An Orchard of Awesome: Some Old, Some New, but All for You (and, Okay, Also Me)

Fabulous Felt Cherry Cheesecake Barrette

Fabulous Felt Cherry Mousse Barrette

It's true.  Of the nine handmade, cherry-themed accessories featured throughout this post, I made four in the past couple of weeks and five in the past couple of years.  There's a cherry pie in it for anyone who can guess which is which.  Just kidding; anything baked by me is more punishment than prize.  

Tights: Poof, Boscov's

Top: Gypsies and Moondust, Macy's

Cherry Charm Necklace

Skirt: Tinseltown, Macy's

Black Cherry Blossom Barrette Brooch

Bag: Royal Monk, Modcloth; Pink bangle: Target; Red bangle: B Fabulous; Black bangle: Mixit, JCPenney; Red rhinestone bangle: XOXO, ROSS; Pink bracelet: Amrita Singh, Zulily; Rose brooch: JCPenney

Skirt: Tinseltown, Macy's

Bag: Olivia Miller, Amazon; Sunglasses: Zulily; Barrettes: SHEIN; Black bangle: Mixit, JCPenney; Yellow bangle: B Fabulous; Maroon bangle: Iris Apfel for INC, Macy's

Tank: Eyeshadow, Macy's

Wild Cherry Necklace

Shoes: Jessica Simpson Collection, DSW

Top: Kingston Grey, Macy's

Black Cherry Bow Necklace

Skirt: Alythea, Modcloth

Bag: Xhilaration, Target; Bow barrette: Carole, JCPenney; Ring: Making Waves, Ocean City NJ; Love bangle: Boscov's

Shoes: Penny Loves Kenny, DSW

Top: Bongo, Sears

Cherry Rose Necklace

Headband: New York & Company

Bag: Betsey Johnson, Modcloth

Skirt: POPSUGAR, Kohl's

Rainbow Cherry Necklace

Top: Candie's, Kohl's

Polka dot and striped bangles: Mixit, JCPenney; Sunglasses: Wild Fable, Target; Purse charm: Carole, JCPenney

Bag: Skinnydip London, Macy's

Fabulous Felt Cherry Pie Barrette

Speaking of prizes (as we just were), earlier this summer, I finally tracked down that elusive Revlon cherry lip gloss at CVS.  It was my reward for going to the gyno.  Still unopened and pristine, some may say that it's the cherry on top of my ensemble sundaes.  Then again, some may say something else.

Fabric: Hobby Lobby

Moving on to actual cherries! 

I purchased these from a grocery store instead of a stand, and they ended up looking better than they tasted.  But then, you can never depend on produce.  Which is why I prefer to get my fruit fix from flip flops:

Flip flops: Katy Perry Collection, Nordstrom Rack

Inedible cherries never go bad.

Or give you diabetes from collateral Cool Whip.

Pudding for Pops

Holiday time means dessert time, so for Father's Day I went bananas.  With Banana Layered Pie, a recipe from one of my many JELL-O cookbooks, JELL-O: Fun and Fabulous Recipes (just $2.99 from the Book Cellar!).  As I always say, you can't beat a cool, no-bake treat for speed, ease, and taste.  And this time the end product actually ended up looking a little like the picture.  (Unlike the Memorial Day melba disaster.  But then, the root of that ruckus was the always-a-cause-for-chaos, do-it-yourself crust.  This time I stuck with Keebler's.)  We haven't dug in yet (as the day's festivities haven't started), but I remain optimistic.  Here are the how-to's:

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups milk
1 6-serving size pkg vanilla pudding
1 9" prepared graham cracker crust
2 bananas
1/2 cup Cool Whip
Lemon juice (In the name of laziness, I used that processed stuff in the plastic lemon.)

Directions 

Pour milk into bowl.  Add pudding mix.  With an electric mixer at low speed, beat until blended, about 1 minute.  Pour 1/2 cup of the pudding into pie shell.

Slice 1 banana and arrange the slices on top of the pudding.  Top with 3/4 cup of the pudding.

