My Favorite Fruit Pizza + My Mother's Day Fiasco
Equally delicious as it is colorful! This fruit pizza is my favorite recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and is a perfect dessert for a BBQ!
Well my friends it's been awhile. There have been quite a few things going on over here in the Pastula/Zarrillo household. Least noteworthy is the fact that our internet is down and will not be fully back up for at least 2 weeks!! Hence this very last post #firstworldproblems.
Well Mother's Day was last weekend and I opted to invite both my family as well as Cole's family over for a Sunday BBQ with all the traditional items. Have you ever pictured how something is going to play out in your mind but life throws you a complete curve ball??? Well that was my Mother's Day...sit down and get a cold drink (maybe alcoholic) ready..we are going to be here for awhile... I should preface this by telling you that I am an extremely organized and detail oriented person who needs everything to be just right!
MY VISION: Having all of the food prepped ahead of time, house cleaned, planters made up to add a nice background for our family meal, lawn mowed, dogs frolicking and well behaved, spending the last few hours before my company arrives putting together my fabulous fruit pizza, AND THEN my mother coming an hour or so early so we could relax on the deck and chat perhaps while sipping a cool beverage.
Sounds great doesn't it? Well let me give you a run down of how things actually played out...
THE REALITY: On Saturday I ran around the city like a mad women trying to accomplish WAY too many things. Five different stops total including Costco...umm ya I usually will do anything to avoid going to Costco on a Saturday. However, my mother wanted geraniums and I wanted nice flowers for my planters. While there, I needed to have my elbows out in the small and overcrowded garden section. I located the purple sweet potato plants I wanted in a small flat of 5..there were supposed to be 6 and there is NO mix and matching allowed - There were signs about this every 5 feet. Well this was the only flat left so I asked the head garden woman if I could please pay for the 6 even though I am only getting 5 plants but this was a huge ordeal requiring much consultation by the Costco staff and management...I have no idea why.. 20 minutes later I was given a random replacement plant to go in the 6th slot and a hand written note to show the cashier. Then I found them... the most beautiful geraniums I have ever seen. Perfect! I squeezed my way out of the garden section. Next, I elbowed my way through the rest of the store. I found a beautiful bouquet for Cole's mother just in the nick of time as a horde of people claimed the rest of the bouquets after I left. I proceeded to the checkout line that was approximately 30 people long....ugh. When I was three people away from the cashier a lady poked my shoulder and asked what kind of flowers are in my cart as they are GORGEOUS....ya they are lady!!! I proudly told her that they are GERANIUMS and that I bought them for my MOM :). She gushed about them... who could blame her. However, then I heard another lady one line over and when I looked at her she told me and the lady that those flowers are certainly NOT geraniums...what? are you kidding me? my mother wants geraniums! I'm sure the sign said geraniums?!?! Didn't it? I ended up paying and debated what to do. I went to Superstore next still panicking about the 'geraniums' so I dragged my pots to show the garden center woman in the Superstore parking lot as certainly she would know. She said that they are beautiful...yes I know they are....but she didn't know if they're geraniums. She actually said that she has never seen a plant like this in her life. At this point I felt like having a mini melt down. In retrospect, this was not a HUGE deal but I had a lot going on that day and any setback threw me into crisis mode. A sweet older lady kept staring at me and so I asked her about my mystery plant. She told me that she is pretty good with plants but has never seen a plant like this one...really?? She then went on a long but very sweet story about how my mother will like them even if they are not what she wanted because they came from me. However, this sweet conversation did not satisfy me. I then went on to superstore to do the rest of my shopping but not before I posted a photo of my mystery plant to the Facebook community with an SOS asking for them to identify it.
I got home at 7:30p.m. and made dinner then started to make up my planters in the dark. I got 1/2 done before giving up. I left a mound of soil in a kiddy pool on the deck so that I could complete my last planters without any mess the next morning. While moving the BBQ I realized that I had left the digital meat thermometer too close the the grill and the darn thing melted. I NEED THIS FOR TOMORROW. I threw my head back and looked to the sky asking if this is a test!?!?!?! Exhausted and now 10:30p.m. I got a reply on Facebook...they ARE geraniums!!!! IVY GERANIUMS!! Thank god!!
SUNDAY MORNING
9:45a.m. - Woke up to this...you're kidding me right? We have a 1 acre fenced in yard and you had to be in my soil??
