Party-Pleasing Dips

These two standard-but-delicious party dips are bound to wow the crowd. I recently test drove them at the little rascal's 4th birthday party and both appeared to be loved by kidlets and grown-ups alike. The recipes came from Fine Cooking, which tends to have finicky but trustfully tasty recipes.

PART I: SPINACH-ARTICHOKE DIP

Everyone loves Spinach-Artichoke Dip and when you read the recipe you'll find out why! Complete with sour cream, mayonnaise and asiago and/or parmigiano cheese, its not exactly 'light' but tastes SO GOOD. Here it goes.

10-oz. package frozen leaf spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, and chopped
6 oz. can artichoke hearts, thinly sliced and patted dry
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago (I used some of both)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl, mix the spinach, artichokes, 3/4 cup of the parmigiano/asiago, mayonnaise, sour cream, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 3/4 tsp. pepper. Transfer to a 1-quart (or slightly smaller) baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup parmigiano/asiago.

Bake until the top browns and the inside warms through, about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve.

I made it a day ahead and then just saved the baking part for the day of. 

PART II: TZATZIKI

Another classic, but still stellar. When there's tzatziki in the house, I tend to eat it with everything... veggies, leftover meat, as a salad dressing. Not hard to make but sometimes a challenge to find Greek yogurt but high-fat plain works well also.

Kosher or sea salt
2 medium cloves garlic
1-1/2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt, preferably Greek
3/4 cup peeled, seeded, and finely chopped cucumber
1 Tbs. red-wine vinegar
2 tsp. chopped fresh mint
2 tsp. chopped fresh dill
2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)

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Spread 3/4 tsp. salt on a cutting board. Peel the garlic and finely chop it on top of the salt. Transfer the garlic and salt to a medium bowl and stir in the yogurt.

Put the cucumber in a colander and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. Add the cucumber, vinegar, mint, dill, and olive oil to the yogurt mixture. Stir to blend and season to taste with salt. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Draining the cuc's is tres important or else the tzatziki will be watery and fall off your pita into your lap.

 Happy dippin. 

A.

Fillin Goodie Bags

My task: healthily/ not so healthily create a snack to fill the 5(ish) year old party goers goodie bags. Ingredient I felt it necessary to include: Smarties.  Ingredient that caused said snacks to loose their shape: Smarties. Oh well! Kids (and Brittany... also my friend Hilary from Hilary Makes while we're here) love colours, so Smarties were indubitably kept. 


Without further adieu I give you my granola bars

"Lola Bars" (as Mathias used to call them, far before he was a whopping 4 years old)


1 and 1/4 cups crisp rice cereal (Rice Krispies were used)
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (flaxseed meal)1/4 cup finely chopped dried fruit (I used chopped prunes.. they were around)
1/4 cup.. (or way more) Smarties (or nuts, chocolate, other mix ins)
1/3 cup Agave Syrup (honey, maple, or brown rice syrup are great too)
1/2 cup nut butter (used a mix of pb and soy nut.. they were around)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Combine Rice Krispies, Oats, Flaxseed Meal, Dried Fruit, and other dry mix-ins in a large Bowl.


Heat butter and syrup until melted together.  I did this with 30 seconds in the microwave, then mixed in the vanilla.

Finally pour the wet over the dry ingredients and mix. That's right with your hands. No pansies in my kitchen. Though, my mother would have you know that pansies are one of the most durable and resilient flowers around. Back on topic. Press the mixture as firmly as possible into a pan of desired size and chill for at least a half hour.

Cut, Wrap, and Spread the Love


Recipe adapted from Enlightened Cooking


The real show stoppers are yet to come, hold onto your pants... actually you may want to preemptively loosen them.


Love from Above


B.

YAMONSTER

So, I have posts upon posts under construction dealing with the fabulous birthday of my fantastic four year old frere. In the meantime, I will share with you the mother of all sweet potatoes. Take a gander.

Behold our Yamassive Yamonster

                                      

Otherwise known as the Bradele lovechild

                    

Over and Out

B.

You'll never buy hummus again...

... when you discover how exceptionally delicious, dirt cheap and dead easy it is to make it yourself! The only strange ingredient that won't already be in your cupboard already is tahini, sesame seed butter, but its worth to buy a jar and store in the fridge because once you make hummus once, you'll turn into a regular. 

Recipe:

To be honest, I never really use a recipe so approach this as more of a guideline. Do plenty of taste-testing along the way until you have our desired consistency and flavour. 