Blend Cool Whip into the remaining pudding.  Spread over the pudding in the pie shell.  Chill about 3 hours. Slice the remaining banana and brush the slices with lemon juice (to prevent them from turning brown).  Garnish the pie with the extra Cool Whip and arrange the bananas in the center.

Melba for Memorial Day

Instead of the usual patriotic strawberry and blueberry dessert, I went with this (albeit historically British) peach melba Creamy Layered Peach Squares concoction.  And in the making of it I came to terms with something: try as I might, I will never be one of those women who is truly at home in the kitchen (not even when working with my beloved JELL-O).  Around ten o'clock last night I was spreading the cream cheese/Cool Whip/sugar layer over the graham cracker crust layer only to have the buttery graham cracker crumbs refuse to stay put and get all caught up in the cream cheese like so many toast crumbs ruining perfectly good butter.  The harder I tried to prevent it from happening, the worse and more unappetizing-looking it got.  The bf heeded my calls of distress, coming to my rescue with a spatula and more patience than I could hope to muster.  He managed to achieve an at least even if somewhat crumby (pun intended, ha ha) cream cheese terrain upon which I could later layer the raspberry JELL-O and Cool Whip mixture. 

My culinary shortcomings aside, I have trouble believing that even the most careful of cooks could craft the perfect "square" (single serving size) specimen featured on the cook book cover.  JELL-O is just too, well, gelatinous a substance to assume the image of a plastic-perfect faux dessert worthy of a diner display case.

That said, I hope that the end result will be tasty enough to make up for its lack of plate appeal.  Here are the ingredients and the how-to's that gave me such grief:

Ingredients:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 stick melted butter
1 1/2 packages 8 oz cream cheese
1 8-oz tub Cool Whip
3 large fresh peaches peeled and sliced (I used 2 cans of peaches.  What's canned fruit for if not JELL-O recipes?)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 cups ice cubes

Directions:

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and the butter in a 13" x 9" pan and press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan.  Beat the cream cheese and remaining sugar in a medium bowl until well blended.  Whisk in 1 1/2  cups Cool Whip and spread over the graham cracker crust.  Top with peaches (in my case, 1 can).  Refrigerate until ready to use.  Dissolve raspberry JELL-O mix in boiling water.  Stir in ice cubes until melted.  Refrigerate for 5 minutes, or until thickened.  Whisk in remaining Cool Whip and spread over peach layer.  Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.  Garnish with fresh raspberries and peach slices (this is where can number 2 came in).

JELL-O Easy Patriotic Pie

 This is what this pie is supposed to look like.  Notice its smooth, perfect JELL-O and Cool Whip layers.

 And here's the delightful little dessert pamphlet from which this recipe came.  Notice the perfection of the JELL-O and Cool Whip layers in the cover dish also.

And here's what my pie looks like.  All messy and unsmooth.  Now, I realize you can't see the layers.  I considered waiting until it was hacked into to post this so you could have a look at them in all of their patriotic and misshapen glory.  But then I thought, who am I kidding?  I'm not going to remember to do that, and anyway, who wants to look at a picture of a half-eaten pie?

I made this pie because I'm going to a Labor Day BBQ today and wanted to bring something festive and easy.  So I turned to one of my many JELL-O cookbooks (which is something of a misnomer since none of these recipes actually involve cooking) and plucked out this seemingly impossible-to-mess-up selection.  I do hope it will be tasty but cannot make any promises at this early date.  Still, if you want to make it, here's how.

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups boiling water, divided
1 3-oz package Berry Blue JELL-O
1 3-oz package Strawberry (or any red flavor, as they all taste the same) JELL-O
1 cup ice cubes, divided
1 6-oz prepared graham cracker pie crust
1 cup Cool Whip

Directions:

Add 3/4 cup boiling water to blue JELL-O; stir 2 minutes or until completely dissolved.  Add 1/2 cup ice cubes; stir until melted.  Pour into crust; refrigerate 5 to 10 minutes, or until set but not firm.  Meanwhile, repeat to dissolve red JELL-O in a separate bowl.  Stir in remaining ice cubes.  Cool five minutes or until slightly thickened.  Spread Cool Whip over blue JELL-O layer, then cover with red JELL-O.  Refrigerate 2 hours or until set.

