Herb Dip

Yesterday was Easter.  For the past 7 years, we've spent Easter with the inlaw family in Iowa.  They are just 4 hours away, so it's easy to spend holidays with them.  Even when Jeff was deployed, JP and I traveled to Iowa for Easter.  We've enjoyed visiting with family and Jacob has enjoyed the small town Easter Egg hunt that's held on Saturday morning before Easter.  This year was a little different. JP had his league bowling awards and a bowling tournament on Saturday morning.  On Saturday afternoon, JP and I drove to Kansas City to pick up Jeff.  He's been in Seattle for the past 3 weeks.  On the way home, we met up with some geocaching friends in Topeka.  It was a normal busy Saturday before Easter!  So needless to say, we stayed in Kansas instead of traveling to Iowa.  No family this time, just friends.  A lot of military families depend on friends during the holidays...and this year we had a great Easter with friends!

We had Easter supper (remember, dinner is at noon!) at our friend Amy's house.  The menu was not the typical Easter meal...no ham, no leg of lamb.  Instead, we had turkey.  Amy's son went hunting on Saturday morning and brought home fresh turkey!  Fresh, wild turkey tastes very different than the turkey you usually eat on Thanksgiving.  We had a great time with some great friends.

One of the things that I brought for our Easter meal was Herb Dip and veggies.  Everyone liked the dip and gobbled (haha) up the veggies.  You can substitute dried herbs, but the fresh herbs really make the dip shine.  You can also change up the herbs you use...I think some fresh tarragon would be great!

http://www.ifood.tv

Herb Dip
1/2 c. fat free Greek yogurt (or fat free plain yogurt)
1/2 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1/2 c. mayo
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. onion powder

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped (or 2 T. dried parsley)
Fresh dill (I used about 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill)  (or 1-1/2 T. dried dill)
4 green onions, sliced...use the white and green part (or 1 T. dried chives)

Mix the yogurt, sour cream and mayo together.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and onion powder.  Chop the herbs and add to the dip base.  Mix well. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours and serve with veggies.

Kelly's Cheese Spread

I met with my Bunco group last night for our monthly get together.  It was a night of chit chatting and playing Bunco with friends.  Everyone brings a snack to share and last night, I brought some crackers and Cheese Spread.  The Cheese Spread is a big hit, and I usually make a double batch.

Kelly, M & R

I first had the Cheese Spread at my sister-in-law, Kelly's house.  Her mom had made a big bowl of it and it was so yummy, I just had to have the recipe!  I've made a few changes to the recipe that Kelly gave me, but it's still very similar.  And yummy!

Kelly's Cheese Spread

8 ounces cream cheese (I use Neufchatel cheese)
2 heaping Tablespoons Cheese Whiz
2 heaping Tablespoons mayo
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons Dorthy Lynch or French salad dressing


In a food processor, whirl the ingredients together until well blended.  Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  Serve with assorted crackers.

Craig & Kelly

French Onion Dip

I follow many... several... ahem... a few cooking blogs.  I'm always on the lookout of the next great recipe!  Some recipes have been excellent, others...well, to tell you the truth, I've bombed the last two chicken recipes I've tried.  They were TLS (Tastes Like Sh**)  recipes.  And the funny thing is, the blogger said it was THE BEST EVER.  Um, no.  Anyways... that's not the point.  The point is I follow The Craving Chronicles blog.  Lots of yummy recipes!

A few weeks ago, a recipe for French Onion Dip was posted and I thought it looked interesting.  I love dip.  In fact, I think it should be named Scoop instead of dip!  :)  Jeff actually likes French Onion Dip, so I gave it a whirl...with some modifications, of course!  Here is the original recipe, which was adapted from Williams & Sonoma.
French Onion Dip

2 T. butter
2 large onions, finely diced (or 3 medium onions)
1/4 t. salt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. parsley flakes
1/4 t. chopped chives
1 2/3 c. fat free, plain yogurt
1/3 c. mayo
1/3 c. sour cream (I used fat free)

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add diced onion. It will look like there is too much onion, but it don't worry...it will cook down!  Cook, stirring often, until soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add minced garlic and salt and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the Worcestershire sauce. Stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Transfer to a small bowl and cool for 10-15 minutes.


Mix the yogurt, mayo and sour cream together.  Add the parsley and chives.  Stir to combine.  Add the onions and stir well.  Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.   Enjoy~

Artichoke and Red Pepper Dip

So I finally got my stuff together for my professional development session yesterday, and it went very well!  I even had a few teachers tell me that it was one of the most useful and exciting sessions they've been to!  Wow!  What a compliment!  Who knew Voice and Word Choice (Writing Traits) would be so exciting! To test your writing knowledge, what are the other 4 (+1) Writing Traits?  Check the bottom of the post to see if you know the Writing Traits!

http://writing.pppst.com/6traits.html

Dr. Laurie Curtis

Lina Brake

Anyways...that brings me to tonight.  I went to the Kansas Reading Association Meeting.  Dr. Laurie Curtis presented on Brain Based Research and how that effects student learning.  I've known Laurie for several years...she was working on her Ph.D when I was working on my Master's at KState.  We had several classes together.  Now that I'm working on my Ph.D, Laurie is teaching at KState and I've taken classes from her.  She's also on my doctoral committee.  A cool thing about Laurie is that she has the same name as one of my dad's friends...and he's a Dr. Curtis, too!  Long story short...well, a little shorter...I was talking to Laurie and my Bunco friend (and former colleague,) Lina tonight after the presentation about this blog.  I pulled my blog up and scrolled through it.  Lina wanted to know if I had posted about my Artichoke and Red Pepper Dip.  I have not posted the recipe to this yummy dip, so I thought I'd share it tonight.

