I've been on a dessert dip kick lately.  Regular cookie dough dip, snickerdoodle, chocolate chunk, peanut butter chocolate chip dip.  Yum!  They're just so easy to pull together and as long as there is cream cheese in the fridge, I've got all the ingredients on hand.  

So when I saw this recipe for a dip that claimed to taste like Brownie Batter it was only natural that I'd try it out immediately.  And Canaan's birthday seemed the perfect place for it's debut because it makes enough to feed a crowd.

Frankly, it's not very reminiscent of any brownie batter that I've licked or dipped my finger into.  It's thick and creamy and fudgey where batter is thin and a little eggy.  But the dip is delicious no doubt.  And lucky for me, I've still got mounds of it sitting in my fridge and when the animal crackers run out, well pretzels are just the thing to dip next with their salty crunch against this sweet, sweet dip.

Brownie Batter Dip

Taken from Chef in Training

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. butter

2-3 c. powdered sugar (varies by desired consistency)

5 tbsp. All Purpose flour

5 tbsp. cocoa powder

2 tbsp. brown sugar

3+ tbsp. milk (varies by desired consistency)

1 tsp. vanilla

In a stand mixer, whisk together the cream cheese and the butter.  Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and 1 tbsp. milk.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, vanilla, brown sugar, and 1 more tbsp. of milk if needed.  Whisk all until smooth.  Add remaining powdered sugar and milk alternately until dip reaches your desired consistency.

Shrimp.  Brie Cheese.  Butter and white wine.  Fresh ciabatta from the french bakery.  A tasty, tasty splurge.

A tasty splurge that comes together in just a few short minutes of chopping, stirring and heating.

Broiled Shrimp with Tomatoes, Basil and Brie

Taken from How Sweet Eats

serves 2-4

1 pound raw, peeled, deveined shrimp

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup dry white wine

4-5 ounces soft brie cheese, cut into chunks

a bunch of fresh basil, some chopped and some left whole

chopped fresh parsley

lemon wedges for serving

crusty bread

salt and pepper

Make sure shrimp are completely dry and season liberally with salt and pepper.

Spray a baking dish [mine was 8x8] with non-stick spray and add in shrimp, then scatter tomatoes, butter chunks, garlic and some parsley and basil (reserving some for garnish). Pour in a 1/3 cup of dry white wine. Heat the broiler on your oven (mine does not require pre-heating, if yours does, do the step first) and place shrimp directly underneath. Broil for 4-5 minutes, or until shrimp appears to be pink in color and tomatoes are popping. Remove dish from oven and sprinkle brie cheese chunks over top. Place back in the oven and broil for an additional 1-2 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool, then sprinkle additional basil and fresh parsley on top.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping and lemon wedges for squeezing!

Hummus is one of the few proteins that Canaan will eat by the spoonful.  Of course his mouth and stomach are still little so if we left all the hummus eating up to him, we'd end up throwing out old hummus.  
So I like to change up the hummus-making routine with new flavors, like the addition of some jalapeno or sun-dried tomato. 





A Mexican-inspired hummus sounded right up my alley.  Cilantro and lime have me sold almost any day of the week.  It's a nice, bright flavor profile that still works well with sturdy, mellow pita chips.  It would be great to take as a party food, assured that you won't be doubling up if someone else brings a more classic hummus. 

Cilantro Lime Hummus
Taken from How Sweet It Is
makes about 1 cup

1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed  *I used dried beans since canned cannellini don't seem to be available here

1 clove of garlic, minced (more or less, depending on your tastes)

1/4 cup cilantro

1 teaspoon lime zest

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/3 cup olive oil (+ more to reach desired consistency)

salt and pepper to taste

Combine beans, cilantro, lime zest, juice and garlic in the food processor and blend until mixed. With the processor on, stream in olive oil until desired consistency is reached. I blended mine for a good 3-4 minutes to make it super creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pita chips!

Hello my lovely plates!  I miss you.  You are sitting neglected, all boxed up in suitcases until you and I find our next home.  

That's how long it has been since I made this salad.  And I planned to tell you all about it shortly thereafter.  But those apples, those pitiful, pathetic apples kept coming back to haunt me.  Apples all mealy and overly brown looking.  It wasn't the salad's fault that I had a bad apple!

