Mini Blueberry Galettes #SummerDessertWeek

This post was created for #SummerDessertWeek. I received samples from some of

our sponsor companies, but as always, all opinions are my own.

We just returned from our annual summer vacation to Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort

and we had the best time! We've been going there almost every year for the past twenty
years and we just love it! I posted lots of photos on my Instagram if you want to see some
of our fun.

Now that summer is in full force, our Farmer's Market is bursting at the seams with garden
vegetables, beautiful flowers and fresh berries. I just couldn't resist picking up some
blueberries for these mini blueberry galettes. Summer dessert couldn't be any easier!

Oreo Cookie Cream Pie

Happy June!
May was such a busy month with Madison's graduation party, Mother's Day and lots of
travel for my day job, so I'm really looking forward a month without too many obligations.

I want to go for bike rides, read books, relax by the pool, go on hikes and just do summer
things.  What's on your summer list?  Please tell me.
Maybe I need to add them to my list too!

Also, I'm declaring this summer to be the summer of pie.
I love pie, but I don't make them nearly enough.  Cupcakes have always been the center
of attention around here, but that's all about to change.
Say hello to the summer of pie.

Chocolate Yogurt Pie for Two

Hi there.
How was your Valentine's weekend?

Our weekend was pretty low-key, which was fine by me!
I had to work most of the day on Saturday, so we decided to just chill at home
that evening since is was so cold and snowy.

Mini Pumpkin Pie Shooters with Maple Whipped Cream

I love mini desserts!
They are super cute and since they're so small, you don't have to feel guilty when you try more than one :)

Mini pumpkin pie shooters would be perfect on a Thanksgiving dessert buffet.
A pre-baked pumpkin pie makes them super easy to put together and the maple whipped cream adds just the right amount of sweetness.

You could also make my cheesecake shooters or chocolate eclairs in a jar and have a variety of mini desserts to serve.  Everyone would LOVE you!

I serve the dessert shooters in small glass votive holders I find at the Dollar Store.

They're just the right size for mini desserts.

Mini Pumpkin Pie Shooters

1 frozen pumpkin pie, baked, cooled and refrigerated overnight (I use Mrs. Smith's)
maple whipped cream
toffee bits

Layer small slivers of pie, maple whipped cream and toffee bits.
Top with crushed pie crust and toffee bits.
Keep refrigerated until serving time.

Maple Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream

2 T cold maple syrup

1 T sugar

1/2 tsp.vanilla extract

 

For best results, chill mixing bowl and beaters 30 minutes before making whipped cream.

Beat the heavy cream on high until slightly stiff.

Add the maple syrup, sugar and vanilla and whip until it forms soft peaks.

Classic Pumpkin Pie

We're still on a pumpkin kick around here and probably will be for a while.
It is fall after all!

I found this recipe in an old Cooking Light magazine.
Not sure what issue, since I am a recipe hoarder and tear them out of magazines like crazy.

I cheated and used a thawed frozen pie crust and it turned out great.

Classic Pumpkin Pie

recipe from Cooking Light

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 3/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. salt

1 (12oz.) can low-fat evaporated milk

2 large egg whites

1 large egg

1 (15 oz.) can unsweetened pumpkin (I used Libby's pure pumpkin)

1 unbaked pie shell (I used deep dish)

Position oven rack to lowest position.
Preheat oven to 425°.
To prepare filling, combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add pumpkin, and stir with a whisk until smooth.
To prepare crust, roll dough into an 11-inch circle; fit into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under and flute.
Pour pumpkin mixture into the crust. Place pie plate on a baking sheet. Place baking sheet on lowest oven rack. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° (do not remove pie from oven); bake an additional 50 minutes or until almost set. Cool completely on wire rack.






















Looking for more pumpkin recipes? 
Here are some of my faves:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Butter
Pumpkin Angel Food Cake
Pumpkin Spice Granola
My Favorite Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Pie Bites
Mini Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Pumpkin Cobbler
Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom  sponsored by Whirlpool and enter to win a new Whirlpool Range.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Chocolate Chip Cookie. 
Pumpkin.
Pie.
What a combination!

