Fruit Pizza

It's almost spring and time to think about making fruit pizza! Wait...all the ingredients are available right now. I saw blueberries and strawberries at Costco just last week. Don't forget the whipped cream for an extra treat.

The Fruit

The Shortbread Crust

The Cheese Filling

Add the Fruit

Finished Fruit Pizza

Add some whipped cream!

Fruit Pizza Recipe

CRUST:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cold butter

FILLING:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
3 or 4 kiwis peeled and sliced
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 can pineapple tidbits, drained (reserve juice)
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 bananas sliced

GLAZE:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Reserved Pineapple juice plus water to make 1 cup
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour and confectioners' sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press onto an ungreased 12-in. pizza pan or a 9” x 13” pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over crust. Arrange the fruit on top.

For glaze, in a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pineapple juice and lemon juice until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Cool slightly. Drizzle over fruit. Refrigerate until chilled.

The Kitchen Journey

This is the story of one kitchen's journey from insignificance to prominence.

It began when Bruce installed a lovely white sink with a dashing brushed nickel faucet. All at once the kitchen looked dull in comparison. (I am not kidding anyone. You all know the cabinets were pretty sad!). Bruce was taking a long trip to Texas, so Allison decided to pass her loneliness by fixing and painting the kitchen cabinets.

It was an ambitious project, indeed. It became more ambitious when she spent the first week of the three weeks that Bruce was to be gone "psyching herself up" for the job.

This was the job:

• Empty the cabinets and drawers
  
• remove the drawers, doors and hardware

Check

The lower doors were BEAT!

• Remove sludgy grime from woodwork using grease dissolver
• Wash woodwork with TSP, rinse, let dry

Check

• Sand ALL surfaces
• Fill chips, gouges and scratches (and holes from previous hardware)
• Sand again
• Vacuum off dust
• Wipe off with damp cloth
• Let dry

Check

This is what the dining room and family room looked like with kitchen stuff all over (there was some in a bedroom, too).

Assemble painting supplies

Check

• Draw a diagram of doors and drawers so everything goes back where it belongs
• Mark each door under the place the hinge goes with a number corresponding to the diagram. Cover with tape so it won't be obliterated by the paint.

Check

• Make a nail box for painting door knobs
• spray paint knobs with "brushed nickel" metallic paint (do it outside so you don't get HIGH and your stuff doesn't get metalized)
• Spray the handles (both sides)
• Spray 39 hinges, twice (once closed and once opened...it turns out I should have painted them three times. Oh, well).

Check

• Prime and Paint everything (note: when I painted the frames, I couldn't go outside and my kitchen is enclosed enough that opening windows didn't give very good airflow. I got a MASSIVE headache (twice) over the two days it took to paint the frames (it took two days because of the headache). In retrospect (hooray, I can still use big words! I guess the brain damage wasn't as bad as I feared), I should have bought a respirator (I will next time).
• Find a place to put all the primed and then painted doors and drawers while they dry.

Check

• Drill holes in the top of the upper doors
  
• Drill holes in the bottom of the lower doors
• Screw in hooks (before you prime and paint)
• Hang painted doors on sturdy hangers so they can dry and not take up so much space

Check

The refrigerator and stove needed to be moved out. Luckily the stove has sliding pads underneath. Unluckily the refrigerator does not.

All of the frames are painted.

These are the pieces I called "the buggers" because they took a LONG time to get back in place. They each had two wooden brackets that were screwed on the back and wedged against the cabinet frame. I had to attach them blindly using a z-shaped screw driver. I am just glad we had one! The "L" took about 15 minutes, but the long piece that goes beneath the sink took 45 minutes because the sink is so close to the cabinet.

Getting down to the wire! I am driving to Spokane to pick up Bruce on Tuesday afternoon. It is now Monday night and it is starting to come together.

Installing handles, knobs and hinges took about two hours on Tuesday morning.

Enjoy the "After" pictures. We sure are!

• Write this blog entry

Check!

