Spotlight on Summer: Cool and Creamy

A lot of you are new to Margaret's Morsels.  To help introduce you to the site, I thought I'd compile a list of summertime recipes from previous blogs. The list isn't all inclusive, but includes some of my favorites from five different categories.  To make it manageable, I'm making this a three part series.  Today's recipes are foods that are cool and creamy.  Click the words in bold to go to the page with the recipe. 

Easy Peanut Butter Chip Pie:  This is the recipe that launched Margaret's Morsels.  The pie gets its wonderful flavor from peanut butter chips.  My son came up with the idea of adding Magic Shell topping for a delicious chocolate/peanut butter combination.  No matter how you top it, it's a cool and refreshing dessert on a hot summer day.

Peanut Butter Fudge:  Here's another recipe that uses peanut butter chips, but it also uses peanut butter.  This fudge doesn't require any cooking, unless you count melting ingredients in the microwave as cooking! Since the fudge is stored in the refrigerator, it makes a cool summertime treat.

Quick and Easy Lemon Bars:  This recipe has been in Margaret's Morsels top 10 since it was first posted in 2011.  These are the only lemon bars I've ever made that turn out perfect each and every time.  Storing them in the refrigerator not only keeps them cold, but enhances the flavor.

Lemonade Pie:  This is another lemon recipe posted in 2011 that currently ranks as the sixth most popular recipe on Margaret's Morsels.  The only appliance you need to make this pie is a hand mixer!

Chocolate Dream Pie:  This is a chocolate lover's dream recipe.  The pie only uses four ingredients and half of them are chocolate!  Just like the lemonade pie, the only appliance you need is a hand mixer. 

Banana Cream Supreme:  This isn't a pudding and not quite a pie; it's the best of both!  This no bake dessert is assembled in a spring-form pan with a layer of bananas between the filling.  Although it's delicious in the summer, my teenage son thinks it's also good in the fall, winter and spring!

Cherry Pie Filling Salad:  This first time I ever saw this recipe, I thought it wouldn't be any good.  Boy, was I wrong!  Not only is it delicious, it's versatile and can be served from the refrigerator or freezer as either a side or dessert.

Vanilla Ice Cream:  This is the recipe my mom used to make.  To this day, I think it's the best vanilla ice cream ever!  The only change I've made to the recipe is to replace the raw eggs with egg substitute.

Peach Ice Cream:  This peach ice cream isn't vanilla ice cream with chopped up peaches.  It uses fresh peaches and canned peach nectar. Peaches peak in July and August so this is a great time to make this ice cream.

Orange Peach Soup:  Here's another recipe that uses fresh peaches. This chilled peach soup can be served for brunch, lunch or even supper. It makes a great first course, especially when the meal that follows is light.

Lime Jello Salad:  This has been a family favorite since a friend gave me the recipe over 20 years ago.  If you don't like lime, you can substitute other flavors of jello and fruit.

Fruity Orange Gelatin:  If you prefer jello that jiggles, give this salad a try. Unlike congealed salads made with red jello, there's no mistaking the flavor of this salad.  It only uses five ingredients and three of them are orange!

Cherry Gelatin Fruit Salad:  Here's another jello recipe that jiggles.  This is my most requested congealed salad recipe.  No one will ever guess it only uses four ingredients and all of them are sugar-free!

Sour Cream Cherry Cheesecake:  The kitchen won't get hot when you make this cheesecake.  The crust is the only thing that needs to be baked and that only takes 10 minutes!  The rest of the cheesecake is made by doctoring up a package of cheesecake mix.  I use cherry pie filling on top, but you can use your favorite flavor.

Check back next week for part two of the series.

© Margaret's Morsels

Afternoon Appetizer

My mother always served the Thanksgiving meal in the early afternoon. Some years, I serve the meal in the afternoon -- depending on who's coming and whether or not they're going to their in-laws later that day -- but I prefer serving it in the evening.  I like having more time to cook the food plus the ambiance that comes from having candles lit while we eat.

