Sugary Sunday

Lately, I have been in the mood for desserts. I think that the desserts were the only thing I ate at our party on Wednesday. This may be a small part of the reason that my hangover lasted until yesterday. My favorite thing we served was the “Turtle” Pretzels. I can’t remember where I found these online, but there are a bunch of sites out there that describe how to make them. These are the easiest thing I have allowed myself to serve at a party. Here’s what you do:

Take a bunch of mini pretzels and place a Rolo candy on top of each one on a baking sheet covered with wax/parchment paper. Be careful if you are trying to use the store brand of chocolate caramel candies, because they didn’t work well for me. You bake these at 350 for 3-5 minutes or until the candies start to look soft. You don’t want them to melt all the way. When you pull them out of the oven, immediately push a pecan onto the top of the Rolo to mush the chocolate down. I stuck the whole baking sheet in the freezer for a couple minutes so they would set and then stored them in an air tight container. Delish!

I don't know what is going on with my sweet tooth, because this morning I was craving something sugary, too. I pulled out a recipe I learned at a Pampered Chef party and it hit the spot. I baked a cherry cream cheese ring on my Pampered Chef pizza stone. Here is the recipe:

1 cup of cherry pie filling
½ cup (4 oz.) softened cream cheese
1 pkg refrigerated crescent rolls
1 egg white lightly beaten
1 tbsp slivered almonds

Mix together cherry pie filling and soften cream cheese. Lay out crescent rolls on a pizza stone or pan so that the wide edges are in the middle and the pointed edges hang off the sides of the round pan. Spoon the filling mixture around the ring and fold over the edges to create a "ring". (This is the same process that I use for my Chicken and Broccoli Wreath.) I brush the egg white on the top of the crescent rolls and sprinkle almonds on the top. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.