Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza

I'm half way through my first rotation as a fourth year!!  My school is pretty neat in that aside from a few restrictions and requirements, we have free reign to schedule our year as we please.  I asked a pediatrician from my home town (Dr. Leibert) if he'd be willing to have me for two weeks, and he agreed!  I've been having a blast: we round on our newborn babies then have a fun-filled day in the clinic.  Because he works in a small-ish town with no pediatric specialists, he manages lots of weird and cool things, which makes for great learning.  So in conclusion, peds is the best.  Let's move on.

Fruit pizza is such a classic.  I saw this recipe on a show on the cooking channel and realized I haven't made it in forever!!  This recipe includes directions to make the cookie crust from scratch, but you could buy a tube of pre-made refrigerated sugar cookie dough, pat it out and bake it for an easy short cut.  This would be a killer Fourth of July picnic item :)

By the way, this is Cooper!  My brother Tyler adopted him today.  He is a 6 year old Shiba-Inu who was in foster care.  He's super chill and a great boy.  Perfect for Tyler (the king of chill himself).  He and Lady really hit it off!  (well, Lady tried to engage him but he just sorta ignored her...).

Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza
Adapted from Kelsey's Essentials

Crust:
1 1/4 cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp each vanilla and almond extracts

Frosting
8 oz fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Pinch salt

Topping
Assorted fruits, like
-All imaginable berries
-Peaches, blanched (boiled for 30 seconds to remove skins)
-Kiwi
-Oranges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a pizza pan with cooking spray.  In a mixer, cream together butter and sugars.  Add egg and vanilla, beating well.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, then add to butter mixture.  Pat dough onto pizza pan, spreading to edges (flour your hands if it's sticky).  Bake for 10-12 minutes, just until edges start to brown.  Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make frosting by beating together cream cheese and powdered sugar, then adding rest of ingredients.  Spread onto cooled crust, and decorate with fruit.  Cut with pizza cutter.

Meditteranean Dip

I'm sorry guys!  The blog posts are getting spotty, at best.  We're all busy, I'm no special case, but life has been in a (fun/exciting) tailspin lately.  I had my last day of third year yesterday (yay!!), which was also possibly the last day I'll do adult medicine (kinda weird, right?, but my whole fourth year is set up with pediatric rotations, and of course during residency I won't see adults).  I have the big "shelf" (end of rotation final) exam tomorrow morning, then it's a quick packing job and I'm headed home Saturday for Wisconsin Rapids, my hometown!  I'll be doing a two week rotation with a general pediatrician (who actually served as MY pediatrician once upon a time...) which will be super, duper fun.  Plus I get to spend time with family.  Fantastic!  Oh, and I take Step 2 of the USMLE (MD licencing examinations, no big deal) in like 5 weeks....so there's that.

So amist all that jazz, I offer you this dip.  It seems simple, but I made it for two get togethers with friends, and people were literally scraping the plate with pita chip shards.  If you're not familiar with hummus, you should introduce yourself.  It's a Greek-ish puree of chickpeas (aka Garbanzo beans) and it's delish and healthy for you.  I take some to work to dip crackers or carrots in.  Try it, you'll like it.

As a friendly reminder, in July I'll be posting some more "Stethoscope" oriented articles that I'm writing as a senior project.  I'll teach you all about diabetes (and why you should try really, really hard not to get it), how babies transition from inside the uterus to outside, what it takes to become a doctor, and who knows what else.  It might be fun.

Mediterranean Dip

1 container hummus
Your favorite combo of the following, diced to similar sizes
-black olives
-Cucumber
-Sun Dried Tomatoes
-Regular tomatoes
-Chickpeas
-Cilantro
-Pine nuts, toasted
Feta cheese
Pita Chips, for serving

On a large, circular serving plate, spread hummus.  Top with all the lovely Mediterranean-themed items in a hodge-podge fashion.  Top with feta cheese.  Try not to consume half the plate before your guests arrive.

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

So, I totally came up with this cookie recipe on my own.  I had no idea how it would turn out...but they are fantastic!!  This recipe was created from a need to use up shredded coconut and some old Easter candy.  (I needed like a half cup of coconut for the Hawaiian Wedding Cake recipe, and was subsequently left with 5/6 of a bag....I used some in my homemade granola, and the rest here :) 

For the chocolate, I chopped up some Dove chocolate Easter eggs that I had left over.  I was getting sick of them just plain, but it is a high sin to waste chocolate (obviously), so I threw the chunks into these cookies.  You could use chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips for all I care), but this would be an option if you find yourself with the good fortune to have a chocolate surplus. 

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp white rum
1 cup coconut, toasted
1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375.  In a bowl, whisk together dry ingredients until well combined.  In a mixer, cream together butter and sugars.  Add in egg, vanilla extract and rum, beating until combined.  Slowly add in dry ingredient mixture but do not overbeat!  Fold in the coconut and chocolate.  Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Sangria

Firstly, do you need a drink?  Sangria is a wonderful Spanish cocktail made from wine, liquor of some kind, fruit and soda.  It tastes kinda like a wine cooler if you do it right.  I made this red wine sangria for a barbeque we hosted last night (everyone enjoyed a glass or two :), but you could do it with white or rose wine as well.  I happened to have a big bottle of merlot taking up space in my closet (oh darn)...and decided this would be a good use for a wine I consider a bit too heavy for general consumption.

Also, be sure to fill the pitcher with fruit too...it's the best part.  Yum!  I like sturdy fruits like apples and oranges, but you could use berries, etc too (just throw those in close to serving time).

Secondly: do you have any burning medical questions? (or alternatively, is something burning that you're medically worried about?)  Incase you do, you're in luck!  I'm writing a series on medically-oriented topics geared for the general public, entitled "Stethoscopes to the Streets," as part of my senior project.  I hope to de-mystify diseases like diabetes, explain the amazing changes that take place when a baby goes from inside to outside the womb, tell you exactly what you'd need to do to become a doctor (if you're considering... :), etc, but I'm open to ideas!!  I'll be turning these articles in to my school for evaluation, but I hope to be able to share the "better" ones with the general public, probably on my blog.  If you have a medical question you'd like answered, either facebook, email, comment, whatever you'd like.  This will be fun, people.

Sangria
1 bottle red wine (I used merlot)
Simple Syrup:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water boiled until sugar dissolves
1/3 cup rum or brandy
Fruit: apples, pears, oranges, grapes
Diet 7-up, for serving.

Combine wine, simple syrup, and rum in a large pitcher.  Chill until cold.  A few hours before serving, add sliced fruit; allow the fruit to soak up all the booze in the refrigerator.  When ready to serve, spoon out some drunken fruit into a wine glass, and fill glass with half sangria, half soda.  Enjoy in the sunshine.