The years I serve an evening meal, I offer an array of appetizers for guests to nibble on during the afternoon while the turkey, dressing and all the trimmings are cooking.  Cranberry Delight Spread is one of my favorite seasonal appetizers.  Like the previous cranberry recipes I've shared, it's also a combination of cranberries and oranges, but this time in the form of dried cranberries and a fresh orange.

Cream cheese is combined with concentrated orange juice, cinnamon, sugar, chopped pecans, dried cranberries and orange zest.  Zest, the outermost layer of the rind, contains aromatic oils which are very flavorful.

The easiest way to remove the zest is with a microplane zester.

The microplane zester is the one on the right.

Don't scrape the orange too deeply; you don't want to remove the white part -- known as the pith -- because it's bitter.  The zest adds a lot of flavor so if you're using a large orange, start by adding part of the zest; you might not need all of it.  Taste the mixture to see if you need to add more zest. This is especially important if you're doubling or tripling the recipe.   

Dried cranberries can be tricky to cut because they're sticky.  A quick and easy way to cut them is with a pair of kitchen shears.  If the cranberries stick to the shears, spray the shears with a little bit of nonstick cooking spray.  The cranberries will slide right off.

I mix up the spread a couple of days ahead of time so the flavors have time to blend.  When I'm ready to serve it, I put the spread in a bowl on a platter surrounded by vanilla wafers and gingersnaps.  The friend that gave me the recipe serves it with Triscuits to balance sweet and salty.

After our Thanksgiving meal is over and the leftovers are put up, we play -- what one of my nephews calls a family tradition -- several friendly, but competitive rounds of Taboo.  As the evening progresses, the leftover afternoon appetizers are brought out for people to munch on while trying to figure out how to describe cranberry without using the words red, bog, juice, Thanksgiving or Ocean Spray!

Cranberry Delight Spread

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. concentrated orange juice (undiluted), thawed

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. sugar

zest of 1 orange

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

In an electric mixer bowl, combine the cream cheese, orange juice, cinnamon and sugar.  Beat on medium speed until smooth.  Fold in the orange zest, pecans and cranberries.  Refrigerate.

© Margaret's Morsels

Obviously Orange

According to a recent news report, July, 2012, was the hottest month in the lower 48 states since the government started keeping temperature records 117 years ago.  A good way to beat the heat is to serve something cold for supper.  One of my favorite warm weather pairings is homemade chicken salad and a refreshingly cold congealed salad.  Most of the time, I make my husband's favorite, cherry gelatin fruit salad, but sometimes I switch things up and serve an orange salad instead.

The recipe I'm sharing, Fruity Orange Gelatin, offers a triple burst of orange flavor.  Not only does the recipe call for orange gelatin, but also mandarin oranges and, what makes the recipe so refreshing, orange sherbet.  If you can find it, you can use sugar-free sherbet instead of the regular kind.

Remove the sherbet from the freezer and let it stand at room temperature a few minutes to soften.  When it's soft, measure two cups and put the rest back in the freezer.  To get an accurate measurement, use measuring cups designed for dry ingredients.

Bring the water to a boil and remove from the heat.  Add the gelatin and stir until it's dissolved.

Add the sherbet.

Stir until melted.

Add mandarin oranges and crushed pineapple.  Although fresh pineapple is delicious, don't use it in a congealed salad.  It contains an enzyme that prevents the gelatin from congealing.  Stir to combine the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into a 2-quart serving bowl or decorative mold.  Make sure to thoroughly spray the mold -- including crevices -- with nonstick cooking spray before adding the mixture.  If you spray a square or rectangular dish with cooking spray, the salad can be cut into squares and served on lettuce leaves for a pretty presentation.

The cherry gelatin fruit salad can be confused with strawberry, cranberry and raspberry.  You won't have that problem with this salad, though, because people will know it's obviously orange!