So thanks for reading all about my presentation, Laurie's presentation, and Lina's request!  Enjoy~

Artichoke and Red Pepper Dip


8 ounces cream cheese (I use Philadelphia: Neufchatel 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese)
1/2 c. sour cream (I use reduced fat)
2/3 c. mayo (I'm a sucker for real mayo, so no reduced fat here...although you may try it if you'd like!)
1 can artichoke hearts, well drained and chopped
1 jar roasted red peppers, well drained and chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/8 of an onion, finely diced
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese


Soften the cream cheese.  Stir in the sour cream and mayo.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Pour into an 9x9 inch baking pan that's been sprayed with Pam (or whatever cooking spray you use.) Bake in a 350* oven for 15-20 minutes, or until heated through.


You can also put this in a small crockpot and serve it hot.  If you use a crockpot, make sure you monitor it...if it gets too hot, it will turn into a sloppy, gooey dip that doesn't look as pretty (but it tastes good!)


Serve with veggies, crackers, chips, etc.  You can serve this dip cold, also.



The Writing Traits are:  Ideas, Voice, Word Choice, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Conventions and the +1 is Presentation!

Pepperoni Dip

This past Friday was Bunco Night.  I play Bunco once a month with 11 other friends.  We get together, laugh, talk, de-stress, gossip, eat great food and even play Bunco!  I was lucky on Friday and walked away with $15 at the end of the night!  If you don't know what Bunco is, don't check out the Wikipedia site.  We are NOT middle-aged suburban women playing a dice game!  Instead, check out this site.  Here's another Bunco site with a lot of items for sale. 

On Friday, I brought Pepperoni Dip to share with my friends.  It's my sister-in-law, Kelly's recipe.  And of course, I changed the recipe up a little bit. 


Pepperoni Dip

2 packages of pepperoni slices, finely diced (I used Turkey pepperoni)
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature (I used neufchatel cheese)
1/3 c. mayonnaise (I used reduced fat)
1/3 c. plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 onion, finely diced
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1/2 red pepper, finely diced


 Mix the cream cheese, mayonnaise and yogurt together.  Add the diced pepperoni, garlic, onion, green and red pepper.  Mix well.  Spoon into a 9x9 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 305 for 20-30 minutes until it's bubbly.  


Serve with chips, cocktail bread, crackers, pretzels, etc.  I used Stacy's Pita Chips. 

I used my Cuisinart Food Processor to dice the ingredients.  It worked like a charm.  The only thing was I diced the green pepper a little too fine.  It was almost mush, but it still worked.  Next time, I'll decrease the time in the food processor for the green pepper. 

Here is my friend Linda.  She was looking at one of Mandy's cookbooks.  Linda had this cookbook when she was growing up.  She was telling us about "Candle Salad," a recipe found in the book.  Mandy swears she'll make Candle Salad for our next Bunco night.  You'll have to make sure you check back for the recipe and pictures.  It'll knock your socks off.  :)

There's a Hummus Among Us

 Hummus.  Yummmm.  JP and I love hummus.  It's good and tasty, it makes a great snack.  Funny story...when JP was about 2, we were visiting my inlaws.  My mother-in-law asked JP what he'd like for a snack.  She was expecting cookie, crackers, fruit snacks, candy, etc...stuff the other grand kids like to eat.  JP said, "I'll have some hummus, please."  She looked at him like he had 3 heads!  But alas, she didn't have any hummus and JP cried. 

I have a love/hate relationship with hummus.  I love it!  I buy it!  But I hate the price.  So I don't buy it.  I try and make it, and it doesn't taste the same, so I go back to buying it.  And the cycle continues...  So I've decided to experiment with hummus recipes and find one that I like so I can stop the hummus cycle. 

Red Pepper Hummus
2 cans Garbanzo beans, reserve 1 c. of liquid 
2 T. tahini
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 t. salt
1 T. olive oil (this is the time to break out that really good olive oil...the EVOO...the kind that has the greenish tinge to it)
1/8 t. paprika
1/2 t. cumin
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2/3 c. roasted red peppers, divided

In a food processor, whirl the beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, olive oil, paprika, cumin, garlic and 1/3 c. of roasted red peppers for a few seconds to mix everything up.  Turn the food processor on and add the reserved garbanzo bean juice until the hummus is in the consistency that you like.  (I added about 3/4 c.)  Taste the hummus!  Add a little more salt/lemon juice/olive oil/etc. to make it fit your tastes.  Once it is at the right consistency and right taste, add the remaining roasted red peppers.  Whirl a few more seconds until the red pepper is in small pieces.  Refrigerate.

Serve with warm pita bread, as a dip with pretzels, use instead of mayo on sandwiches, or however you enjoy hummus!


Review:  I've finally found the right combination of ingredients for homemade hummus for our tastes.  I like having the garlic pressed before adding it to the food processor, this makes sure the garlic is really small and you don't get a great big hunk of it, that failed to get chopped.  I also like that some of the red pepper is left out until the very end, so there are small nuggets of red pepper goodness.  In other recipes, more tahini is used, and this is where I was finding the biggest problem.  This recipe has a smaller amount of tahini that still gives flavor, but is not overpowering.  Enjoy~