Jalapeno Popper Dip
30 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in appetizers, company's coming!, snacks
Hey all! We’re still here…but in our house, it’s baseball season x3 kids, so many evenings are consumed by practices and games right now, meaning I go straight to a few standbys for dinner!
I’ve had a couple of failures in the kitchen lately (pumpkin bread that turned out like rubber-how does that even happen?), but I’m moving on from those to give you this really delicious dip that is perfect for serving to a crowd!
Via Pinterest, of course, and approved by my small group as worthy of sharing! It’s spicy, but not at all burn-your-mouth hot. Original here, my very slight changes below.
PS…Listed below is the full recipe, but I made a half-recipe for small group last night, baking it in an 8×8 dish. There weren’t any leftovers 
2 (8 ounce) packages light cream cheese, softened
1 cup light mayonnaise
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
4 ounces diced pickled jalapeno peppers, drained (I used them from the jar and chopped up the slices)
1/2 cup shredded Mexican style cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Sliced french bread, carrots/broccoli/cauliflower, tortilla chips, or crackers for dipping
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an oven safe serving dish (I’d go with 9×13 or so) with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.
Using an electric mixer, blend the cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. Add green chiles, jalapeno peppers, and Mexican and mozzarella cheeses. Spoon this mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Mix together the Panko and parmesan cheese and sprinkle it over the cream cheese mixture. Spray the Panko and parmesan with a quick spray of non-stick cooking spray (or oil from your Misto!).
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the mixture is hot and the topping is lightly browned.
Fiesta Dip
12 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in appetizers, at least one kid ate it, company's coming!, Mexican
So, I just came to the website to figure out what I needed to make this dip for the teachers at school tomorrow. Had no idea I’ve never added this one! So yummy and so easy!
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
1 pkg hidden valley FIESTA DIP mix (same size envelope as hidden valley ranch pkg)
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Mix above and serve with cracker sticks or veggies. YUM!
Hot Chip Beef Dip
09 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in appetizers, beef, company's coming!, crockpot, snacks
My mom made this over the holidays and I remember liking it. I made it last night for bunco. Even better than I remember! It was a HUGE hit. I just put it in my mini crock pot and it was perfect.
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
small can mushrooms, drained and diced (Nic – just pretend that says fresh mushrooms
2.25 oz jar of dried beef, diced (I bought a jar where it was sliced and then I diced it)
1/2 onion, diced
I diced the onion and put it in a microwave safe bowl with a tiny bit of water for about a minute to soften the onion. Drain and place in crockpot with cream cheese, sour cream, diced mushrooms, and diced beef. Serve with small pieces of french bread. So. Good. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers
Chopped Dinner: Take 4
08 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in appetizers, at least one kid ate it, beef, chopped dinners, company's coming!, grill, side dishes, vegetables
Whew…this challenge is finally over! No more creative cooking for a little while
Dinner #4 in the Chopped challenge was Matt’s. His list was longer (because he was the oldest? I dunno.) but overall, pretty easy to work with AND gave me the excuse to try three new recipes!
Ok, so Matt’s ingredient list (which I accidentally leaked for those of you with eagle eyes last week!) was this:
So for the brie, I made these little Baked Brie Bites that were in puff pastry. Simple to make, and they were ok, but I think that Matt and I both prefer to eat brie bites the way I’ve made them in the past, which is these little brie cups. I’m thinking next time I make those for company, I’ll make some with pepper jelly and some with sweet jelly. I just used what I had on hand, which was strawberry jam, and the flavor was good, but so much jam baked out of the inside even though I felt like I sealed them well that the flavor was lost.
However, Luke and Jack Henry loved them and ate a few each, and Bennett had one and thought it was fine.
Moving on to dinner, which was Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes and Garlic Gorgonzola Steak. Oh. My. Goodness. Some of the best food I think I’ve ever made.
I’m not a huge sweet potato fan…not something I’d usually crave, but these were amazing (for the kids, I just used salt and pepper instead of the spice blend). Follow her instructions and you will not be disappointed. I did parboil the potatoes even though mine were fresh, but then they accidentally got left boiling too long when Jack Henry wandered into the kitchen with a fake sore throat and I was distracted away from my job for 5 minutes. Look at this pic compared to the original, and you’ll see what I mean…they fell apart but it mattered not…they were delicious.
