Fruit Salad (yummy yummy!)

Remember that song? Yeah... me either....

As a kid, summer always meant no school, warm nights, pool parties, and great food. It's the season of grilling, cold pasta salads, ice cream, and my favorite: fruit salad.  If my body allowed me, I would live off fruit and pasta salad from June thru August.

Living in the Midwest we could eat my mom's fruit salad only three months out of the year, when the ingredients were freshest and in season. The same rule still applies to the produce in SoCal, but the quality of produce out here is simply wonderful. 

My favorite part about my mom's fruit salad is that there's no dressing: it's simply a bunch of delicious fresh fruits chopped up nice and small (she even cuts the green grapes in half) and mixed together. The juices create their own marinade.

How do you remove your strawberry tops? After working at the family bakery, I learned a special technique to salvage as much of the sweet, juicy flesh as possible. Read about it here.

Nectarines are what, in my opinion, make this dish. I have an unhealthy obsession with all stone fruits, but nectarines are at the top of my list. They're just so... sweet. And elusive since it's hard to find good nectarines most of the year. Be sure to wait until they're completely in season, otherwise you'll end up clawing at them, trying to pry the flesh off the pit like I had to with these.

Kiwi is another finicky fruit but well worth the effort to find ripe ones and going thru the struggle of peeling them since the flavor is excellent. However, if you're allergic it's NBD if you omit the fruit.  It's taken me a long time to learn how to peel the darn things and I still haven't perfected it. Any advice?

If you like a little bit of liquid, add a splash of orange or pineapple juice and mix well. 

While my finished product was amazing, made a great snack, side, and dessert, this isn't the full fruit salad. I omitted the pineapple because I couldn't justify buying a whole one for a half batch of salad (my mom makes hers crowd size). Plus it was $7 for pre-cut pineapple spears! That's insane. My mom also adds cantaloupe but I happen to not like anything melon. I know I know, I'm weird.

In July I'm going to make a huge batch so I can add pineapple, then maybe start a Fruit Salad Stand to make some extra cash.... oh who am I kidding? I'm going to eat it all!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Squares

Every time I use the oven in our apartment it's as if I've called upon the heating power of the Sun. Now that it's averaging 85 outside, me making dishes like Mexican stuffed shells, Southwest Egg Rolls, and Hot Ham and Cheese buns is akin to baking myself with the food. And forget about cookies.

Dessert is a real issue because I have a ridiculous sweet tooth, strongly dislike store bought cookies and pastries, and certainly can't bake anything at the moment. What's a gal to do? Then I came across this Kraft recipe and heard the Hallelujah chorus singing the praises of a no-bake treat incorporating peanut butter and chocolate. So I had to try them.

Not only do these babies not use an oven, but you don't even need to use the stove! Just pop everything that needs melting (aka butter and chocolate) into the microwave. To make these SORT OF healthier, I used natural peanut butter consisting of peanuts and salt rather than a brand like Skippy, Kraft, or JIF filled with preservatives and sugar. If you keep yours in the fridge like I do, just microwave it for 10-15 seconds to soften.

One thing the recipe mentions is "precutting" or outlining squares in the melted chocolate before refrigerating. Me being an expert at cooking, I thought that was totally unnecessary and didn't follow directions so when it came time to cut them, the hardened chocolate caused a bunch of random breaks. Lesson learned.

How do they look?

Are you drooling yet? 

Yes, they taste as good as they look.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Squares

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup all-natural peanut butter
1-1/2 pkgs semi-sweet baking squares (12 squares total)

Line a 9x13 dish with foil, folding it over the sides.

Melt the butter in a large microwave safe bowl on HIGH for 45 seconds. If there are still chunks, continue melting at 10-20 second intervals.

Add powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and peanut butter. Mix well. Use your hands if you need to... I did ;) Lay out and press down in the dish then let chill for a several minutes while you prepare the chocolate.

Unwrap and break all the squares in half. Put them all in another microwave safe bowl and cook on HIGH for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Spread over peanut butter then precut squares in the soft chocolate. Refrigerate 1 hour then serve.