Peppery and bitter arugula, a soft and a hard cheese, and sweet apple crunch.  Next time I'll do this salad justice with a perfect apple.

I love cheese.  Almost any cheese.  If you offer me a hunk of plain cheese I'll surely savor it.

But when I involve cheese and other people, it's fun to do something a little different than a wedge of brie on a plate.  I like to offer cheese choices.  Which means that I like to have an arsenal of flavorful, fast, fuss-free cheese recipes.  My spicy and herby manchego bites, my sweet combination of fig preserves, blue cheese and pecans and many more.  (Maybe this means I should make it my mission to photograph and write down recipes for each of them to share.)

This goat cheese is a perfect addition to many a cheese repertoire.  If paired against something traditional like a baked brie with preserves it offers a complementary salty side to your cheese concoctions.  It's tangy, it's briney, it's salty and it cuts through a buttery cracker just wonderfully.

Goat Cheese with Olives, Lemon, and Thyme

Taken from epicurious.com

Originally this said it serves 4, but I find goat cheese to be pretty intense so a little goes a long way.  Plus when you are serving it with all sorts of other cheese goodies overload can happen quickly.

• 1/2 cup assorted olives
• 3 fresh thyme sprigs
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 (4- to 5-ounce) fresh goat-cheese medallion or 2 (2-ounces) goat-cheese buttons

So we're packing up our house.  Again.  All of it this time.  Every last spatula, boot, and shampoo.  In a bag.  On an airplane.  Our place is chaos.  I've given up on the clumps of obscure papers and paperwork littering our table and coffee table.  Supposedly my husband knows what each pile is.  I've given up on clean floors or kitchen or three balanced meals.

But amidst the chaos and clutter we're also at a point where we are having to ask people to come to us.  We just don't have time to get it all done or a babysitter on call 24/7 and Canaan has had enough napless days of late.  So what to do with all of these people who we are so glad to see one last time?  If it was up to Nate we would just have the pizza delivery boy on a first-name basis with us.  But despite the many compromises I've made, that one is too extreme for me.  At this point anyway.  Check in again when all of my brand-new offset, stainless steel spatulas get lost between here and Ecuador.

There might be pizza.

But for now I found this cheesecake ball that's a start to a simple spread for company.  It takes four ingredients and five minutes of prep.  It's a refreshing bite that is slightly sweet.  And it's quite delicious slathered on a golden delicious apple.

Lemon Cheesecake Cheese Ball

Taken from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
10 oz. cream cheese, softened
2½ tbsp. sugar
Zest of 1 large lemon
4 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 graham crackers

Directions:
Combine the cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl.  Stir together with a spoon or spatula until well combined and smooth.  Mix in the lemon zest and lemon juice until smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a ball, wrapped tightly.  Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours.  Reshape if necessary once firm.

Coarsely crush the graham crackers and transfer the crumbs to a plate or bowl.  Roll the cheese ball in the crumbs until evenly coated.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

New Year's Eve is tomorrow which means lots of parties, a later bed time for most, fun drinks, good food, and a giant, overrated ball drop.

New Year's food often consists of a lot of finger foods and appetizers.  My husband's dream food.  So you're invited to one of these parties and trying to figure out what to take that it will be different from the same old, same old cheeseball or pigs in a blanket.

Well here you go:  brussels sprouts.

Seriously?  Brussels sprouts?  The vegetable that half of America refuses to get anywhere near?  Seriously.

I'll teach you a little culinary food trick.  Are you ready because it's a doozy.

Cook anything in bacon fat and people will eat it.

Oh yes, they will.  And with this one they'll pat themselves on the back while doing it because 1. they've tried something new and 2. they are snacking on vegetables on New Year's Eve.

Bacon-and-Cheese Brussels Sprouts

Adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray, November 2006

Serves 6

6 thick-cut strips bacon, stacked and quartered crosswise (24 pieces)

12 brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved lengthwise

Salt and pepper

2 teaspoons pure maple syrup

1/4 pound havarti cheese, cut into 24 small cubes

In a medium skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until cooked through but not crisp, about 6 minutes; drain on paper towels.

Cook the brussels sprouts in the bacon fat until golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes; discard the fat. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the maple syrup. Serve each brussels sprout half on a toothpick with a piece of bacon and a cheese cube.

