Fruit Pizza

We recently made this for company. Very easy to make.

Recipe:

1 20-ounce package of sugar cookies

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Banana slices
Peeled kiwi slices
Strawberry halves
Blueberries
1/2 cup Orange Marmalade, Peach or Apricot preserves
2 tablespoons water

Freeze cookie dough for 1 hour. Slice into 1/8-inch slices. Line foiled-lined 14-inch pizza plan pan with slices, overlapping edges slightly. Bake at 375°; 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Invert onto serving plate; carefully remove foil, invert to right side.

Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing until well blended. Spread over crust. Arrange fruit over cream cheese layer. Glaze with combined marmalade and water; chill. Cut into wedges.

Serves 10 to 12.

Variations:
Substitute one or more of the following as fruit:
Raspberries
Red or green grape halves
Pineapple chunks
Maraschino cherry halves, drained
Thick sliced peaches, pears, or apples
Mandarin orange segments, drained

Tip: Arrange fruit to create a variety of shapes and designs--try stripes, triangles or circles.

Source:
Kraft Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese Cookbook, Beekman House, 1998.

Review - Mr. Monk on the Couch

Mr. Monk on the Couch by Lee Goldberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


While not as good as the last Monk book, this was still a great book. Natalie's character develops a little more and Goldberg still keeps Monk's disorders fresh and entertaining, but I have to wonder how long he can keep it up.

Now I'm working on Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. It's 985 pages so it make take a while!

View all my reviews

Review - Blind Spot

Blind Spot by Terri Persons

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Boring. I was listening to this title and I could not really get into it. The premise of the story was interesting but the story was boring. Since I have better things to do with my time, I'm moving on to Abarat by Clive Barker.



View all my reviews

Review - Ruins of Gorlan

The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, probably one of the better books I have read in a long time. The story was fun, kept moving and unpredictable. I didn't find anything offensive in it and am able to recommend it to children from about 4th grade and up.

Now I look forward to reading the rest of the series. Now I am reading Mr. Monk on the Couch by Lee Goldberg.



View all my reviews

Purtifying the Yard

Little by little we continue to improve the yard. This year we panted our usual flowers and vegetables, but added a few more.

The flowers DeeAnn planted. They look great. I first thought she planted plastic flowers but they are real.

Tomatoes. One plant died but the others really shot up once the heat started.

Peas. Doing well, planted from seeds.

Potatoes. This year we planted russets.

Planter of geraniums.

Neighbor's grapes growing over the fence into our yard.

'Riviera Blue Eyes' Lobelia to border the front sidewalk.

Planters of 'First Lady" (yellow) and "Durango Red" (orange) Marigolds

'Wasatch Deep Purple' Petunias, 'Silver Dust' Dusty Miller, and marigolds. Previously panted 'For Hill' Creeping Phlox that seems to be coming back (upper left hand corner behind rock)