Sweet Bacon and Pear Pizza

Amber is moving, once again, so I thought I'd take over while she's not looking! This recipe says it makes 10-12 appetizer servings. I took that to mean 2 entree portions! However don't let ingredients like pears and onion fool you, this is one rich, unhealthy pizza! I also made mine on puff pastry so that may have added to the heavy feeling of it.

In the future I will try it with puff pastry shells as an appetizer or on the pizza crust like it calls for.

Enjoy! -Cherie

• 5 slices bacon
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. chili powder
• 1 pear, cored and sliced
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 of an 8-oz. tub cream cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 12-inch Italian bread shell (Boboli)
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line bottom of rimmed baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Arrange bacon slices on pan; set aside. In small bowl stir together brown sugar and chili powder. Generously sprinkle brown sugar mixture on bacon slices. Bake for 15 minutes or until browned; remove and set aside. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

2. In small bowl toss together pear slices and lemon juice; set aside. In medium bowl stir together cream cheese, onions, and black pepper to taste. Place pizza crust on clean baking sheet. Spread cream cheese mixture on crust. Chop bacon and evenly sprinkle on cheese mixture. Arrange pear slices on bacon. Top with pecans and feta cheese. Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings.

3. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.

Petit Four flop

Last week my sister Laura and I were inspired to make petit fours to celebrate our other sister, Cherie's, birthday. Petit fours are cute, dainty, sweet, and tasty little bites of cake...so they were a great idea for a special occasion, right?

They are supposed to be tiny and cute!


As it turns out, petit fours are not easy to make. Ours didn't look cute, dainty, or sweet. It sure seems like I've made a lot of flops, doesn't it? Pretty soon I'll have to make something successful. But until then, I'll entertain everyone with the things that bomb. I know everyone is probably snickering that I can't even make a cute little petit four, but seriously, it isn't as easy as it sounds.

We followed a magazine article and I had checked out some how-to videos on you tube. First we cut the top off of a pound cake to give it exact squareness.
Then we cubed it.
Stopped to take a picture of ourselves (give us a break, we had been swimming).
Then we poured frosting on top and garnished with almonds and coconut. I think we might have been more successful if we had used store bought frosting (for consistency), but I do admit that our frostings were delicious! We did an almond frosting and a coconut one and I'm sure the real butter made a difference too.
Ta Da! The final product! Not as gorgeous as we'd hopped, but still pretty yummy!

More Rolls!

I made the yummiest rolls last night. They may look a tad dark (next time I'll take them out sooner), but they were nice and soft and had a great flavor. I guess I have to give the butter the credit for that! As soon as they came out of the oven they got a good smother of butter, which is what gave them a soft finish.

This recipe came from my Better Homes and Gardens book and I will so be making these again. And don't you just love the cute shape? I did these with 1/2 white flour and half spelt flour.

Rolls

4 1/2-5 C flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 C milk
1/3 C sugar
1/3 C butter/margarine/shortening
1 tsp salt
2 eggs

1. In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a small saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter and salt just until warm and the butter almost melts; add to flour mixture along with eggs. Beat on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much remaining flour as you can.

2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes). Place in a greased bowl, turn in bowl once. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.

3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half, cover and rest for 10 minutes. Grease baking sheets.

4. Roll out each half into a 12 inch circle, brush with butter. Cut each circle with a pizza cutter into 12 wedges. To shape, begin at wide end of each wedge and roll to the point. Place the point side down. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1/2 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with butter when they are fresh from the over to give them a soft, shiny crust.