Fruity Orange Gelatin

10 to 12 Servings

1 (6 oz.) pkg. sugar-free orange gelatin

2 cups boiling water

2 cups orange sherbet

1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges, drained

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple (undrained)

Bring water to a boil; remove from heat.  Add gelatin and stir until dissolved. Stir in sherbet until melted.  Stir in oranges and pineapple. Pour into a 2-quart serving bowl or decorative mold.  Chill until firm.

© Margaret's Morsels

Summer Soup

Years ago, I used to purchase an orange peach fruit juice.  The orange peach combination was delicious and I was disappointed when the juice was discontinued.  When I came across the recipe for Orange Peach Soup, I remembered the fruit juice from long ago and knew I had to try the recipe.  Unfortunately, it was the middle of winter so I had to wait a few months.  You don't have to wait, though, because peaches peak in July and August making it the perfect time to make a batch of this soup.

The best way to buy peaches is with your eyes, nose and hands.  Look for unblemished peaches without any traces of green.  Peaches have a rosy blush on the surface, but that's indicative of the variety and has nothing to do with ripeness.  Smell the peaches.  A ripe peach smells like a peach.  If there's little or no fragrance, keep smelling until you find peaches with a peach aroma.  Feel the peaches and apply a little pressure with your hand. You don't want the peaches to be too soft, but you don't want them to be too hard either.  Buy peaches that yield slightly to pressure.

Peaches come in white and yellow varieties and can be used interchangeably.  I prefer yellow peaches because they tend to be juicier and more flavorful.  Peaches are sold as either clingstone or freestone. The terms describe how easy it is to remove the pit from the fruit.  A clingstone tends to cling whereas a freestone is easy to remove.

Peel, slice and puree the peaches with lemon juice in a blender.  The lemon juice keeps the peaches from turning brown while the rest of the ingredients are being prepared.

The pureed peaches and lemon juice

Combine water, instant tapioca, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining ingredients, including the peach puree.   Let the soup cool to room temperature -- to speed up the process, I transfer the soup from the warm saucepan to a bowl -- and then refrigerate.  

If the only tapioca you're familiar with is pudding, you may be wondering why it's used in this recipe.  Tapioca is a starch used to thicken food. Instant tapioca looks like little pellets.

Instant tapioca

Although tapioca does a great job thickening the soup, the pellets don't completely dissolve.  If you don't mind the texture, you can serve the soup as it is.  If you're like me and prefer a smoother soup, there's an easy solution.

After the soup is completely chilled -- I make it a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight -- taste it to see if it's sweet enough.  Some peaches are sweeter than others so you may need to add additional sugar.

Pour the soup into a blender container and add sugar, if necessary, one teaspoon at a time, blending until the sugar is dissolved.  Taste the soup after each addition to make sure you don't add too much sugar.  Using a blender pulverizes the sugar and the tapioca at the same time.  If the soup doesn't need any additional sugar, you can still process it in a blender to achieve a smoother consistency.

The soup makes a great first course, especially when the meal that follows is light.  It can also be served as an entree with a salad -- green, tuna or chicken -- and croissants.  My husband likes to pour the soup over ice and drink it as a beverage.  It makes a thick beverage, but my husband finds it extremely refreshing after working in the yard on a hot summer day.

No matter how you serve it, this soup is definitely flavorful and refreshing. Peach season is short so enjoy this soup while peaches are at the peak of flavor.

Orange Peach Soup

6 to 8 Servings

2 lb. fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 1/2 cups water, divided

3 Tbsp. instant tapioca

3 Tbsp. sugar (plus more for sweetening, if needed)

dash of salt

1 (6 oz.) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (undiluted)

fresh mint sprigs (for garnish)

Combine peaches and lemon juice in a blender container; process until smooth.  Set aside.

Combine 1 cup water, tapioca, sugar and salt in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, including the peach puree.  Cool to room temperature.  Cover and chill completely.  

Taste the chilled soup to see if more sugar is needed.  Add 1 teaspoon of sugar at a time, if necessary, and process in a blender until smooth.  Serve garnished with fresh mint sprigs, if desired.

© Margaret's Morsels