Easter Treats

Fruit Ambrosia

Double Layer Chocolate Pie: Fancy cookbook version

Double Layer Chocolate Pie: Messy "slice of life" version

I prefer no-bake, refrigerate-only desserts. You know, the kind that are made of pudding, JELL-O, Cool Whip, cream cheese, prepared pie crusts, and/or canned fruit. Easy to make and nearly impossible to mess up, they're cool, colorful, and refreshing, and offer a kind of 1950s kitsch factor that just can't be beat. So, it should come as no surprise that I chose to make Double Layer Chocolate Pie and Fruit Ambrosia as my contributions to Easter dinner. If you're a fan of such things and want to give them a whirl, then here are the recipes:

Fruit Ambrosia

Ingredients:

1.5 cups heavy cream

1.5 cups sour cream

Half a 7-oz bag coconut

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 16-oz can pineapple

2 small cans mandarin oranges

1 jar maraschino cherries

Dash confectioners' sugar

1 cup slivered almonds (I never add these. Because I don't understand what some crunchy, tasteless nuts are doing in an otherwise creamy dessert. This thinking also explains why I hate nuts in brownies. Not to mention sundaes.)

Directions:

Whip heavy cream. Fold in sour cream, marshmallows, and coconut. Add drained fruit. Add almonds (or not).

Double Layer Chocolate Pie (from JELL-O: Celebrating 100 Years)

Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 tbs whole milk

1 tbs sugar

8 oz Cool Whip

1 6-oz prepared chocolate crumb crust (I couldn't find chocolate, what with the Easter rush, and substituted graham cracker. It tasted just as good.)

2 cups cold whole milk

2 4-oz pkgs instant chocolate pudding

Directions:

Mix the cream cheese, 1 tbs milk, and sugar in a large bowl with a wire whisk (or beater) until smooth. Gently stir in 1.5 cups of the Cool Whip. Spread onto the bottom of the crust. Pour 2 cups of milk into a bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk (or beater) until well mixed. (Mixture will be thick.) Immediately stir in the remaining Cool Whip. Spread over cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Garnish as desired. Makes 8 servings.

Oh, and here's the "fun fact" from the bottom of the cookbook page:

"In addition to Bill Cosby, famous spokespeople for JELL-O have included Jack Benny, Andy Griffith, and Ethel Barrymore."

So, how did they turn out? The pie was delicious, really thick and creamy. The ambrosia was more of a miss, partly because I forgot the dash of confectioners' sugar. (The time I made it before that I forgot to drain the canned fruit enough and had a watery mess). Maybe fruit ambrosia isn't nearly impossible to mess up. Then again, maybe it's me.

Decadent Peanut Butter Pie

About two weeks ago, the bf was thumbing through the Red Plum coupon circular when he suddenly exclaimed, "I want to eat this right now!" I walked over to see what all the fuss was about and wasn't surprised to see a full-color wedge of chocolate peanut butter pie photographed next to a recipe and a coupon for Skippy peanut butter and Smucker's hot fudge ice cream topping. I took the page and tucked it into my recipe box, fully intending to make the pie the following weekend.

This, of course, did not happen.

But the pie was never far from my mind. I even went ahead and bought the ingredients during my weekly grocery shopping trip. The bf, after all, is a man who is serious about his desserts, and I did not want to disappoint. (Although to be honest, I'm pretty serious about desserts myself.)

Last Thursday evening presented the perfect opportunity to finally make it. (Even if it was, ironically, because I'd taken a half day from work to go to the dentist.) As I began putting together the ingredients, I discovered that I hadn't bought a big enough tub of Cool Whip, which meant no fluffy white top layer. (I'd used all I had to soften up the rich peanut butter and cream cheese filling.) No matter. I compensated with extra chocolate sauce and a trio of Reese cups, once again personalizing a recipe with my own error-induced spin.

