Honey Lime Fruit Toss

Updated from the archives

It's Summer time! Maybe not officially but today is supposed to be a high of 91° F here. H-O-T! One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh fruit. I especially love juicy, deep red strawberries. Fruit is pretty awesome. It comes ready to eat! Rinse and maybe peel, depending on the fruit, and it's ready to enjoy! I also love how pretty the colors of fruit are. Fruit salads are always amazing. This recipe is one of my favorite. Don't mind that I didn't have a kiwi in this picture. But that's the great thing about this recipe. If you are missing one of the fruits listed in ingredients or want to add another type of fruit you can absolutely do as you please.

This fruit toss is so easy and so good. You just throw together a few different fruits and add honey and lime to it and you have an amazing fruit salad. It tastes so good.  The honey and lime really take this fruit toss up a notch.

My friend Aubrey introduced me to this recipe almost 2 years ago and it's one of my favorite side-dishes to make. 

One Year Ago: Gender Reveal Cupcakes
Two Years Ago: Chicken Enchiladas

Honey Lime Fruit Toss

Recipe from Dole

Ingredients 

1 can (20 oz) Pineapple Chunks

1 can (11 or 15 oz) Mandarin Oranges, drained

1 large banana, sliced

1 kiwi fruit, peeled, halved and sliced

1 cup quartered strawberries
2 tablespoons lime juice

¼ teaspoon grated lime peel (optional)

1 tablespoon honey

Directions

1.  Drain pineapple; reserve 1/4 cup juice.

2. Combine pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, banana, kiwi fruit and strawberries in large serving bowl.

3.  Stir together reserved pineapple juice, lime peel, lime juice and honey in small bowl.  Pour over salad; toss to coat.

Tiramisu Cookies

 

I have no words.

These cookies are so pretty and even more delicious!  We are big fans of Tiramisu. Last year I made a delicious Tiramisu we liked so much it is now tradition to have it as my husband's birthday cake. For months now I have been toying around with an idea to make Tiramisu cookies. I googled it but found nothing to what I had in mind so of course I just made up my own recipe and to my delight it turned out even better than imagined!

Tiramisu is made with lady fingers soaked in coffee (in my recipe I soak them in hot chocolate.) Half the lady fingers are placed in a dish then topped with a creamy mascarpone mixture and the layers are repeated. Then it is topped with cocoa powder and shaved chocolate. As you bite into it you taste the soft lady fingers that taste cake-like and the delicious creamy mascarpone mixture. These cookies are a twist on the same idea.

The base is a soft sugar cookie, which I made using my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I used a decorative circle cookie cutter.

I made up my own mascarpone frosting recipe, using a little butter and powdered sugar. I loved how it turned out! Mascarpone is similar to cream cheese but creamier and a little tart. It's delicious.  You can find it at about any grocery store in the fancy cheese section. It is a little pricier than cream cheese though. A little F.Y.I. if you want to use cream cheese here is how you substitute it:

8 oz. Mascarpone = 8 oz. Cream Cheese + 2 T. Sour Cream + 1/4 cup Heavy Cream.

You can thank Carla Hall for that.

Here is how I assembled it. 1-Frosted it with the Mascarpone Buttercream 2-Sprinkled on the cocoa powder 3-Topped the cookies with pretty chocolate shavings.

To make the chocolate curls, I used a vegetable peeler and a block of chocolate.  (See this for more info.)

And here it is! I love making up recipes and am such a food nerd but it makes me so happy when it turns out so good. I of course shared them since I shouldn't eat them all. It was a huge hit with my friends and family. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

One Year Ago: Onion Strings
Two Years Ago: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tiramisu Cookies
Love to be in the Kitchen Original Recipe
Ingredients:
Sugar Cookies (homemade or store bought)
8 oz. mascarpone, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 1/2- 3 cups powdered sugar
cocoa powder, for sprinkling
chocolate shavings

Directions:
Prepare sugar cookies according to directions, cutting them out in round shapes. I used a decorative circle cutter. (As pictured above.) Bake according to directions and let cool.

To make the frosting:
With an electric mixture, cream together the mascarpone and butter on medium speed until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Slowly add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Add up to 1/2 a cup more if it needs to be thicker. Once incorporated, mix on medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice.

Assemble Cookies: 
Frost cookies. I used a pastry bag fitted with a small open star tip. You could also put the frosting in a zip-lock bag and cut the tip off, and pipe it on or you could just used a butter knife. Frost 4-8 at a time then carefully sprinkle on cocoa powder. I used a sieve and gently tapped on it so the cocoa powder would fall out evenly.  Next top with chocolate shavings. Repeat until finished.

Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Enjoy!


*Linking up to http://www.bunsinmyoven.com, http://insidebrucrewlife.com/ & iheartnaptime.net

Homemade Baked Potato Chips

Potato chips are seriously one of my favorite things to eat. Obviously that isn't a good thing which is why I never buy a bag of potato chips. But I'm human and sometimes I crave something crunchy and salty. So I came up with this recipe!  And trust me these taste so much better than store-bought baked potato chips. These are crispy, crunchy and addicting.

I first posted this recipe a while back but it was in desperate need of a makeover. I took the picture with my dinky cell phone I had back then and it was bad. (Our camera was broken at the time.) I am so glad I decided to make these again because I made a couple of tweaks in the recipe and I was blown away by how much I improved the original recipe. I only made 2 changes and it made them even better! All I did differently was pat the sliced potatoes dry and instead of tossing them in olive oil, I lightly spread the oil on the baking sheet, then lined the sheet with the potato slices and then lightly coated the tops of the chips with olive oil. They baked up so crispy and perfect it was amazing!

Another plus of making your own chips is that you can top it with whichever seasonings you'd like. Such as salt, salt & pepper, rosemary, other herbs, chili powder & cumin, seasoned salt etc. The possibilities are endless!

Just a couple notes about the recipe. It really doesn't matter if you peel the potato or not. I usually don't and either way tastes great! I also find that these turn out best when I bake them on my silicone mat because that helps them to bake evenly but foil works really well too!  Last note, be sure you use a rimmed baking sheet.

One Year Ago: Tiramisu {w/o coffee}
Two Years Ago: How to Freeze Strawberries

Homemade Baked Potato Chips
Love to be in the Kitchen Original Recipe
Ingredients:
1 large Russet Potato, or 2 small
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
salt, or *other seasonings

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450.  Place a silicone mat on a rimmed baking sheet or line a sheet with foil.  Using a mandolin, slice potatoes into 1/8 inch slices, or cut by hand.  Pat each potato slice dry with a cloth or paper towel. Evenly spread 1 tablespoon of olive oil on baking sheet, then arrange potato slices evenly. Brush the tops of the potato slices with the remaining olive oil.  Bake for 18 minutes. Flip the chips over and continue to cook for 2-7 more minutes. Checking every couple minutes to be sure the chips don't burn.  Season with salt or desired seasonings and let cool and enjoy!

*Seasoning Ideas: Kosher salt, salt & pepper, freshly ground black pepper, seasoned salt, rosemary or other herbs, chili powder & cumin, paprika etc.

*Linking up to iheartnaptime.net & http://www.fidlersunderoneroof.com