It was all about Desserts!

As I mentioned in the previous post, the baby shower was desserts only. You should have seen the spread...you could easily go into a sugar coma just looking at it all. I'll give you a quick rundown before I tell you what I made....fruit (ok, that's not so bad!), 3 or 4 types of cookies, brownies, candy, baklava, lemon squares, apple cake, chocolate fondue, cheesecake bites, cupcakes, strawberry cake, eclairs....have you had enough yet? I haven't even mentioned the desserts I made. I know, I know...overload!

Let's start with the Grape Salad (hey, it has fruit in it at least...yea, keep telling yourself that). This stuff is 100% deliciousness. No other way to describe it so let's get right to the recipe...you actually have to make it sometime. It's perfect for a brunch (I actually had it for the first time at my friend Ashley's bridal shower brunch)! I got the recipe from her sister but I found the exact one online, so you can go to Recipezaar to see it.

Grape Salad

2 lbs of green grapes
2 lbs of red grapes
8 oz of cream cheese, softened (I used light)

8 oz of sour cream (I used fat free)

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

for the topping:

1 cup of brown sugar, packed

1 cup of chopped pecans

Wash and stem grapes. Set aside.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla by hand until well blended.

Stir grapes into mixture and pour into a large serving bowl (I used a trifle/parfait dish).

For topping: mix brown sugar with pecans. Sprinkle over grape mixture until covered. (I put 1/2 of the grape mixture, then 1/2 of the topping and then did another layer like that).

Chill overnight.

Next up is Quaker's Famous Oatmeal Cookies.

They were very easy to make and the dough was so yummy (yes, I tasted it...ok, a few times). The recipe on the oats container said to bake for 12-14 minutes. I baked for about 10-11. They were a little too crispy for my tastes as I prefer my cookies chewy. For 1/2 the batch, I added chocolate chips and those cookies turned out a little better. Overall though, tasty but not chewy and moist enough for me. Anyways, here's the recipe:

Quaker's Famous Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup of packed brown sugar

3/4 cup of vegetable shortening

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup of water

1 tsp of vanilla

3 cups of Quaker oats (I used Old Fashioned oats)

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 tsp of salt (optional)

1/2 tsp of baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, shortening and sugar until creamy. Add egg, water and vanilla; beat well. Add combined oats, flour, salt and baking soda; mix well. (I split the batter in half and added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to one half of the batter).

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Makes approx 5 dozen cookies.

More to come in another post....