The only change I’ll make is cutting my slices of sweet potatoes slightly smaller, about an inch tall. And I substituted regular chile powder for New Mexico chile powder…I don’t know the difference, but I’m thinking it can’t matter much in this recipe. And for the sake of using cashews in dinner per the Chopped list, I chopped them up finely and put the on each side of the potatoes with the spices. But, it really didn’t add anything, and I won’t do it again. (Bennett, however, was elated to see a can of cashews and put those on his plate instead.)
On to the steak. I did not buy ribeye as Matt requested; I got strip steaks, because I found a huge package of them on sale and they were better than ribeye, so I figured he wouldn’t complain. Plus, we almost never grill steaks, and we truly NEVER share with our kids, so this was a special dinner. Luke likes steak; the other two are fine with it, but seriously they’d rather have chicken or a hot dog, so it pains me to hear “how many bites of this do I have to eat?”
I seasoned all of the steaks as recommended in the recipe: rubbing a cut garlic clove over the steaks, drizzling with a tiny bit of oil (I used olive oil), and then sprinkling generously with salt and pepper. Next time, I’ll skip rubbing a garlic clove on them…for me, at least, it did nothing to give garlic flavor. I’ll use garlic salt and black pepper and omit the regular salt so we actually get some garlic flavor.
After that, Matt grilled them to close to medium for me, and as soon as he got them inside, I melted a very small amount of butter on each, and put gorgonzola on Matt’s and my steak and covered them with foil for a few minutes to help the cheese melt. It was recommended that you do this step ON the grill, but it was already dark out, and I was picturing it being too much hassle with falling cheese, etc. Know, though, that tenting foil over the steak will make it continue to cook, so that you don’t accidentally overcook your steaks.
Anyway, it worked for us to put the toppings on inside, off the grill. I topped the gorgonzola ones with the french fried onions, and that was it. Seriously, one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.
The leftovers tonight were great, too.
So there you have it! The kids commented that I didn’t get Chopped on any of my meals, so we need to do something harder next time.
Avocado Chicken Salad
28 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in chicken, company's coming!, Cooking for 2, salad, sandwiches
This was one of those pins that I couldn’t wait to try!
And it didn’t disappoint. I’m really partial to my own chicken salad recipe as far as homemade goes, so I’m always reluctant to try a new one BUT because of the avocado, I gave this a try. Yum!
The original is here, and the only slight change I’ll make next time is using red onion instead of green onions. I think that will make this taste like the perfect mashup between Chipotle’s guacamole and chicken salad.
Here’s how I did it, along with approximate quantities:
~3 1/2 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken (of course, you can cook/shred chicken at home, but I keep rotisserie chicken in the freezer for occasions like this!)
1 1/2 regular-sized avocados
1/4 cup light Hellmann’s mayo (really go easy on this…I may have used a bit too much, and you can always add a little more if needed)
4 green onions, sliced – or, next time, I’ll use minced red onion. Again, start with a little, taste, add more if you want.
cilantro, to taste
juice of one-half a lime, or maybe a bit more
salt/pepper to taste – using rotisserie chicken meant I didn’t need to salt this, really, but it did need pepper
Mix everything in a bowl, simple as that. Serve with crackers or make sandwiches. I’m a chicken salad sandwich snob, and if I’m going to eat it as a sandwich, I want it on a croissant or pita or mini King’s Hawaiian bread or something, so a piece of whole-grain bread just won’t do. And since none of the breads listed above are remotely healthy, I opted for a few crackers with mine.
i can't wait until there is still sunlight coming through my windows at dinnertime, so my pictures with my crappy camera are less crappy.
Enjoy!
Monkey Bread
31 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in bread/muffins, breakfast, company's coming!
This is Matt’s mom’s recipe, and it is the best! Perfect to take to a coffee with friends or when you have company at breakfast time.
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbl cinnamon
3 cans regular Pillsbury biscuits (not Grands)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
DO NOT PREHEAT YOUR OVEN.
Take a bundt pan and coat it with spray or butter.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl or ziploc bag.
Next, cut each biscuit into quarters, and then roll in the sugar/cinnamon mixture so all sides are coated, and then put them in the pan. If you want to add chopped pecans, throw some in while you’re putting in the biscuit pieces.
Melt the butter, and add the brown sugar. It doesn’t need to be a syrup consistency, but most of the brown sugar does need to be melted.