I think salads are absolutely beautiful.  They are often full of a mix of vibrant colors, incorporating colors like pops of fuschia on a rich green background.  They are the food-lover's version of a fresh bouquet of flowers.  Because I find them so beautiful, salads are one of my favorite parts of the meal to plate.  A good presentation can really help make other less leaf-loving people excited to try a salad out.

I bookmarked this salad recipe simply because of the presentation.  The salad itself looked like nothing special but I sure wanted to try the crispy parmesan baskets out.  And I was not disappointed.  The baskets were easy to put together, fun to play with and made for a unique looking plate.  The parmesan was perfectly toasted crunchy, making it full of flavor.  But as suspected the salad itself was just average.  I'll keep making these baskets and filling them full of whatever beautiful fruits and vegetables I have on hand.

Parmesan, Walnut and Arugula Baskets

Originally from Taste of Home magazine, April/May 2009

Servings: 6

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts

SALAD:

4 cups fresh arugula or spring mix salad greens

1/2 cup green grapes, halved

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons cheese and 1 teaspoon walnuts over the bottom of the skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until edges are golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Remove from the heat and let stand for 30 seconds. Using a spatula, carefully remove cheese mixture and immediately drape over an inverted glass with a 2-in.-diameter bottom; cool completely. Repeat with remaining cheese and walnuts, forming five more baskets.

For salad, in a large bowl, combine the arugula, grapes and walnuts. Whisk the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over arugula mixture; toss to coat. Place 1/2 cup salad in each basket.

Three days. Just Canaan and I. Nate in Montana. Of course this meant meals were whatever I felt like. I find when I'm on my own I can easily survive with a piece of crusty bread, a little chunk of some good cheese, and a tasty, tasty salad - oh and a movie for night time. Luckily this lovely nectarine that had been sitting in my windowsill a number of days turned ripe just in time to be included in the goodness.

And goodness it was. Just another reason to wish peaches and nectarines weren't so touch and go in terms of quality and didn't have such a short season. Possibly incentive enough to move to Georgia or South Carolina where all summer long we used to stop on long road trips to buy peaches from roadside stands. Peaches and Dairy Queen were frequent lunches, a perfect fix for the summer heat and a way to avoid fast-food burgers. Of course, back then all I cared about was the cookie dough blizzard but now I'd die for a roadside peach stand!

Peaches and Prosciutto with Greens

Salad greens

Peach or nectarine, sliced

A few ounces of prosciutto, torn into pieces

Brie cheese, sliced

Walnuts, toasted

Dressing:

Apple cider vinegar (about 3 Tbs. for a salad for two)

Honey and dijon mustard(about 1 tsp. each)

Olive oil (about 1 T.)

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk dressing together in bottom of serving bowl. Add greens and toss to coat. Arrange remaining ingredients over top and serve. Die happy.

Cute looking pizza, right?  I thought so when I saw it in a magazine.  I also thought it might be kind of genius to have a runny egg yolk act as the "sauce" for the pizza.  After having tried it though, I'm feeling very lukewarm about this topping concoction,  Maybe if it did have some crushed tomatoes underneath that cheese it could have worked.

What did work, though, was the crust.  I took that from another recipe, thinking the polenta texture would work well against the eggs.  We both loved this crust and since, through an unfortunate (read: fortunate for Nate) misreading of the term 5/8 c. I ended up almost doubling the dough, we've been able to use it with other pizza toppings as well.  It's delightfully crispy and full of crunch.  And I've never had an easier time time rolling a dough out super thinly without having it stick to the counter, shrink back to much smaller, or fall apart transferring it to the pizza stone.

Polenta Pizza Crust

Adapted from the Costco Connection cookbook

2 t. active dry yeast

2 T. olive oil

1 t. kosher salt

1.5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

3/4 c. fine-ground polenta

Combine yeast with 1/4 c. warm water in a mixing bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.  Stir in 5/8 cup warm water, olive oil, and salt.  Mix in flour and polenta.  Knead for 7 minutes on a floured work surface.

Place dough in a large, oiled bowl.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1.5 hours.  Punch dough down and let rest 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Roll dough out as thinly as possible and place on a pizza stone.  Bake for 10 minutes, brush with additional olive oil and then add desired toppings.  Place back in the oven til crust is crispy and cheese is melted.