Orange Breakfast Crescents

In honor of the Royal Wedding (After maintaining weeks of aloof disinterest, I finally got sucked in yesterday...), we had Orange Breakfast Crescents for a little light, late breakfast this morning.

These are light, airy, sweet, and delicately flavored with orange.  The perfect treat to take to brunch with the girls... or make for Mom on Mother's Day... or for your little girl's tea party.  Even my husband liked them!

And they're easy.  Have I mentioned that yet?  That's a prerequisite for any dish to make it to my "Breakfast Dishes I Might Actually Make" list.  See, I'm not a morning person, so I don't like to do much first thing in the morning.  I spread the cream cheese filling on the rolls and rolled them up the night before, so in the morning all I had to do was pop them in the oven and whip up the frosting.

Orange Breakfast Crescents
1 pkg 8-count refrigerated crescent rolls
3 oz cream cheese
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 350.  Blend last four ingredients.  Separate rolls into their triangles.  Divide cream cheese mixture evently among triangles and spread, leaving a 1/4" border.  Roll each into a crescent, starting at the long edge.  Place on a baking sheet (lightly spray with cooking spray if it's not nonstick) and bake for 15 minutes or until browned.

Frosting:
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/8 tsp almond extract
Combine all frosting ingredients while rolls are baking.  Spread over hot crescent rolls as soon as you remove them from the oven.  Serve immediately.

Note: You can substitute vanilla extract if you don't have almond extract!

The Rare Pear

A good pear is hard to beat.  My parents get the Harry and David pears at Christmastime, and I adore and cherish those bites of melt-in-your-mouth peardom.  But rarely am I patient enough to buy those hard pears at the grocery store and then wait for them to ripen.  Sometimes, if I do actually buy them and put them in a dark corner of our cupboard to ripen, I forget about them and find them two weeks later at a stage way past ripe.

Not these pears.  I bought them.  I stored them.  They ripened.  I shared one slice with my dear hubby and then I ate the rest of them.  Better luck next time, baby.

Chocolate-Nut Cookie Pie

This pie is delicious served warm, with a glass of milk on the side.  It's got a slightly crispy top, a rich gooey center (no doubt courtesy of the butter), and a decadent layer of chocolate and nuts at the bottom.

And it's easy.

Reason enought to make it tonight, no?
 

Just in time for shorts and swimsuit season, from my kitchen to yours...

Chocolate-Nut Cookie Pie
2 eggs
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c chopped walnuts and/or pecans
1 9" baked pie crust
Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy.  Add flour, sugar and brown sugar; beat until well blended.  Blend in melted butter.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake for 1 hour.

Falafel Pita Pockets

I love falafel.  Part of it is the name, I know it.  It's just so much fun to say.  Falafel.

We had them for dinner, with all the fixin's.  Tahini mixed with lemon juice and a little olive oil.  Homemade tzatziki.  Tomatoes and lettuce.  They were sublime.  When spring comes around, I gravitate toward these simpler, lighter meals.  And these falafel are baked, not fried!  I have to admit, their baked appearance made me a little nervous when I pulled them out of the oven.  But their texture is perfect.  Once you bite in, it's just creamy, well-spiced goodness.

Kudos to janecooks, the recipe-sharer at Tasty Kitchen!  Her falafel recipe will soon reside in my actual recipe box.

Fire Pit Night

We lit a fire in our fire pit for the first time this spring tonight.  Lovely...  You have the best conversations when you're sitting in front of a fire.

Garlic Butter Soft Pretzel Bites

I made these Garlic Butter Soft Pretzel Bites on Saturday night, after a friend suggested the recipe as something that looked good.  Normally, I wouldn't have the patience for a recipe that calls for not just one, but two, dough risings.  But I had some time.  I love pretzels.  I took the plunge.

And it was worth it!  I would definitely make these again, probably for a crowd.  Just the two of us finished about half of the pretzel bites as we watched an old Office episode and chilled on the couch.  This is not a healthy pasttime, considering what the pretzel bites are drowned in.  Garlic butter.  They are drowned in garlic butter.  It's as dangerously addictive as it sounds.

Some of the bites turned out a little crispier on the outside and some stayed a bit softer.  We liked having the two versions to try.

Go here for Foodie with Family's recipe!  And don't compare the look of our pretzels, please and thank you.  Yes, hers look cuter and mine are more of the pretzel chunk variety!