Category: Task bar

Avocado + Cilantro = Love

Any recipe that includes cilantro, avocado, and salsa instantly makes it to the top of my list.  This one from Weight Watchers is very nice if you don’t mind a little kick in your dip.  I don’t mind.

Creamy Mexican Dip

Ingredients:

1 C. plain, fat-free yogurt

1/2 C. salsa (I used salsa verde, but any kind will do)

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/3 C. cilantro

1/4 C. red onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Garnish with more cilantro and onion, and diced or sliced avocado.

Serve with tortilla chips, or as a sauce to use in place of sour cream.  I used some of it as a topping for chicken tacos last week and it was delicious.  You can also add some drained, canned black beans to make it a sturdier, more filling appetizer.

Fancy fare: Black Forest Ham Crostini

Adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe, this super yum appetizer was easy to make for our NYE party.  Plus, it has great visual impact, looks fancy, and is really delicious.

Black Forest Ham Crostini

Ingredients:

A fresh loaf of skinny french bread

1/3 C. sour cream (reduced-fat still tastes great)

3 TB minced red onion

1 TB horseradish

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Fresh arugula or other green (not too pungent), for garnish

1/4 – 1/2 lb. black forest ham, sliced thinly (I got mine already sliced at the deli counter)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 deg-F.  Thinly slice french bread (about 1″ thick) and place on sprayed baking sheet.  Toast bread in the oven about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, onion, horseradish, and pepper.

Put bread on serving platter, and place one deli slice on each piece of bread.  Add a dollop of sour cream mixture and garnish with arugula or other greens.

Betty knows best: Deviled Eggs

One of my prized possessions is my first edition 1950 Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book.

It has amazing tips on how to be a good housewife and decorating a kitchen with polka dots… “Gayest, most colorful of all!”

Though perhaps slightly dated in its approach and it’s recipes (like: miniature pigs in blankets and pineapple marshmallow creme), every recipe I’ve tried out of this book has been amazingly successful.  It just goes to show that when it comes to classic American cooking…. Betty Crocker knows best.

This New Years Eve, I tried making Deviled Eggs for the fist time, much to the delight of my household and, I might add, me.  Simple. Creamy. Delicious.

Betty’s Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

6 eggs (hard-boiled, see below*)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp. salt, depending on your taste (I like less salty)

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

About 3 TB mayonaise, vinegar, or cream (enough to moisten)

Directions:

Cut hard-boiled eggs in half, slip out the yolks into a small bowl and mash with a fork.  Add the other ingredients and mix until creamy.  Refill egg whites with yolk mixture (you can just spoon it in, or use a pastry bag if you want to be extra fancy).  I like to dust them lightly with Paprika.

There are about 1,000 variations of Deviled Eggs, and you can experiment yourself with curry powder, diced ham, pimentos and the like… but I like them just like this.

If you don’t have a fancy deviled egg tupperware as I do, you can lightly squeeze two halves back together and wrap them in wax paper like a salt water taffy (twisting the sides tightly) for transport.  That is, if you don’t eat all of them before you get to your party.

*Just in case you don’t know how to make hard-boiled eggs, a brief tutorial:

  • Boil water in a pot.  The pot should be large enough for the eggs to sit in a single layer, and fill with enough water to completely cover the eggs.  Add 1 TB vinegar to the pot.
  • Lower eggs into the water one at a time, using a ladle and gently resting them in the water.  Lower the heat to medium-ish.
  • 20 minutes later.
  • Use your ladle again to scoop out the eggs one at a time and place them in a colander.  Place the colander in an ice bath to prevent the eggs from continuing to cook, not to mention they are too hot to handle.

Ringing in 2012

Your RSS feeds will likely be clogged with a bunch of bloggers’ resolutions today.  Rather than bore you with the typical “lose weight, blog more” goals that I share with all my fellow Americans, I shall ease your hangover with a beautiful photo diary of what my New Year’s Eve looked like.

The theme:

A classy beer tasting party.

