Patriotic Fruit Pizza

Can you believe that it is already the last week of June?  This year has flown by!

I'm really looking forward to next week, not just because it's a short work week (Mike and I both have Thursday and Friday off--yay!), but also because it's one of my favorite holidays.  I love the 4th of July.  The parades, car shows, chicken lunch in the park, grilling for dinner, craft shows, and fireworks, plus the patriotic attitude of everyone around is just so exciting to me.

Every year my hometown has a huge Independence Day celebration.  When I was in high school, I marched in the parade with the band.  Before then, I often walked in the parade with our church's float.  For the past few years, Mike and I have been able to go to the parade and just watch it.  Then everyone leaves the parade location and drives a couple miles down to the township park.  There are food vendors, crafters, a chain saw artist, and a huge car show.  There is also typically a children's play area set up.  I love how the community all comes together to celebrate--I think that's one of the reasons I love this holiday so much.

After an afternoon in the park, Mike and I plan to head back to my parents for dinner.  You can't have 4th of July without grilling dinner!  At least not in my family...  This year will be especially fun because (for the second year in a row) my grandma will be visiting from Canada, so we'll be able to spend the whole day with her.  Then, if we can make ourselves stay awake, we'll head out to watch the fireworks.  Yes, it's a full day, but it's one filled with friends, family, and celebrating our freedoms!

On Monday, I shared a recipe for Copy-cat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies and at the end of the post, I left a little teaser about what I made with the giant cookie.  If you haven't guessed it yet, I made this Patriotic Fruit Pizza.  I was inspired by my friend's open house, where she had a mini fruit pizza bar.  I knew that the combination of strawberries and blueberries would be the perfect topping for a fruit pizza, and what better way to design it than with a symbol of our freedom?

Fruit Pizza

Makes 2 large pizzas (approximately 20 servings each) or 5-6 dozen individual cookies

Ingredients:
1 batch Copy-cat Lofthouse Sugar Cookie Dough
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2 (7 ounce) jars marshmallow cream
1 pint blueberries, washed
2 quarts strawberries, washed and hulled

1.  Prepare cookie dough and bake according to recipe directions for individual cookies.  For 2 large pizzas,  roll each half of the dough into a circle, about 1/2" thick and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, until lightly browned.

2.  Mix the cream cheese and marshmallow cream together until smooth.

3.  Spread frosting onto cookies/pizzas.

4.  Cut strawberries into quarters, lengthwise.

5.  Place blueberries in the upper left corner of each cookie.  Arrange strawberry pieces in horizontal lines, leaving space between each line (to form red and white stripes).

Store decorated cookies in an airtight container in the fridge.

**Just a note:  One batch of the cookie dough makes a lot of cookies.  If you don't want to make them all into fruit pizzas, just make what you want, and then freeze the remaining cookies.  That's what I did and it worked out great.  You can also make one large cookie and a bunch of small ones--the possibilities are endless!

Here's another patriotic snack for your Independence Day Celebration:

Festive Marshmallow Treat Fruit Skewers