This pie is so easy to make and tastes sooooo good. 
Make it today.  Seriously.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

makes one 9-inch pie
Recipe from How Sweet It is

2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/3 cup pureed pumpkin (I used Libby's)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon pumpkie pie spice
1 cup chocolate chips
1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell
whipped cream or ice cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs until foamy. Beat in flour, sugar and brown sugar until well blended. Add in vanilla extract, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and mix until combined.. Blend in melted butter. Toss chocolate chips with a sprinkling of flour and fold into batter. Pour into an unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Bake for 55 minutes, or until center is set.
Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

“Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom  sponsored by Whirlpool and enter to win a new Whirlpool Range

Toffee Crack

Only a couple more days to go, are you ready???  I think I am. 
All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. 

My favorite Christmas ornament :)

All of them except the gift my husband and I are giving each other....we've been walking on it for about 3 weeks now. 
A new ceramic tile floor for our bathroom. 
Don't we give each other exciting gifts - ha ha. 
Last year we gave each other a new roof for the house. 
The year before that we gave each other a flat screen tv.  Have you seen the tv stands for flat screens lately?  So many more to choose from since we bought ours - not fair.

Anyway...I have lots of baking and cooking to do over the next couple of days.  My in-laws are coming from Texas and we are super excited to see them.  My father in-law loves this pie, so I'm going to make it for him for Christmas Eve.  I'm also making this for breakfast Christmas morning - so yummy!

I've also got to make more Toffee Crack.  I made it last weekend and gave it out as favors for our Christmas party. So yummy!  Got to run ~ lots to do!  Merry Christmas!

Toffee Crack

Saltine Crackers

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 bag chocolate chips

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Place saltine crackers all over foil.  Make sure the entire cookie sheet is covered in saltines.  Melt butter in a saucepan and add brown sugar.  Stir over medium heat until carmelized (about 3 minutes).

Pour toffee over crackers and spread evenly with a spatula.  Place in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and pour bag of chocolate chips all over toffee.  As they melt, spread evenly.

Top with chopped pecans or other nuts if you like.  Place in freezer to set chocolate.

Get ready to be addicted to Toffee Crack!

Family Vacation at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort

We spent 4th of July week at our favorite place ~ Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina.  We absolutely love Hilton Head Island, and of course anything Disney related is always fun.  My in-laws flew in from Texas, so we really enjoyed spending the week and catching up with them.  Most of the time we go out for dinner since vacation is all about relaxing and new experiences, but I decided I was going to make my Low Country Boil (click here for the recipe) for the 4th so we could avoid the crowds. We biked around and found this wonderful little seafood stand called Barnacle Bill's for our shrimp.  Barnacle Bill was so nice and he even let me take his picture. Wish we could have had those lobster tails for dinner, but the shrimp was definitely more afforable!

Barnacle Bill also had some nice tomatoes, so we grabbed a few of them for our salad.  They were so sweet and tasty! So our 4th of July dinner consisted of a Low Country Boil, Tossed Salad, rolls and my Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie for dessert.  See this post for the recipe - it's the bomb!  My daughter and father-in-law fought over the last piece - next year I will definitely have to make two.

For those of you that know about my Diet Coke addiction, this is my absolute favorite thing about vacationing at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort.  I know it's sad, but it's true!!!  As soon as we get to the resort I buy us these refillable Disney mugs.  They cost about $15 each with tax, but I can fill it up from morning to night with as much Diet Coke as I can drink for our entire stay!  I am in Diet Coke heaven!! I love you Mickey!

One of our favorite places to dine outside in Hilton Head is Scott's Fish Market in Shelter Cove.  The view is so pretty and the food is wonderful.  My mother-in-law ordered this Mojito for me.  She actually said I had to drink one with her!  Is she the best mother-in-law or what!  Scott makes a mean mojito!

I ordered this Grilled Shrimp Salad for dinner and ate every last bite!

