Friendly Guacamole

I was planning our weekly menu and had a craving for guacamole. We hadn't made it in a long time and  Brett thought it sounded good too, so onto the menu it went. The next day, our friend just happened to give Brett some fresh avocados! What a wonderful coincidence! It reminded me of small town Arkansas where everyone brings everyone tomatoes from their garden. It is always so nice to receive fresh produce from a friend. Thanks Marie!

Our guacamole recipe came from my aunt Nancy and it is super easy and delicious. Thanks Nancy!

1 cup chopped tomato

3 avocados

1/4 of a chopped onion

1 minced jalapeno

1 T lime juice

1 tsp salt

I don't go exactly by the measurements, I just put what looks right. I definitely go easy on the tomato, but that's because I don't really like tomato. (We tried to make it once without tomato and it tasted weird, so just don't leave it out.)

It's hard to believe that I used to refuse to eat guacamole. I think it was the color and the mushiness that scared me. Who knows?  At least I came to my senses as an adult! It is sooooo yummy!

Yummy Hummus

I know it looks like another "tan" dip, but trust me this one tasted anything but tan.  As predicted, I made hummus this week for our "What do we do with the other half of this french loaf before it goes bad" meal.  I researched a few recipes online and finally settled on this recipe from The Barefoot Contessa because it contains no olive oil and I trust her. The only change I made was omitting the hot sauce (it didn't need it at all.)

It was incredibly easy to make, but would have been a lot easier with a full sized food processor.  Instead of just throwing all the ingredients in, I had to puree in batches, then stir everything together in a large bowl, and then smooth some more in batches. I didn't mind that much considering you all know how much I love to use my mini food processor.

This dip was FLAVORFUL!  Brett's first comment was, "Oh my gosh!"  He thought that the garlic was overpowering.  I, however, don't mind the spicy sting of raw garlic.  Hummus is supposed to be garlicky!  After realizing that we were going to have garlic breath for the next few days, we agreed that the next time we make this we'll roast the garlic first to take some of the bite out.

Baba Ghanoush/Hummus

Every week after eating Nacho French Bread Pizzas, we are left with half a loaf of french bread to deal with.  Sometimes we make French toast, but it's a little too sweet to eat every week, so lately we have been on a dip making kick.  Last week I adapted a Rachael Ray recipe for a Baba Ghanoush/Hummus Pasta sauce into a dip.

Brett and I are big fans of hummus (now that I've bought a big jar of tahini we'll probably attempt to make hummus next) and we have had baba ghanoush before in Greek restaurants and have generally liked it.  Baba Ghanoush is made from eggplant and has lemony undertones.

First I chopped the eggplant and garlic and sauteed that with chick peas seasoned with coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  I let it cook until the eggplant was soft (and thoroughly stuck to my pan.)  Lemon zest went in at the very end.

Then it went into the food processor with a couple of tablespoons of tahini (roasted sesame paste) and a couple splashes of vegetable stock until it was a good dipping consistency.

It was not the best dip I've ever had, and despite all of the spices that went in, it tasted a little bland (or tan as Brett likes to call it.)  The dip did have a spicy hint to it from the red pepper flakes and we could just taste the lemon zest.  If there is a next time for this one, I think I will roast the eggplant first instead of just sauteeing, that way it will save my pan and give it some extra flavor.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Although it took me until college to try it, Spinach and Artichoke Dip is one of my favorite appetizers to get in restaurants.  CPK has a really good one, TGI Friday's sucks (we don't even go there anymore,) and Red Robin's is by far the best.  So when I opened up my new cookbook by Ellie Krieger, I was not surprised to see Spinach and Artichoke Dip simply because, well, the title of the book does say The Food you Crave.

When I told Brett that I wanted to make it, he looked at me warily because he suspected, and so did I, that it would not meet our high standards and thus was destined to disappoint.  However, he did agree that we should try it.  I was excited because the point of the cookbook is to make healthy versions of foods that otherwise are usually not very healthy.  This excited me because I like to try and cook healthy, but at the same time it made me worry because healthy things usually sacrifice flavor.

