Fruit Pizza Cookie for Mother's Day

    Mother's Day is a simple affair in our family. Mom is a frail eighty-four with a hearing deficiency so celebrating takes the form of a rather quick visit by each of her children and perhaps some of the grand and great-grand children. Cards and gifts are presented, accompanied by happy conversation and a little sweet treat. This year, I chose to make a fruit pizza cookie. A sugar cookie crust (which could be made from bought refrigerated dough but I had time and much prefer from scratch) was prebaked the day before. A topping of cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla was spread over the crust and then garnished with an artful arrangement of strawberries, blueberries and kiwi. Almost too pretty to cut, the cookie was a cool, not-too-sweet treat on a warm day.

     Instead of store-bought novelty napkins, I printed up some paper napkin rings on the computer, which were easy to cut out and put together with a glue stick. White everyday napkins were rolled and slipped into the rings for a slightly festive look. Cookie slices were served on the napkins so plates were not even necessary

Brownie Buttons

     When Rissy calls on a Saturday asking to bake, we make a decision together whether to try something new or use a tried-and-true recipe. I had seen something similar to these cookies online and thought they were cute and simple. Instead of the pastel originals (I believe they were intended for a baby shower), we chose a brownie cookie. Rolling the dough and cutting out circles was uncomplicated, but easier still, and even fun, was creating the button 'holes'. We used a plastic straw to punch them out, and of course, the straw filled up with minuscule dots of dough which we either blew out the end (as a sort of ammunition - the dog loved it) or squeezed out for tasting. A drinking glass just a bit smaller than the cookie cutter formed a nice rim. Kitchen laughter and tasty treats equaled a delightful afternoon.