Cooking Club: Dips

Oh man, what a fabulous idea!  Nothing is better than a great dip, and this month we sampled a bunch of them (plus some pretty great wine!)  Ashley hosted (and showed off her beautiful house to all of us nosy folks) and we had a great time.  Check out some of the dips we enjoyed (at least the ones I got good pictures of!)

spinach artichoke dip

beer dip

baked brie

Reuben Dip

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A new fondue

This was the appetizer course for the Valentine’s Day meal that Tyler made for us.  We love fondue and are always excited to find new recipes.  Tyler looked at a bunch of different recipes and then put this one together, it is fab!  This one is definitely a keeper!

Gruyere and Fontina Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove

1/2 cup Riesling

3/4 cup shredded gruyere cheese

3/4 cup shredded fontina cheese

1 T flour

1/4 t ground cinnamon

dash of pepper

Directions:

Toss flour with shredded cheese (this prevents clumping).  Rub fondue pot with a garlic clove, then pour in wine and heat until bubbles rise, add cheese mixture a handful at a time, stirring constantly.  Once cheese is fully melted, stir in cinnamon and pepper. Enjoy!  We eat ours with bread and granny smith apples!

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Birthday Crab Cakes

Happy 26th birthday Tyler!  To celebrate I made Tyler a tasty dinner of crab cakes, pecan crusted salmon, asparagus, and couscous.  No dessert however, we are both completely burned out on sweets and still have lots of Christmas candy floating around if we need a fix!  I’ve been wanting to make crabcakes forever, but finding quality lump crab meat in Kansas that isn’t ridiculously expensive is quite a challenge.  So I bought a package of these babies at Costco for about $16.

and I whipped up a nice sauce to go with them!

Lemon Aioli Sauce (adapted from The Neelys at Food Network)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chopped chives (I used parsley)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

I also added about a tablespoon of dijon mustard and a pinch of sugar

In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients together.

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A taste of the garden

Now that our garden is starting to yield wonderful herbs for us such as basil, parsley, and cilantro, we have been planning our meals around what we can pick in our own backyard!  I had some leftover tomatoes from a meal earlier in the week (store bought, too early for home grown tomatoes!), so I decided to whip up a batch of salsa to make use of our cilantro.  No real recipe here.  I just threw some tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, fresh lime juice, and salt and pepper into the food processor and voila!  Delicious salsa!  I can’t wait to have jalapenos and tomatoes from my garden to spice this up!

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Feta and Mushroom Bread Tarts

I had these at Cooking Club this month and decided they’d be a good appetizer for Valentine’s Day.  Tyler surprised me with dinner on V-Day though so we actually didn’t have them until Sunday night.  We just made a whole batch and ate it for dinner!  Yum!

Feta and Mushroom Bread Tarts

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for sprinkling
8 slices white crusty bread
8 portobello mushrooms, stalks removed
4 large tomatoes, quartered and seeded
8 oz feta cheese, about 1 cup crumbled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
basil or sage, chopped to serve

Put the garlic into a small bowl, add olive oil, and mix.  Smear or brush over both sides of the bread and transfer to a roasting pan.  Put a mushroom on each slice of bread.  Put 2 tomato quarters on each mushroom and sprinkle with crumbled feta.

Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, then cook in preheated overn at 350 for 25 minutes until the bread is golden  Top with your chosen herb and serve hot or warm.

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Red Pepper Pesto

Ok sorry for the less than amazing photo but 1) sunlight is fading fast in the evenings and 2) this stuff was so good I almost didn’t even stop to photograph it at all, I was all “get in my belly!”  Oh man this pesto is good!  It’s good on pasta, it’s good on sandwiches, it’s good on bruschetta, it’s good straight out of a spoon.  We got a great deal on red peppers at Costco last weekend and Tyler promised he’d find a way to use them.  He found this Rachael Ray recipe on the food network site and whipped it up last night.  It made a ton, and it was a great alternative to regular pesto since basil is just too scarce and too expensive these days!  Excuse me while I go eat another spoonfull before bed   You need to make this pesto, and soon!

Red Pepper Pesto Sauce (from Rachael Ray)

• 1 cup drained, packed roasted red peppers
• 2 small cloves garlic
• 1 (3-ounce) jar pignoli/pine nuts
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, a couple of handfuls
• Salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it

Combine roasted peppers, garlic, pine nuts, parsley, salt and pepper and cheese in a food processor. Turn the processor on and stream in the extra-virgin olive oil to form a thick, pasty sauce forms. Adjust seasoning and transfer sauce to a large bowl.

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Cooking Club: Spanish Tapas!

For this month’s Cooking Club we gathered at Nemmie’s adorable little house to make some Spanish Tapas. She provided us with appetizers to snack on including various cheeses: Drunken Goat, San Simon, and Manchego with Rosemary. As well as some Spanish chorizo and Serrano ham. And these really yummy olives, don’t know the name but they were delish! We drank white wine sangria while we made a total mess of her kitchen and after a couple hours of cooking and chatting we sat down to dine on our creations! Thanks so much for hosting Nemmie, we all had a great time and got to try our hands at some new recipes and cooking techniques!