1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas

2 tbsp. tahini

4 tbsp. lemon juice

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

- Rinse chickpeas well

- Blend all ingredients in a food processor until creamy

- That's it!

The ingredients above are just the basics but the possibilities of things to add are endless. I love using roasted garlic because it has a more gentle flavour and you can use more of it with out getting the garlic 'sting'. I also prefer soy sauce over salt and always add cumin and various other spices.

Today I added 1/4 c. sweet roasted red peppers, soy sauce, cumin, and fresh basil and oregano.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

A.

Gingerbread Oatmeal

Almost as good as cookies but you can eat it for breakfast. Everyone knows you're supposed to put cinnamon and brown-sugar on oatmeal but switch it up and use molasses and powdered ginger and voila, gingerbread oatmeal! I also added trail-mix, bananas and plain yogurt because all those things are wonderful.

A.

Spice of my life

Nothing beats cardamom...it's spicy and kind of like cinnamon and ginger but so so much better! It is mostly found in Indian curry dishes and Scandinavian pastries, which is pretty random but proves that cardamom is great in anything. Today, I found a new use for my favourite spice in Cardamom Crisps. I modified a recipe for Moravian cookies, which are a tradition from the Moravian Christian communities in colonial America. Careful though, these cookies end up being too spicy for church.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt 

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 molasses

2 large eggs

2 tsp. ground cardamom

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 1/2 ground ginger

1/4 ground cloves

Blanched sliced almonds, ground almonds or whatever you please for topping

1. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap, allowing some to overhang the sides

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt

3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy

4. Add egg and spices

5. Add in flour mixture in 3 parts

6. Pour mixture in pans, cover with plastic, and freeze for at least 1.5 hrs

7. Preheat oven to 400 F

8. Slice dough as thinly as possible with a sharp knife

9. Place on baking pans and top with almonds 

10. Bake until dark, golden brown, about 7-9 minutes

11. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely

These cookies were perfect with Bengal Spice tea. Although usually not a fan of herbal tea this one is amazing! Introduced to me by the H-Core paddling-phenomenon Katrina.

Cardamom rules.

A

Late Night Mango Madness - Mango Rustic Tart with Sour Cream Ice Cream

To continue with the jam packed food filled evening that followed our fun run ( still not having showered at this point, FYI) we decided to conquer our dessert dreams.  Stumbling through the interwebs, we came up with a winning combination to use both our heaps of mangoes, and our ability to make ice cream! Hurray Ice Cream Ball!

My heart was set on making a galette (rustic tart) to showcase the magnificence that is mango.  Along my foodblog travels I discovered an intriguing yet simple recipe for sour cream ice cream through The Family Kitchen.  Considering my history (as a child of course) for digging a spoon into the sour cream container, this recipe was a definite GO.  Through a combo of Cannelle et Vanille and the brain, the mango rustic tart was born. 

Adele set off to OWN our new found ice cream recipe.  And by OWN I clearly mean shake that ball like a stubborn baby for over a half hour!  

Filled with these ingredients:

• 2 cups full-fat sour cream, chilled

• 1 1/2 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla
• pinch salt

Just a note, we halved the recipe due to ball size. Ha. Haha. Ha. Dell is a pro at baby shaking and knew exactly when to stop, mix up its innards, and get right back at it.  The ice cream was perfection.

Meanwhile I took the Kitchenaid by storm and whipped together the crust recipe with aid from the lovely site above.

Short Dough:

• Just over 1 cup butter

• 1 1/8 cup powdered sugar

• 1 egg

• zest from one orange

• 3 1/3 cup flour

• 3/8 tsp baking powder (yes I was anal when converting from grams)

• 1/2 tsp salt

After creaming the first two ingredients in said magic machine, add the next two, mix, then last three, mixed. Then chill for a half hour (in da freezer) or more in da fridge, and roll that baby out.  I can roll a mean crust mind you, so I kept atter until the size was satisfactory. It was big.

Now came the real fillin

• three ripe mangoes, thinly sliced

• sprinkle of cane sugar

• beaten egg (for wash)

Decoratively arrange the sliced mangoes around the tart and sprinkle them with cane sugar before folding up the edges wherever you see fit.  Lightly glaze the whole tart with egg wash using a pastry brush and do a final sprinkling.  It should look roughly (and I mean roughly, It's a rustic little bugger after all) like my beautiful offspring below:

She grew even more gorgeous after being in a 400° oven for around a half hour.

Finally, talk about a power couple:

If you want your night to end sweet and satisfied, because it hasn't in a while, follow the above instructions, or find a new lover.

Catch ya later,

Bradele.