Fruit Pizza and more!

The darling hubby was perusing a cookbook and happened upon a fruit pizza. Not one that I had made, but, there was some nostalgic yearning to revisit this fine masterpiece.  It didn't take long to find the exact recipe that was used the first time. It was in the Favorite All Time Recipes: Philadelphia Cream Cheese cookbook.  I purchased a few fruits, that C#2 selected from my favorite Sam's Club and this was the final product:

The nectarines wouldn't cooperate and were kinda messy.  But, I made it work. Of course that didn't matter since it tasted A-MAAAAAZINGGGGGG!!  And the original recipe pictured used kiwis and bananas, instead of nectarines. Here's the recipe.

Fruit Pizza (pg. 60)

1 20 oz. pkg refrigerated sugar cookies (I used the Walmart brand. It was cheaper and worked just fine.)

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened. (I used the low fat variety - worked fine.)

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used MORE!)

Assorted fruit

1/2 cup orange marmalade (this is what I used,) peach or apricot preserves (I used apricot preserves the first time I made this.)

2 tbl water

Freeze cookie dough for 1 hour (did NOT do.) Slice into 1/8 inch slices. Line foil-lined 14 inch pizza pan with slices, overlapping edges slightly. Bake at 375, 12 minutes or until golden brown (I cooked it for less, since I just recently discovered my oven runs a teensy bit hot.) Cool. Invert onto serving plate (I didn't do -- I just left it on the foil - no problemo!)

Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla mixing until well blended. Spread over crust.  Arrange fruit over cream cheese layer. Glaze with marmalade and water (mixed.) Chill. Slice into wedges.

Here are a few things I made to help out my MIL. 

I thought I would cheat and look on the internet, but, alas, I didn't find much (of course I didn't look too hard.)  And then I remembered that the Taste of Home: Quick Cooking books had a specific section called "Freezer Pleasers." I have at least ten of these books, so many to look through.  I put together a "Breakfast Bake" which I didn't get a picture of (sorrrrrrry.)  And then I made "Breakfast Burritos." I did get a picture of those. These were pretty good and when you "package them up" you do it individually, so you only cook what you need. C#1 and I gave them a test run and I was pleased.

Breakfast Burritos

Creamy Lasagna (above.) I made two of this recipe and it was delicious! It should be noted I have made this before, but, didn't do the freezer part. ANDDDDD I didn't use lasagna noodles. I only had three. Definitely not enough to make a lasagna. I opted for a box of rigatoni, which worked just fine.

Then I got the smart idea to make muffins. AND to make muffins that used orange marmalade, since I had most of jar leftover from my fruit pizza. So I made these lovelies.  They were very good. Especially with a dab of butter.  This recipe came out of The 250 Best Muffin Recipes by Esther Brody, page 131.

So there you have it... My cooking adventures from the last couple days. Till next time.