges of the pan, about 1/8" thickness. Bake for 7-8 mins or until golden brown. Let cool completely before icing. Beat the cream cheese until smooth in small bowl, add whip cream, orange zest and powdered sugar beating until frosting consistency, using the milk to thin if necessary. Spread onto cooled cookie crust. Add sliced fruit and sprinkle with coconut. Serves 12. (or 6 as the case may be!)



* This recipe is actually half of a sugar cookie batch. So if you double it you can make regular cookies and use the whole egg.

It's been a while since I've been here. I started this blog so that I could talk about cooking and being a stay at home mother and it seems those two things have just taken over my existence and I haven't wanted to talk about them. Really I just feel like my relationship with food is changing. I LOVE to eat, but I am realizing as I am getting older, that really I should only eat to survive and do less of the eating only what tastes good to me. But then I go back and think I only live once, so why not?!
So I'm vacillating between what to do with this blog, I even thought that maybe I should change its name, because in all honesty when my favorite meal is meat loaf, mashed potatoes and garlic green beans, how gourmet is that?!

Eh well. I just got a great recipe for some Irish Brownies from a friend and want to make them today. But I have no butter in the house - and its too damn cold to go anywhere today - so here I sit.

How I get my kid to eat veggies

Honestly it really isn't that hard, she loves peas and broccoli is her most often requested side dish. But I discovered that she also likes asparagus, if I cook it this way;

1 bunch asparagus spears, trimmed
2 Tbs butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
just enough water to cover the spears

In a skillet (cast iron is great) put spears in enough water to just cover. Heat to boiling and let full boil for 2 minutes. Pour off water and turn off heat, replace skillet on burner (pan will still be hot) add butter grind pepper on top. Stir until butter is melted.

Yummy. This is also the way I like to cook fresh green beans instead of pepper I use fresh minced garlic instead. SO good!

A recipe for quiet

Do you remember that game that adults would suddenly spring on you to try and get you to be quiet? "Hey - lets see who can be quietest the longest!" Well today I succumbed and I used it on my nearly 3 year old in the car. She was on one of her "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" tirades where there is nothing she wants to tell me, but just keeps yelling/singing my title. So I said, "Hey! Let's play a game. You will win if you can be quiet longer than Mommy!"

and it worked. at least for 3 minutes, but those were a quiet and peacefull three minutes and I enjoyed every second.

Abby's Famous Pecan Pie
Preheat oven to 350

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1 cup Light corn syrup
3 eggs, slightly beaten 1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup pecan halves 1 9" unbaked pie crust

In a large bowl combine corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla; mix well. Pour filling into pie crust; sprinkle or lay in concentric circles the pecans over filling. Bake 50 - 60 min until center is set. Check at 45 min and put piece of aluminum foil over pie if crust is getting too dark or pecans are burning.

This is my favorite pie to make when I have some extra crust around. It's easy and goes well with any meal. I also like to garnish this with whip cream or vanilla ice cream - or if you feel really indulgent - coffee ice cream is good too!

I believe the Abby is "Dear Abby" from the sydicated advice column and this recipe was published in a newspaper years ago. I copied this from a clipping in my mother's accordian recipe box.