I was finishing up when my sister called. "It sounds like a party over there," she said, presumably on account of the ever-blaring TV. "It's always a party over here," I quipped, to which the bf good-naturedly added, "Yeah, a party for your arteries!"

I don't think I need to say that laughter ensued.

If you want to start your own party, then here's how to do it. And if you don't want to invite your arteries, then you can use low-fat or fat-free peanut butter, cream cheese, chocolate sauce, pie crust, and Cool Whip. But it won't taste as good. (For the record, I did my tiny part by using reduced fat cream cheese.)

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 12-oz container Cool Whip, divided
1 prepared chocolate pie crust
1 11.5-oz jar hot fudge ice cream topping, divided

Directions:

Beat together 1 cup peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl on High until well combined. Gently mix in 3 cups Cool Whip until thoroughly combined. Spoon mixture into pie crust. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.

(From this point on is where I sort of checked out. I just spread the fudge over the the peanut butter, plunked down the Reese cups, and shoved the whole thing in the fridge. But I typed up the real directions in case you want to do this the right way, fancy drizzled topping and all.) Reserve 2 tablespoons of hot fudge topping in the corner of a resealable food storage bag; set aside. Microwave remaining topping on High for 1 minute. Stir. Spread topping over pie, covering entire peanut butter layer. Refrigerate until set. Spread remaining Cool Whip over fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.

Cut a small corner from the bag containing the fudge. Squeeze bag to drizzle topping over pie. Place remaining 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in a resealable food storage bag; cut bag corner and squeeze to drizzle in opposite direction from topping. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I must say that this pie lived up to its name, as it was, in fact, decadent. But I didn't let that scare me off. It was so tasty that I ended up eating more of it than the bf. :)

Brought to You from JELL-O Fun and Fabulous Recipes

So, a week or so ago, when I made my yummy lattice chicken casserole, I also made this frozen peanut butter pie. (Yes, the photo has been haunting my personal photo archives since then, along with countless others.) Anyway, I was pretty excited about this recipe, which came from JELL-O Fun and Fabulous Recipes, one of the many volumes in my JELL-O cookbook library. It involved peanut butter, after all, as well as an unexpected and intriguing strip of strawberry jam. And it was easy to prepare (as are all JELL-O recipes), which gave it points with this busy crafter. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

8 oz. container Cool Whip

1 prepared 9-in graham cracker pie crust

1/3 cup strawberry jam (I have only strawberry preserves, so I used those. But they weren't spreading the way they were supposed to . . . so I ended up using an entire jar!)

1 cup cold milk

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used smooth peanut butter, probably more than 1/2 cup)

1 4-serving size package vanilla JELL-O pudding

Directions

Spread 1 cup of the Cool Whip in the bottom of the pie crust; freeze for about 10 minutes. Carefully spoon jam/preserves over Cool Whip. Gradually add milk to peanut butter in bowl, blending until smooth. Add pudding. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until well blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Fold in remaining Cool Whip. Spoon over jam/preserves in pie crust. Freeze until firm. Garnish with additional Cool Whip and chopped nuts, if desired (I did not desire).

So, how was it? The peanut butter section was delicious, especially with the graham cracker crust. As I ate it, I thought, oh, so this is how all those restaurants pull off that creamy peanut butter filling: just mix peanut butter, Cool Whip/cream, pudding, and milk. As for the strawberry part . . . it was a little disturbing and made the whole pie taste like a cold and incredibly sugary peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of course, this didn't stop me from pulling the pie out of the freezer a second night (although I'm not proud to admit it.) The verdict? I'd like to make this again, substituting chocolate pudding or sauce for the strawberry preserves.

It's sort of my goal to try out all of my JELL-O recipes. Well, all the decent-sounding ones. There are few JELL-O salads involving ham, mayonnaise, and -- brace yourself -- tongue. Needless to say, I won't be making those. But desserts are fair game. So be sure to check back for more experiments!