Another one of our favorite spots is this little dive called the Sea Shack.  This restaurant is really small inside, but definely big on taste!  Each day they offer different sides to go with your seafood choice and let me tell ya....you want to go on the day they have Sweet Potato Cornbread!  This stuff is amazing!!!  I was lucky enough to get the recipe and will be trying it at home soon, so stay tuned.

Madison's favorite breakfast was her Mickey Mouse waffle.  Yes, even teenagers love Mickey!

Well I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of our family vacation and if you ever get the chance to stay at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, you should definitely go. 

Thank you Chere and Ron for a wonderful vacation!

Pumpkin Pie Bites

I found these little Pumpkin Pie Bites on Bakerella and thought they were adorable. She cut hers with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter so they looked like little baby pumpkins. Since it was after Halloween and I was making mine for a donor reception I was catering for work I decided to make mine look like miniature pies. I think they turned out really cute and they tasted just like pumpkin pie. I think they would look really nice for Thanksgiving on a tiered plate with some other bite size desserts.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

from Bakerella

2 refrigerated ready-to-roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup canned pure pumpkin

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

round cookie cutter

Optional:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

vegetable oil

ziploc plastic baggie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use cookie cutter to cut out 12 circle shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough a little thinner than it comes out of the box.

Press dough shapes into a 24 mini muffin tray (I used the Pampered Chef one). Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie. Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until throughly combined. Spoon mixture into each pie crust. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove pies to cool. Makes 24 mini pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a Ziploc baggie and cut the corner off. Drizzle on pies.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Have I told you how much I love chocolate chip cookies? Well you know what's even better? Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, warm right out of the oven with vanilla ice cream on top ~ yummy!

I made this last night after my daughter came home from cheerleading practice saying "I need chocolate!" I understood her pain, believe me I've had plenty of days when I thought I needed chocolate. Actually, I think that's pretty much every day for me, so I was more than happy to whip up this pie for both of us. Here's the recipe so that you'll have it for those days when you need some chocolate too.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

1 - Frozen Pie Shell (thawed)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter; set aside.

Beat 2 eggs in a mixing bowl until foamy. Mix in sugars and flour. Slowly stir in butter and then chocolate chips. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped topping.

Peanut Butter Pie

Sunday was the birthday of my daughter's boyfriend. He doesn't really like cake, he's more of a pie kind of guy, so I decided to try my hand at Peanut Butter Pie. I found this recipe in Paula Deen's Dessert Cookbook titled"The Lady & Sons Just Desserts". I just love Paula!! I took my Girl Scout troop to Savannah a couple of years ago and we ate dinner at her restaurant and it was YUMMY! You have got to try her Gooey Butter Cake - every time I make it I get asked for the recipe. It has two entire sticks of butter in it, guess that's why it is so darn good! Anyway, back to the pie. My neighbor, Jane, said that she preferred to use Dream Whip instead of Cool Whip for topping a Peanut Butter Pie, so I took her advice since she has baked a lot more pies than I ever have and it turned out really well. I even had another piece tonight and I think it was even better after it had set overnight.

Peanut Butter Pie

from The Lady & Sons Just Desserts Cookbook

Crust

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 T sugar

2 tsp milk

Filling

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 - 5.3-ounce box instant vanilla pudding

2 1/2 cups milk

1 - 80z. container frozen whipped topping, thawed (I used Dream Whip)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan. Blend all crust ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon and press into prepared pan. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until brown. Remove and allow to cool. For filling, using a fork, mix peanut butter and confectioner's sugar until crumbly. Sprinkle peanut butter mixture into bottom of baked pie shell, reserving a tablespoon for garnish. Beat pudding mix with milk for 2 minutes, using a handheld electric mixer. Pour on top of peanut butter mixture. Spread with whipped topping. Sprinkle with remaining 2 T peanut butter mixture. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

I don't know what my deal is lately, but I have been craving the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Not good at all for the bikini figure I have been trying to get for vacation, but so yummy I could not resist.....I even licked the paddle attachment and bowl of my pink mixer after making this pie!! You can find the recipe here. After I had finished making it, I decided the this dessert needed a little something extra....so I added chopped Reese Cups on top to really put me over the edge! Enjoy!