Best summer dessert...Fruit Pizza!!

This dessert seems to scream summer and is a fast and easy one for a party or potluck.  Make it round or square and bring it anywhere....just don't expect for any leftovers.

Fruit Pizza:
Sugar cookie crust recipe (see earlier post on Best sugar cookies)
Whipping Cream
Cream cheese
sugar
Fruit (sliced)

After making the sugar cookie dough, spread it out evenly on a cookie sheet with your fingers. 
Bake it for 10-15 minutes at 350.  
Let it cool.
This is not a precise recipe!!!  Whip about a cup of whipping cream and mix in some cream cheese...(half to a full pkg.) that is at room temperature with the electric mixer or kitchen Aid.  Add sugar to taste (approximately a quarter cup). Spread on the cooled cookie crust. Top with fruit of many colors!  The only fruit I don't usually add is apple because it is too crunchy and not too colorful. Bananas do well if you will be serving it right away.

Cake Pops

My daughter and I attempted cake pops for the first time.  It was a success and a fail all in one. We started out intending to make panda cake pops since she is a panda lover.  But after that wasn't working out too well, we gave up (after decorating only 3) and just did simple cake pops....success because they tasted really good!  
The food writers that we bought for our panda pops did not work as planned, making it hard to draw on the mouths like we had thought.  We'll put the pic of our attempts down below....it's like one of those failed pinterest pics!
Anyhow here are the steps to some simple cake pops and if you want to go all fancy on them, it can be done....but here are the basics!

You will need: 1 box of cake mix and the ingredients to prepare it.
chocolate or candy coating
9oz. of frosting
lollipop sticks...25-35
more candy coating for embellishing with a pastry bag (use a contrasting color or coating)

First just make one box mix of cake...any flavor and bake it in a 9" by 13" pan. After it is cooled, crumble the entire cake into a bowl till it is all fine crumbs and mix in 9 oz. of frosting (we used homemade butter cream, but you could also use store bought.) I think the flavor of the cake pop is really based on what kind of frosting you use here, so that is why I avoided the store bought version. I kind of think they taste like plastic, but that is just me.

Next, roll them into balls of about an inch to an inch and a half diameter. We tried to use some cake pop presses to get them perfectly even, but it turned out to be easier to shape them by hand. Ours weren't perfectly round....but we decided to roll with it anyway. Cool in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or more before the next step.  You can also freeze them to deal with at another time.

Dip lollipop stick ends in a tiny bit of the melted chocolate or white chocolate candy coating.  Then put it through the cake ball about 3/4 of the way. Next, you will dip the cake ball into the melted coating or chocolate. We melted the white candy coating in the microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup so that it was a narrow area and we didn't have to use a lot of extra.  After dipping....it will be dripping...so hold it and turn each one over the melted coating for a minute. We had some little Styrofoam blocks that we set them in to dry.  You could also use a bowl of dry beans or rice to hold the sticks right after dipping.  They dry pretty quickly, so you could change them out with the new ones as the previous ones dry.

As they dried, we just laid them on wax paper on a plate. Here were our attempts at making some pandas.  The icing for the eyes wasn't really working out for us and neither was the edible pen we were drawing the mouths with! I didn't mind too much, but she wanted them to look EXACTLY like the pictures we were looking at. So she decided she would just have them be more plain....with a purpose of eating vs. being beautiful!!

So now it's off to bring them somewhere else...so that we don't have to eat them all (minus a few of them of course that will stay here, but not for long)!!

13 Year Old Birthday Parties!!

It's a sad thing when themed birthday parties are not cool anymore!  Or maybe it can be seen as a relief too huh?  No more spider man or Lego or dinosaur party themes.  In some ways having a theme makes everything easier because you know just how to decorate, what favors to buy and what to put on the cake! Life has been busy around here, which is why I haven't been able to blog about the recent happenings. We just returned from a once in a lifetime (for us anyhow) Alaskan cruise and I will do a post on our adventures from that soon. There was no wi fi or cell phone coverage which was a nice change.   

But another recent event around here was my oldest son turned 13!!  We have a teenager in the house!!  I think I am ready.  Luckily he is very easy going and ready to tackle new adventures that life brings his way.  When he asked to have a birthday party I was excited because last year he didn't even want one. He had some specifics in mind this year though.  "Nothing on the cake mom, just chocolate", were my instructions.  "Just gift cards to sports or outdoors stores" was the request when I asked what he wanted for a gift.  And a movie at the theater, food, and wii was in his plan for the party, but he also let me add in a scavenger hunt of my own creation. 

When my daughter started to hang streamer the morning of the party, Andrew (birthday boy) asked, "We don't really have to have those, do we?"  I said that we could take them down if he wanted, but being the easy going guy that he is, he said, "That's ok, but just do a few!"

The party was a smashing success and the boys even loved the door to door scavenger hunt!  (picture of the list is below).  We saw Mall cop 2 in the theater, which was a very clean and funny/silly movie...perfect for 13 year old boys.  We ate pizza, salad and buffalo chicken strips (recipe below).  Next of course, the cake and ice cream.  Then, they played wii for 45 minutes or so.  

So I think the moral of my story is that teenagers like it simple and relaxed but still like to do things that push them a bit out of their comfort zone...like a scavenger hunt.  And they like lots of food!!

Here is the paper that I made out for the scavenger hunt.  I divided them up into two teams of 3 and then sent them in different directions.  It was a race to see which team would come back first:

I really love buffalo chicken wings but sometimes it is nice not to have to eat around the bones, especially if you are a teenager and you inhale your food...

Buffalo chicken strips recipe:

10 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into strips
3/4 C. Flour
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. melted butter
1/2 C. Franks red hot pepper sauce

1. Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Mix the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt in a ziplock bag. Add the chicken strips, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the strips on the baking sheet, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Combine the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the chicken strips into the butter mixture, and place back on the baking sheet. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the strips over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly.

Enjoy!!