Category: Recipes

I’ve seen this sweet idea in magazines and have wanted to try it for a long time now. It’s actually very easy. All you need is Raspberry and Lime Sherbet and about 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

First, line a medium size serving bowl with plastic wrap.

Next, make sure your sherbet is soft enough to work with–but not too melty–kind of like the consistency of Play-doh.

Now, spoon your green Play-doh–I mean sherbet, into the bowl and with your hands in sandwich bags–press the cold stuff into place about an inch and a half around the inside edges of the bowl. Plop it back in the freezer for a while–go shopping or something.

When you know the “melon rind” is firm and frozen hard, spoon the raspberry sherbet into the middle and press it down–again, with your hand in a sandwich bag. Smooth the top with a spatula.

I’ve seen recipes where they stirred the chocolate chips into the pink sherbet before pressing it into the “rind,” but…we chose to set the chips in separately, so they weren’t covered with sherbet. Looks more dramatic–don’t you think? Now, cover the top with plastic wrap and freeze good and solid.

When you remove it from the freezer, set the whole bowl in a larger bowl with about 2 inches of slightly warm water–to loosen it from the frozen bowl.

Don’t worry if it looks kinda chunky and weird–because your going to flip it over anyway.

So…now…flip it over onto a plate. If you need to smooth the sides–to make it prettier–do that now with a spatula.

It slices easy enough into wedges, if you use a large, thin knife.

remove the wedge and set on a plate…

then add the chocolate chips. Either set the plates back in the freezer or serve immediately.

Be prepared for everyone to say, “Cute, cute, cute.”

And so they should.

Oh yeah…

Our family loves this little breakfast so much, that we ended up making it twice! That is either devotion or maniacal addiction. I’m not sure which. At any rate–if you and your family are summer fruit freaks—like we are–this should do it for you–in a severe way. It is a simple enough recipe–but it takes either a little time or teamwork. Go for the teamwork because, just remember what your mama probably told you: “Many hands make light work,” or…a party.

Ingredients:

1 (18-ounce) package refrigerated cookie dough

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fruit—

This is the subjective part. You can pretty much use what ever kinds of fruit that floats your boat. We like banana slices, mandarin orange sections, seedless grapes, strawberry slices, pineapple and peach chunks, cherry halves, diced apples and raspberries. If you like kiwi and blueberries then, by all means, use them.

BIG, COOL, HELPFUL TIP: Pour the juice from the mandarins and canned pineapple into a bowl. Drop the apple chunks and banana slices into the juice for a few minutes and then drain. The citrus acid will keep the light fruits from turning brown.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat or roll cookie dough into an ungreased 14-inch pizza pan. If you want to use a cookie sheet–you will need two packages of dough. Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract or other flavoring; spread over cookie crust. Arrange fruit over cream cheese layer in any design you want. We always start out all orderly and then end up just sprinkling the rest all over the place. Refrigerate for an hour or so to set the frosting.

Gobble it up.

If you love gooey, chocolatey campfire s’mores–well, now you can have them right in your own cool little kitchen–without having to set anything on fire. Big plus.

Ingredients:

1 box Golden Grahams Cereal–the big one

2- 10 oz. marshmallows

1 cube butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Grease a 9 x 13 pan and sprinkle 1/2 cup of chocolate chips on the bottom. Melt butter and marshmallows just like you would do for Rice Krispie Treats–in a saucepan over medium heat. When marshmallows are completely melted, add vanilla and stir. Empty cereal into large bowl and pour marshmallows over and mix well.

Spread into pan on top of chocolate chips. Sprinkle remainder of chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for about 10 minutes or so before cutting into squares. Then…

…watch out for baby sharks.

I remember having my first soft pretzel at Disneyland about a million years ago–I was in High School, if that tells you anything. Later that year, Seventeen magazine came out with a recipe that captured Mickey’s pretzel to the letter. Because I’m a friendly, benevolent sort–I shall share it with you.

Ingredients

1- 1/2 cups warm  water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 package active dry yeast

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

1/4 cup butter, melted

Vegetable oil, for pan

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Pretzel salt

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope.

Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel.

Now, there are a couple of ways you can do this…

The very, very wrong–bald kid way…

Or the very, very graceful and right, Jillian way.

Whatever works.

Now, place them on the parchment pan.

Next, carefully lower each pretzel into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.

Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt.

Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Pretend you are at Disneyland.