10:00a.m. - Wasn't feeling so hot and had to go to the walk in clinic so off I drove to the city...the last thing that I had time to do
12:00p.m. - got home, madly cleaned the house, set up the deck, kicked Phillip out of the soil for the 4th time, finished the planters, and started on the food
3:50p.m. - guests set to arrive in 1.5 hours and my pizza isn't even started AHHH. I then get a very serious call from Cole who was at the vet with the dogs for something very routine. My sweet baby Diesel had jumped out of the truck. OMG!!! I almost burst into tears thinking that Diesel had been hit by a car as Phillip was hit by a car 2 years ago and it was incredibly traumatizing for all parties involved. However, Cole told me that when he went to grab Diesel while Diesel was flying over his shoulder that Cole sustained a laceration to his head and said that he might need to go to the hospital. I said I would take him but he then said he would let me know. He called back saying that the bleeding is slowing and that he will come home but warned me that it looks like he has murdered someone due to the amount of blood...oh god. I go back to prepping and my pizza which is taking far longer then anticipated. I am not even ready for my guests! My mother then shows up...you know for our relaxing visit. I feel like I presented as being in crisis. I told my mother that I'm having a bit of a hard day and she swooped in just like mothers do and cut up my cheese and pickles for me then relaxed by herself. I showed her the IVY GERANIUMS and she loved them...phewf!!
5:00p.m. - Cole arrives home with my furbabies who are particularly naughty and I have to constantly be watching to make sure they are not jumping on my little mother. Cole is of no help as he is in pain and at one point I decided that my mother could hold her own against 70lb Diesel and that I had to forge on in the house.
5:15p.m. - My other guests arrive and I scrambled to finish my pizza and change out of my yoga pants.
During dinner I still felt wound up from my hectic day but our dinner conversation was lovely and by the time dessert was being served I looked around the table and everyone was smiling and having a good time (minus Cole as his head hurt). I served dessert and everyone quietly ate as it was delish. I thought to myself that none of them know how truly hectic my day was - even I was slowly starting to forget and was able to enjoy being with our family. Even the dogs were calm! And as soon as it started our Mother's Day was over and I was sitting in a clean house with a cool breeze coming in from the windows. I couldn't help but think that it was a perfectly imperfect day and it ended up being everything that I wanted in the end :)
I think that this fruit pizza may become a Mother's Day's tradition. I found this recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction and aside from her cinnamon buns which are THE BEST this is my next favorite recipe. She really is my baking hero. I will not post a printable recipe as she has one on her site and she certainly deserves the credit for this delish dessert. Check out her page to see all of her amazing creations and also print out this one. It's a keeper!!
*Please note that the cookie bottom can be made one day ahead of time but you should only put the cream cheese mixture and fruit on the day of or ideally hours before serving. This dessert does not keep well overnight as it tends to get soggy.
INGREDIENTS:
Crust
1/2 cup Butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Corn Starch
Toppings
8 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Butter (room temperature)
2 cups Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1-2 TBSP Milk
-A variety of sliced fruit (the more colorful the better!)
DIRECTIONS:
Make the crust by creaming the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. In a separate bow combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cornstarch. Now combine the butter mixture with the flour mixture until it is uniform. Form a ball with the dough and flatten it into a disk. Wrap the dough disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes. The bigger your dough disk the faster it will chill and the easier it will be to fit into your pizza pan.
Once the dough is chilled roll it into a large circle between two pieces of wax or parchment paper. Make sure that it is big enough to cover the pizza pan without flowing over the edges. Spray Pam very generously onto the pizza pan...yes I know what you're thinking.. but there is butter in the dough and it's a nonstick pan...yes I know, I too made this mistake the first time. If rolling out the dough takes a really long time and the dough gets warm you might want to even put the pizza pan back in the fridge for a bit. Putting the dough into the oven cold will prevent it from flooding over the sides! Bake the cookie at 365 (Sally uses 350) for 18-20 minutes. It will be golden brown when it is done.
While your dough is cooling slice up your fruit
Now make the cream cheese topping. Beat the cream cheese and the butter. Sift in 2 cups of icing sugar adding the vanilla and milk as you go. I have made this a few times and sometimes I add a little extra icing sugar depending on whether I feel that the mixture is a bit too thin. Go ahead and do this or add a bit more milk if it is too thick.
Once the cookie is cool spread your cream cheese mixture on top and decorate it with fruit! Chill the pizza until ready to serve.
Enjoy!
*Recipe shared in accordance to Sally's Baking Addiction guidelines found here