Pour that mixture over the biscuits in the pan.
Put the pan in the cold oven and turn it on to 350 and bake for 35 minutes. Let cool 5-10 minutes, and then flip onto a large plate, and devour.
White Chicken Enchiladas
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in at least one kid ate it, casserole, chicken, company's coming!, leftovers, Mexican
Pinterest – seriously amazing. Ok, the original recipe here came from pinterest. But, I did make some changes and used leftover skinny crockpot chicken in mine. So good.
- 10 soft taco shells
- 2-3 cups skinny crockpot chicken (original recipe calls for 2, I used more like 3)
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 (4 oz) can diced green chillies
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×13.
Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Roll up in tortillas and place in pan.
In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.
Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to a boil, you don’t want curdled sour cream.
Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.
Kayla did eat a bit of this. The other two wouldn’t touch it. One is better than none, right?
Grilled Balsamic-Garlic Crusted Pork Tenderloin
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in at least one kid ate it, company's coming!, grill, Pork
Thank you pinterest. Here’s another one from my addiction – pinterest. So so good. Original recipe here.
- 4-5 garlic cloves, finely minced or crushed (I just used minced garlic from the jar)
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pork tenderloins
- 2 tablespoons canola oil (if preparing in oven) – we grilled since we are having such a mild winter. wonderful.
Stir together garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a small bowl. Rub the paste all over pork. If you like or have the time, marinate overnight. If not, no worries, it’s still great! I did this in the morning and it was awesome.
Grill preparation:
Sear the tenderloins on all sides, then grill for about 20-30 minutes, rotating every 10 minutes. Grill until internal temp is 160.
Oven preparation:
Preheat oven to 400. Heat canola oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, add pork, and brown all over, about 4 minutes.
Transfer pan to oven. Roast pork, turning occasionally, until internal temperature is 160, about 20 minutes.
This was so, so good. All three kids tried it. Only one liked it enough to eat more. I don’t know why, but my kids aren’t huge meat eaters unless you count chicken nuggets as meat. Or lunch meat. Seriously, what is wrong with them?!? :)
New Year’s Day Dip
01 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in appetizers, company's coming!, holidays, snacks, vegetables
It’s tradition in some parts of the country to kick off a new year by eating black-eyed peas in some fashion, and for many years, we’ve tried to do this!
I know lots of people call this Texas Caviar, but I kind of think that’s a dumb name, so I call it New Year’s Day Dip. This particular recipe came from my parents!
1 can black-eyed peas
1 can red kidney beans
1 can shoepeg (sweet white) corn
1 jar diced pimentos
Put all ingredients in a colander and drain; transfer to a large bowl, and to that add:
1 cup finely chopped celery
3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1 bunch green onions, sliced thinly (I use the light green part, but not the stalk part)
In a small saucepan, combine:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Pour liquid over the bowl of vegetables, and refrigerate for a couple of hours. STRAIN BEFORE SERVING (so your serving bowl should not be full of liquid).
this is what it looks like before it's strained.
Serve with tortilla chips or Fritos – Scoops work best!
Martha Stewart’s Creamy Mac-and-Cheese
19 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in casserole, company's coming!, Pasta, side dishes
Holy amazing. This is the best homemade mac-n-cheese I have ever had. Little bit of a spice to it so my kiddos wouldn’t eat it. They did try it though BUT, I’ll still make it again. So good. Some neighbors had a get together with catered bbq and this was great with it.
Serves about 12 so definitely a good recipe for a get together.
- 1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for casserole (I actually bought unsalted butter for this and then forgot to use it and it was fine)
- 6 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces (really I just quickly ripped it apart)
- 5 1/2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tspns coarse salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 4 1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese
- 1 1/4 cups grated romano cheese
- 1 pd elbow macaroni
Preheat oven to 375. Butter a 3 qt casserole dish; set aside. Place the bread in a bowl. In a small saucepan melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour the butter into the bowl with the bread, and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside.
Warm the milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Melt the remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.
While whisking, slowly pout int he hot milk a little at a time to keep mixture smooth. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick 8-12 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar cheese, and 1 cup romano; set cheese sauce aside.
Boil pasta until outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone, 2-3 minutes. Transfer the macaroni to a colander and rinse under cold running water. Stir the macaroni in to the reserved cheese sauce.
Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup romano, and the breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
