Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Ginger Lime Dressing

Here’s a very colorful fruit salad, perfect as a side dish for all your summer grilling. The dressing has a perfect balance of sweet and tangy from the unique blend of honey, ginger and lime.

Matt didn’t “rave” about this fresh fruit salad, but he didn’t complain either. If you’re looking to really impress your guest with a colorful table setting, you’ve got to make this. I thought it was good, and perfect for summertime. My only complaint… after only a day, the peaches turned brown, like you would expect bananas to do. Therefore, make this fruit salad just prior to serving time.

Enjoy!

Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Ginger Lime Dressing
Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger
2 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 2)
1 cup blueberries
1 cup seedless green grapes, halved

Directions
1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.
2. Combine peaches, blueberries, and grapes in a bowl. Drizzle juice mixture; toss gently to coat. Chill at least 1 hour.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup).
Recipe from: Cooking Light June 2007

Raspberry-Cream Cheese Muffins

I love raspberries. They’re tart yet sweet, they are great in desserts, yogurt, or just plain by themselves. Even though I love raspberries, I’ve never made them in muffins…until now!

These raspberry cream-cheese muffins are wonderful. They’re so good, you’d think you’re eating a muffin with 20 grams of fat, not 4.7 grams. They remind me of a light raspberry cheesecake, and seem to just melt in your mouth.

They are also extremely versatile. You can mix them up by adding blueberries, cherries, and dried cranberries instead of the raspberries. Let me know what you think! Enjoy…

Beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixer on high speed. Add the sugar, vanilla, egg whites and egg.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Pour flour and buttermilk mixture into cream cheese mixture. Gently fold in raspberries and walnuts.

Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.

Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack, then serve with fresh raspberries.

Raspberry-Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

2/3 cup (5 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg whites, and egg; beat well.

3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to cream cheese mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Gently fold in raspberries and walnuts.

4. Place 24 foil cup liners in muffin cups. Spoon batter evenly into liners. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Recipe from: Cooking Light

Yield: 24 muffins

Fresh Fruit Tart

I apologize for not blogging in what feels like forever. Between birthdays, family get togethers and just day-to-day work, I put Dallas Duo on the back burner, and I’m sorry! 😦

My birthday was last Saturday and mom made this gorgeous and delicious tasting fruit tart. I normally request Mrs. Kelm’s chocolate cake (it’s a classic), carrot cake or Oreo cheesecake, but I was in the mood for fresh fruit since the weather in Dallas has been so warm….it feels like Spring already!

This was a new recipe for us to make from The Barefoot Contessa, one of my favorite Food Network Chefs. The tart was light, creamy, sweet, and semi-healthy with all the fruit. My mother-in-law said the filling tasted like cheesecake.

In less than 2 weeks, we’ll officially be introduced to Spring, so bookmark this recipe so you can try it! Enjoy!

Combine sugar, graham cracker crumbs and butter and bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Prepare filling and refrigerate until cold.

Pour filling into baked and cooled tart shell.

Layer with fresh fruit.

Drizzle raspberry jelly (thinned with hot water) as a glaze and dig in!

Fresh Fruit Tart
Ingredients
For the Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (approx. 14 whole crackers crushed)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter

For the filling:
6 extra large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
2 Tbsp.unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. Cognac or Brandy (we omitted)
Fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
Apricot or raspberry jelly, for the glaze

Directions
1. For the Crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the graham crackers, sugar, and butter in a small bowl and mix well a wood spoon. Lightly press the mixture into an 11-inch tart pan with removable sides. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside to cool.
2. For the Filling: In the bowl of an electric mixture using a paddle attachment on medium-high speed, beat egg yolks and sugar until mixture is pale yellow and falls back into the bowl in a ribbon (about 3 minutes).
3. On low speed, beat in cornstarch.
4. Bring mik to a boil in a large saucepan and, with the mixer on low, slowly pour it into the egg mixture. Then pour mixture back into the saucepan.
5. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon, until mixture is thick, bringing mixture slowly to a boil.
6. Once mixture is to a boil, cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Remove from heat and mix in butter, vanilla, cream and Cognac (optional).
7. Strain into storage container. Place plastic wrap on top of the pastry cream and refrigerate until cold.

Assembly
1. Fill tart shell with pastry cream.
2. Add seasonal fruit.
3. Optional: Brush with glaze (melted apricot or raspberry jelly thinned out with hot tap water) to make it look shiny and pretty!

Recipe adapted from The Barefoot Contessa