Portabella Bruschetta with Rosemary Aioli (from Epicurious)

fitting the mushrooms, caramelized onions (yum!!!), arugula, roasted red pepper/basil mix, and special sauce on one little piece of bread is quite the challenge but so worth it!

assembled and ready to be devoured

Patatas Bravas (from Kirsten’s Home Cooking)

Leslie chopping the potatoes

takes awhile to pan fry them but they are worth the wait! Dipping sauce is a mixture of onions, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, and other good stuff.

Oven Roasted Shrimp with Toasted Garlic and Red Chili Oil (from foodnetwork.com, a Bobby Flay recipe)

Jules and Branlyn prepping the shrimp. Trish keeping them entertained.

spicy and garlicy and oh so good! Definitely a crowd pleaser

and I couldn’t really tell ya what Nemmie is doing in this photo

For dessert I brought mini Florida pies and French chocolate raspberry brownies. Not Spanish but delicious nonetheless!

I did not capture photos of everyone, sorry Drewie and Nikki! I will get up in your face with the camera next time.

Last month’s Cooking Club: Risotto

Up next month: No clue, we need to get to brainstorming!

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Zucchini Fries

When the July issue of Cooking Light arrived last week I flipped through it while I was laying out by the pool. The recipes for zucchini caught my eye since I know they are in season right now. My father in law made these amazing zucchini boats last summer that I want to try to recreate sometime, but today I decided to use the zucchinis I got at the farmers market to make zucchini fries. These were not that difficult to make, although they do take a bit of time to bread and the you have to mix up the sauce as well (which involves roasting red peppers.) The end result was delicious and Tyler and I devoured them for dinner (they were pretty much our entire meal, what can I say I am still not over my cooking slump!) Tyler rated them an 8 out of 10. I kind of wish the breading had a bit more flavor to it but the sauce made up for it. We have lots of leftover sauce which I’m going to use to make bruschetta later this week, YUM! Definitely give this recipe a whirl if you’ve got zucchinis you need to use up!

Parmesan Zucchini Sticks with Smoky Roasted Romesco Sauce (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

Sauce:
3 medium red bell peppers (I just used 2)
2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup (1/2-inch) cubed French bread baguette, crusts removed
1 1/2 tablespoons smoked almonds (didn’t have so I used regular)
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika (didn’t have so I used regular)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 large garlic clove

Zucchini:
3 large zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup egg substitute
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler.

2. To prepare sauce, cut bell peppers in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place bell pepper halves and tomatoes, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten bell peppers with hand. Broil 10 minutes or until blackened. Place in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and coarsely chop, reserving any liquid.

3. Combine bell peppers, reserved liquid, tomatoes, and next 8 ingredients (through garlic) in a blender or food processor; process until smooth.

4. Preheat oven to 400°.

5. To prepare zucchini, cut 1 zucchini in half crosswise; cut each half lengthwise into 8 wedges. Repeat procedure with remaining zucchini. Combine breadcrumbs, panko, cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper in a shallow dish. Dip zucchini in egg substitute; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place zucchini on a wire rack coated with cooking spray. Lightly coat zucchini with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with sauce.

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Farmers Market Fresh

I made my first trip of the summer to the local farmers market this weekend and despite the disappointment of no dogs allowed (poor Toby had to wait outside the market) it was a great little trip.  I didn’t find the produce that much cheaper than what I could get at the grocery store, but I love supporting local farms and the produce just tastes so much better!  I came home with: beefsteak tomatoes, zucchinis and yellow squash, peaches, basil (this was actually my best deal at $1 a bunch), and green beans.  I decided to make some fresh salsa with the tomatoes and just kind of threw some things together and I think it turned out fantastically!  Next time I will try to buy all the ingredients for the salsa at the farmers market, I just kind of bought whatever looked good this time and planned some dishes around what I brought home.

Homemade Salsa

Ingredients:

3 beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
1/2 sweet onion
2 jalapenos, seeded
2 handfuls of cilantro
2 garlic cloves
juice of one lime
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your food processor and chop to your desired consistency.  I had to do mine in 2 batches since I have a small food processor.

Serve with chips or your favorite Mexican dishes.  Yum!

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Deviled Eggs

For Father’s Day we gathered with Tyler’s parents and my parents to celebrate together.  I had been looking for an occasion to use the egg tray my mom gave me for Christmas and this was the perfect opportunity!  This was only my second time making deviled eggs, and although I love to eat them, I find making them to be a frustrating process.  Cracking and peeling the shell of the eggs is the most difficult part, I always seem to screw it up somehow and lose a few eggs in the process.  I don’t really have a recipe for these. I hardboiled them, then soaked them in ice water, peeled and halved them, and then mixed the yolks up with some mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a bit of pickle relish.  Then I loaded that into a ziplock bag, cut off the corner, and squeezed it into the egg white.  Sprinkled with paprika and voila, deviled eggs!  The egg platter showcased them nicely!

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