Your Hot People Will Be Fans

Just going to the cleaners (and OK, Steinmart and maybe a few other places) in my car today just about killed me dead.

So. I'd like to say that it's too hot to eat.

But two things: 1) Most of you know me and 2) Who's kidding who?

I have never experienced a time when it was completely too hot to eat.

Oy.


Last night I had some lovely ladies here for Bible Study and we had the best time. Food, of course, is an integral part of any gathering because, well, EATING. And frankly we all know that verse that says "God loves a cheerful and well-fed Bible Study-er." I forget the reference.

I served a light dinner and these cool parfaits for dessert. My selections were based on two very significant culinary hypotheses: First, what can a person cook without turning on the oven (and ergo heating up the kitchen and the cook unnecessarily)? And secondly, what can one make from all the willy-nilly ingredients in one's pantry?

I'm clearly a scientist at heart.


Here's how it all went down.

1) I happen to have an unhealthy and almost scary supply of cream cheese in my fridge right now. This harkens to the fact that I made approximately a million cheesecakes in June and there's nothing worse than running out of the main ingredient, so it seems that I over-bought.

I whipped (to medium-stiff peaks) about 1/2 cup of whipping cream and about 4 T. powdered sugar. To that I folded in one pkg. of room temperature (a must!) cream cheese, a T of lemon juice, and about 2 tsp. of lemon zest. I put this all in a freezer bag and snipped a little hole in one corner to pipe into the glasses.

2) In the Vita-mix (still the best purchase ever) I pulverized about 20-30 ( don't listen to me -I have no idea, I didn't count) of those awesome crisp ginger cookies that World Market sells around Christmas. I had a brand new unopened tin. I know. I'm an over-buyer.

3. I piped a little of the cream cheese mixture in each glass, and then added some of the cookie crumbs, then a layer of sliced strawberries. I followed that with more of the cream cheese mixture, crumbs and fresh blueberries. The final layer was cream cheese mixture, crumbs and raspberries.

4) I topped the whole thing with some lemon zest and a fancy little piece of mint right off my back patio.

They were a refreshing hit.
And while I have to admit that there's the cream cheese and the whipped cream which some uninformed people might not consider light fare, there's also fruit.

Fresh Fruit.

So it's practically a diet food.


I should say that we typically don't have fancy desserts in pretty glasses with long stems. And by typically I mean never.
But the glasses were the right size and blessedly clear to allow the pretty ingredients to show through.

I have one left that I'm saving for JT. But he probably needs to get here in the next hour or so.

Fair warning.