Mmmmmm! Bread! - The Recipe

Here you go, Jen. This is not MY Mom's recipe. I just found it on the internet when I did a search on "Bosch, Best, White, Bread, Recipe"

Mom's Basic Bread (Makes 3 loaves)

3 cups warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

3 t. salt

9 cups bread flour

Non-Bread Mixer Instructions:

In a large bowl put 3 cups of warm water and sprinkle the yeast and sugar in the bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes. After it has bubbled add the oil and salt and begin to add flour a cup at a time. At first you can mix with a large wooden spoon but soon as you add flour it will get much too thick for that.

As soon as it cannot be mixed with a spoon, dump it all out on a clean counter that has been dusted with flour.

Keep adding flour and mixing and then knead your dough for about 12 to 15 minutes. Put a dishtowel over it and let sit for about 1 hour. When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and knead it some more to get all the air bubbles out. Cut the dough into 3 pieces and shape them into loaves. I simply roll and shape and make it look like a loaf. Put the dough in 3 greased 8” loaf pans or 2 - 9” pans (I spray with non-stick cooking spray). Then it needs to rise once again. This time you let it rise for 30 to 40 minutes. When the bread is almost done rising you can pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes. If bread is browning too quickly, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil until the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Bread Mixer Instructions:

If you have a high powered mixer like a Bosch then the process gets easier. Simply put all ingredients in the bowl (start with about 7 cups of flour an add flour as needed until the dough cleans off the sides of the mixer). Knead on the setting 1 or 2 for 5 to 7 minutes and that is it. You can take the dough out and proceed to form loaves and let them rise and then bake. The reason is that the Bosch incorporates a lot of air into the mixing process and the additional rise time is not needed.( I found I needed to let the dough rise about 10 minutes before shaping into loaves.) Place in 3 – 8” greased loaf pans (or 2 - 9” pans)and let rise about 30 to 40 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Mmmmmm! Bread!

I used my new Bosch to make some white bread. It rose up so nicely! Come to my house for some bread or else I am going to have to find someone else to give it to.

It is deee-licious!

Basic White Bread (Makes 3 loaves)

3 cups warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

3 t. salt

9 cups bread flour

Non-Bread Mixer Instructions:

In a large bowl put 3 cups of warm water and sprinkle the yeast and sugar in the bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes. After it has bubbled add the oil and salt and begin to add flour a cup at a time. At first you can mix with a large wooden spoon but soon as you add flour it will get much too thick for that.

As soon as it cannot be mixed with a spoon, dump it all out on a clean counter that has been dusted with flour.

Keep adding flour and mixing and then knead your dough for about 12 to 15 minutes. Put a dishtowel over it and let sit for about 1 hour. When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and knead it some more to get all the air bubbles out. Cut the dough into 3 pieces and shape them into loaves. I simply roll and shape and make it look like a loaf. Put the dough in 3 greased 8” loaf pans or 2 - 9” pans (I spray with non-stick cooking spray). Then it needs to rise once again. This time you let it rise for 30 to 40 minutes. When the bread is almost done rising you can pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes. If bread is browning too quickly, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil until the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Bread Mixer Instructions:

If you have a high powered mixer like a Bosch then the process gets easier. Simply put all ingredients in the bowl (start with about 7 cups of flour an add flour as needed until the dough cleans off the sides of the mixer). Knead on the setting 1 or 2 for 5 to 7 minutes and that is it. You can take the dough out and proceed to form loaves and let them rise and then bake. The reason is that the Bosch incorporates a lot of air into the mixing process and the additional rise time is not needed.( I found I needed to let the dough rise about 10 minutes before shaping into loaves.) Place in 3 – 8” greased loaf pans (or 2 - 9” pans)and let rise about 30 to 40 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Bruce's Bonus

Bruce is getting an incentive bonus from work. It will arrive sometime this month.

I found the camera store catalog open on the kitchen table this morning.

What will he use the bonus for?

Maybe THIS Year?

Do you think Robby will get his stocking in time for Christmas this year?

I'm working on it!

Centerpieces

Sunday is Stake Conference and the Stake Relief Society Presidency are to serve dinner to Elder Brinkerhoff (our Area Seventy) the Stake Presidency and their wives and the Bishops and their wives. Elder Brinkerhoff requested "low" centerpieces. Here are my contributions:

I've had to keep Bruce out of the candy pumpkins. After Saturday night he can have at it!

I used these little foam balls in the bottom of the bowl. They are so cool and not nearly as expensive and the flat glass marbles.