The setting:

The fabulously retro party basement that lies beneath my humble abode

The menu:

Classic hors d’oeuvres including a fruit and cheese tray, deviled eggs, creamy Mexican dip, black forest ham crostini, homemade peanut brittle, and Dragon’s Milk Stout brownies (recipes to follow for the rest of the week)

Paired with:

Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Unibroue Maudite (amber Belgian-style ale), New Glarus Moon Man, Stone IPA, and a special New Glarus Raspberry Tart for the midnight toast.

Aside: I’ve had many failures in the kitchen, but this shin-dig (I flatter myself) was a delicious success.

Contributing Crafty Lady Nancy took these photos, and selected and sourced the beer pairings….

Black Forest Ham Crostini
Creamy Mexican Dip
Deviled Eggs
Blue cheese, Camembert, Asian pear and a clementine blossom
Milk Stout Brownies

Merry, happy, and a shot of Kahlua

Nothing says Christmas like a hot cup of cocoa with a blanket, family gathered around the hearth, and an overflowing jigger of Kahlua.

Instant hot cocoa mix

recipe courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients:

2 – 1/2 C. dry, non-fat milk

2 C. confectioner’s sugar

1 C. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 pinch cayenne (optional)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients until combined.  To prepare, mix 2 heaping tablespoons mix with 8 oz. hot water.  Add Kahlua (optional) and enjoy.

Delicioso.

Epic baking fail

As much as I enjoy that you believe me to be the queen of domesticity (…because, you do, right???), today I’m zero for two.

Here you see that I’ve overstuffed my slightly-smaller-than-standard loaf pan this morning with a delicious cranberry bread for Thanksgiving.  The lovely char smell now resonating through the house from the globs on the bottom of the stove are making me feel real good about myself.  I guess we’ll just have to eat this one ourselves and make another for “company”.  In spite of this miserable failure, this IS a great recipe:

Lauren’s Mom’s Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:

2 C. flour

1 C. sugar

1/2 tsp. each of baking powder, baking soda, and salt

3/4 C. orange juice

2 TB melted butter

1 C. cranberries (frozen, halved, and seeds rinsed out)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350-deg F.  Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add orange juice to melted butter and add to dry ingredients until well incorporated. Fold in cranberries (add chopped walnuts to batter, if desired). Turn into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350-deg F for 60 minutes. This loaf freezes really well.

Add to this failure my previous pat of on the back in processing our jack-o-lantern to make canned pumpkin for homemade breads and pies.  Apparently, the work schedule these days isn’t as conducive to pumpkin processing as it once was, and my brilliant idea to store the roasted inners at room temperature would (five days later) present itself as fermented, white-ish pumpkin goo.  I’ll spare you photo documentation of this, and instead offer you the plan B for “homemade” pumpkin pie.

Fudge pops make home improvement palatable

My co-workers asked me what I was doing for the 4th of July weekend….

Co-workers: “What are you doing for the 4th of July?”
Me: “Digging rocks out of my backyard.”
Co-workers: “Really? For five days?”
Me: “Yes”
When I bought a charming little bungalow, the backyard was shrouded by a blanket of white. When the snow melted, I was greeted by stumps, fountains (seriously), underground hoses (for irrigation, duh), and lots and lots of rocks.
In the middle of the yard.
Lots of rocks.
So two solid months of rock digging led up to a very special weekend, when the last of the rocks were finally cleared out, and, in it’s place, SOD!
As a part of this transformation, I was also forced to finally address the five or so relatively big maple tree stumps in the way.
The point is, working outside in the pursuit of home improvement is hard, and I can think of few better excuses for a homemade fudgy pop.

Homemade Fudgy Pops

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 C. sugar
  • 2 TB cornstarch
  • 2 TB cocoa powder
  • 2 1/2 C. milk
  • 1 TB butter
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
  1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cocoa and milk
  2. Heat on medium, stirring constantly, until boiling and thick
  3. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla
  4. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze until firm
* Pro-Tip: to get them out of the mold, pour a bit of running hot water over the mold to let the plastic expand and release the fudgy goodness.