Most of the recipe is made by combining everything in a food processor, so I got out my mini (another reason to get excited) and got to work.  The artichoke hearts alone did not all fit in the mini food processor, so I immediately knew that this was going to take much longer than I intended.  So instead of combining everything in the food processor like the recipe said, I pureed the artichokes and spinach separately and then combined them by hand with sauteed onion and garlic, reduced fat sour cream, mayo, Neufchatel cheese (which I guess is lower in fat than cream cheese but tastes pretty much the same), grated mozzarella, salt and pepper and then pureed it some more in (very small) batches.  This did take a while, but it came out beautifully smooth.

When it was done baking, the moment of truth had arrived.  I eagerly got a giant scoop.  It was delicious!  Not the same as Red Robin's cheesy oooey goooey deliciousness, but delicious in it's own way, and certainly more healthy.  Brett liked it too, although not as enthusiastically as me.  We almost ate the entire dish, but I was about to burst at the seams and had to stop.  I know what I'm having for lunch today!

I always think it bodes well for a cookbook when the first recipe I try from it is a huge success so I can't wait to try more!

Homemade Salsa

We went out for Mexican food recently with Brett's parents who were in town visiting.  The conversation predictably turned to my love of chips and salsa, and then on to my severe salsa craving while we were on our road trip this past summer, and then Brett's mom asked, "Have you ever made your own salsa?"  Of all the things we've made, salsa has never been one of them.  Since then I have been determined to make my own.

As luck would have it, when I was up at my parent's house, my grandma was making homemade salsa, so I watched.  I took mental notes of all the ingredients and watched her method carefully (put everything in the blender.)  My grandma was not pleased with the way it turned out, but I thought it was pretty good.  It just needed some extra oooomph.  It was too tomatoey.  Needless to say, her salsa was gone in a matter of days.

So last night I got out my trusty mini food processor and set to making my own salsa.  It felt strange to start making something without a recipe and with only a general idea of what I'm doing, but I managed.  I started with pureeing a big can of whole peeled tomatoes and then I pureed some garlic, green onions, and a red jalapeno (can you believe the store was out of regular jalapenos?)  I chopped up some fresh cilantro sprinkled some garlic salt and stirred everything together in a large bowl.  At my first taste it was too tomatoey.  For someone who does not like tomatoes, this is bad.

My remedy was to add more of everything else.  More garlic, more jalapeno, some regular white onion.  I was getting closer, but my palette is not sophisticated enough to know exactly what I needed.  I went with more garlic, onion and salt.  By this point I could tell I was close and had Brett in there tasting and giving his two cents.  He thought it needed to be spicier but I was out of jalapeno so I did a couple of shakes of Tapatio and called it quits.  It is not the perfect salsa (in fact I may have gone overboard on the onions and garlic) but I like it.

This experiment made me realize that I need to cook by instinct rather than recipes every once in a while.  I need to develop my palette and learn when I need more salt (I hate when the recipe says "season to taste," I can't tell!)  I know I have a long way to go in the culinary world, but I think taking this step out of the (recipe) box was a good exercise for me, and I look forward to more cooking by taste experiences.

Tuscan Bean Dip

It's amazing how we forget about about some of the cookbooks we have.  Lately I have been getting out cookbooks that I haven't opened in a long while and taking a gander.  This recipe for Tuscan Bean Dip was found was in my Food Network's Making it Easy cookbook.

Brett and I eat Nacho French Bread Pizza quite regularly but we are always left with half a loaf of french bread that sometimes goes to waste.  We are always looking for new ways to use the other half.  This bean dip seemed like a good way.  It calls for a baguette to be thinly sliced, rubbed with garlic, and toasted, but I figured it would work with french bread.  Of course Brett had different ideas about how we would be using the bread.  He imagined just cubing it up and dipping it in the bean mixture.  We went with his idea because it was less fussy (and boy am I glad because we certainly did not need any more garlic!)

The bean dip was incredibly easy.  I heated some olive oil in a small saucepan and cooked 4 cloves of chopped garlic until it started to brown.  When I took it off the heat it cooked for a while longer and I was worried that it would burn, but it didn't.  Then I put in some rosemary and a shake of red pepper flakes.  The recipe called for a tablespoon and a half of rosemary, but I knew this would be a disaster so I put a teaspoon and even this seemed like too much.  We let that sit and infuse the oil for a few minutes.

Then we put a can of white beans in my mini food processor with some salt and the oil mixture and let 'er rip.  Easy!  

It was good, but it was just too strong!  There was too much of everything.  Too much rosemary.  Too much garlic.  Too much salt.  I should have strained the oil before adding it to the beans.  Next time I will just put less of everything.