It's Soup Day! When we woke up this morning, I realized that I'd not slept because I was cold! I decided that it is time to add the extra blanket on the bed, but then after an hour of still being cold in the house, I turned on the furnace, which makes it Soup Day! AND !!!!! We got snow in our lovely mountains today! HAPPINESS!!
Miki, Grammie and Zaylee
I spent most of the day with Wendy and Miki, doing a few errands and then Wendy treated me to lunch at Olive Garden! SOOOOOOOOOOOO tasty! The server actually made me a salad with romaine instead of iceburg and put the dressing on the side. Then she brought out some special baked breadsticks for me with no butter. Not good, but healthier. Kelly and Denise both joined us for lunch and we had a great time watching Miki and Zaylee interact. It was a fun lunch!
After lunch, Wendy and I went to buy a birthday gift for a friend and did a little grocery shopping so that I could come home and make my first real true southern dinner. I made Chicken and Pastry, Chicken Salad, beans and biscuits. That was the first whole chicken I've cooked in years! The pastry turned out pretty good but not nearly as good as what my southern family serve. I'll learn. We had a fun thread on Facebook with them coaching me along. The chicken salad is so different that what we make here in the west. In the south, it has mayo and pickle relish and boiled eggs. I've never done that until tonight and the kids all loved it. Doug said he prefers my usual way, which includes grapes, celery, cashews, mayo... But the biggest difference is that in the south, they serve it warm. Dinner was pretty tasty!
Kelly was cute. She had Zaylee bring me a balloon with a Reeses tied to it and cash attached to the Reeses. Zaylee ate the Reeses and shared a bite or two with Miki. But, I was touched that Kelly had gone to the trouble of making it special for me. The birthday just keeps on getting better.
Tonight, we expect the big freeze that will end our gardening experience for the summer of 2011. I think that most people are ready. Amazing how we long for those tomatoes and zucchini all year long and savor every bite in August but by the end of September, we're over it. I'll be making more salsa and chowchow tomorrow afternoon. So much to do, never enough time, especially when there's so much fun to be had too!
Tonight, another cookie recipe. I've shared this recipe before but was asked for it today, but, it's worth repeating!!
Fruit Pizza
Here's Denise's tasty sugar cookie recipe and one of my favorite treats in the world... Fruit Pizza. Here's the cookie base:
Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
Cream together well, then add:
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1/2 cup milk
You may have to add a bit more flour, but this dough will be very sticky. It also doesn't have to be chilled like a lot of sugar cookie doughs before rolling. It's more of a "scoop" type dough, than a rolled cookie dough, and as you can see by the amount of butter, they are moist cookies! This recipe will fill one large jelly roll pan, like in the photograph and they will be very thick. Bake at 350 about 15 minutes or until it barely turns golden on the bottom. I do love Denise's sugar cookies!
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup softened butter
8 oz. cream cheese, softened in the microwave
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar. It's also tasty with about half a cup of cocoa mixed in! This recipe will frost three large cookie sheets. I always make this amount and store it in the refrigerator for up to a month. It's also the frosting I use on my brownies, chocolate wacky cake and stuffed strawberries so it never goes bad in my kitchen. It's also great spread on graham crackers. One can never have too much cream cheese frosting. ;) If you disagree, just cut the recipe in half. ;(
Fruit Pizza
Roll out the dough into baking shee or scoop out the dough for individual cookies. Bake. Cool. Spread frosting over cooled cookie. Then top with fruits of your choice. We use:
1 can drained pineapple tidbits
fresh sliced strawberries
1 can mandarin oranges
fresh blueberries
fresh sliced bananas (soaked in the reserved pineapple juice)
grapes
sliced kiwi fruit
sprinkled coconut over the top
drizzle strawberry syrup over the entire top, if desired
the choices are endless!
It's not an inexpensive treat but it's worth every dime! It's also fun to make individual giant 5-6" cookies and have a fruit pizza party. Prepare the cookies and frost them in advance, let your guests "fruit" their own. Enjoy!
And today's quote, in memory of Apple Founder, Steve Jobs...
Funny that you are talking about soup day, I have been waiting for that day.... but here in Niagara we are having a second summer, temps in the lower eighties but anyway, we decided to put the patio furniture away today because it looks like soup day is coming at the end of this week. And I am looking forward to change my t-shirts for sweaters!
Posted by: Nicole | Monday, October 10, 2011 at 01:47 PM
Dinner sounded yummy! And so did lunch. And dessert! Sounded like a great birthday! :-)
Posted by: Pamela K. | Friday, October 07, 2011 at 04:13 AM