Cranberry Salsa

How?  How have I not posted my recipe for cranberry salsa yet?  It's so, so good.  The original came from a friend's sister about 8 years ago, but I have tinkered with it substantially over the years to make it just right.  I make it almost every Thanksgiving/Christmas. 
 

This salsa is really good, and rather unique.  It's sweet and tart, but also a little spicy and on the savory side.  It's actually kind of hard to describe, but I love it, and most of the women who have tried it love it as well.  For some reason most guys don't like it, but I did bring it to a potluck the other day and one guy came up to me to tell me that he loved it, so there are obviously exceptions!

 

I always serve this salsa with tortilla chips, but think it would also be great served over cream cheese with crackers, in the style of the traditional low effort but mind blowingly tasty cream cheese and jalapeno jelly appetizer.  It would also be an interesting alternative to cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving or on turkey sandwiches.  It would also be a good appetizer recipe to make if you expect vegan guests and want something different from regular salsa.

 

Quick Note:  The onion can get very overwhelming in this salsa, you really do not want very much.  A quarter of a small onion doesn't sound like a lot, but stick with that amount, at least the first time you make it!  Also, don't just dump everything into the food processor at once or you risk over processing the cilantro and cranberries.

 

Cranberry Salsa

 

leafy parts of 1 bunch of cilantro

12 oz cranberries, rinsed and any icky ones picked out

1 granny smith apple

1/4 small red onion (take the "small" part to heart!)

1 jalapeno, veins and seeds removed

3 Tbsp lime juice

2/3 C sugar

 

Pulse cilantro in a food processor and then dump it into a large bowl.  Add cranberries to food processor and pulse until they're finely chopped.  Add to the bowl with the cilantro.  Cut apple, onion, and jalapeno into large chunks and place in food processor with lime juice.  Pulse until as chopped up as you'd like.  Add to bowl with the cilantro and cranberries, then stir in sugar.

 

Let salsa sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving so the flavors can marry, then serve with tortilla chips.

 

Yield: about 3 cups of salsa

Fantastical Food Fight: Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

In the wake of the sad demise of Secret Recipe Club, I've decided to join another bloggy cooking group.  This one is called Fantastical Food Fight.  It's pretty different from SRC and I don't know if any other blogging group could take SRC's place in my heart, but I'm happy to give it a go.  With this one, all we have to do is choose and make a recipe from any source that fits a certain category (it can't be a recipe you've shared before), then post about it.  This month's assignment is deviled eggs.
  
My husband is crazy about deviled eggs and I make them fairly frequently.  Usually they're just the standard deviled eggs, which for some reason I've never posted a recipe for, or Deviled Eyes on Halloween.  My first thought was to make bacon deviled eggs (I even have cooked leftover bacon in my refrigerator right now!), but while briefly snooping around online deviled egg recipes, I found this one for Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs over at Country Living.  All I can say is YUM!  In typical form, I fussed with the recipe a little and added garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and changed the kind of mustard.
 
Verdict?  Good!  These would be nice to make for a special occasion, maybe Christmas.  Deviled eggs are often a rather impromptu thing I toss together and this recipe needs more planning because it has some ingredients I don't typically have, but that's okay.  It's nice to make special treats sometimes, and as far as special treats go, this one is pretty damned easy to make.  Next time I'll cut back on the cream cheese and add more cheddar so it has more of a cheddar flavor, and I'll use freshly grated cheddar instead of the packaged kind.  The amount of cream cheese in the recipe tasted fine, but it made a LOT of filling as is and adding more cheddar without reducing the cream cheese would just be too much.
   

  
Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs
  
12 eggs, boiled, cooled, peeled and cut in half
2 oz grated cheddar cheese
3 oz cream cheese (I used the whipped kind)
1/4 C mayo
3 Tbsp diced canned pimentos, plus more for garnish
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp yellow or dijon mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
  
Place egg yolks in a flat bottomed bowl and mash them with a fork until fluffy.  Stir in grated cheddar, cream cheese, mayo, pimentos, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.  Scoop a little into each egg half and garnish with a diced pimento.  Refrigerate eggs for an hour or so until they're cold all the way through, then serve.

Yield: 12 reasonable sized servings, more like 3-4 Mr Cheese with Noodles servings

An InLinkz Link-up

Creamsicle Fruit Dip

This is my tweaked version of The Best Fruit Dip Ever from Iowa Girl Eats.  It's really good and I've made it twice now.  Creamy, a little tangy, nice orange flavor.  It's kind of like dipping your fruit into cheesecake!  I served it with mango, apple slices, raspberries, and grapes, and they were all really good.  My husband and I both agree that this fruit dip doesn't replace Sour Cream Fruit Dip as our favorite (he even suggested adding cinnamon to this one), but it's definitely yummy and a nice alternative.

 

 

Creamsicle Fruit Dip

 

4 oz cream cheese, softened
5 oz container plain greek yogurt

7 oz jar marshmallow fluff

3+ Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
milk (optional)

 

Place first 3 ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with paddle until smooth.  Mix in orange juice concentrate.  The mixture will be quite thick, so add either more orange juice concentrate (which is what I do since we love orange flavor), milk (if you don't want it too orangey), or a combination of the two until it has about the consistency of ranch dressing.  It will firm up some in the refrigerator.

Yield:  About 12 servings

Secret Recipe Club: Mac & Cheese Bites

For Secret Recipe Club this month, I was assigned the blog Lori's Culinary Creations.  The author, Lori, lives in Utah with her husband and their parrot, kitties, and dogs.  They like to ride around on their Harley in their spare time!  Lori sounds like a pretty interesting lady to me, and as a fellow animal lover, I'd like to meet her and her pets.

   

Lori's blog is packed with tastiness.  I was particularly drawn to Jalapeno Popper Burgers (which I did actually make already, yum), Seven Layer Salad (which I plan to make soon), and the one I made for this post, Creamy Muffin Tin Mac & Cheese Bites.  About time I finally make mac and cheese for Secret Recipe Club!  This was a complete impulse recipe for me because I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand.  I did have to use egg noodles instead of macaroni because it's all I had, I used milk instead of wine (personal preference), and baked the mac and cheese in mini muffin tins instead of normal sized ones.  They turned out really well.  My husband prefers his mac and cheese unbaked and had his straight from the pot, he really liked it and gave it a score of 9/10.  He is very picky about mac and cheese, so that's a great rating!  He did admit to liking the muffin bites as well.  

  

I don't know that I'll go out of my way to make the bites just for us again, but I can definitely see myself making them for an appetizer to bring to someone's house (they're very good room temperature) or as a lunch for kids.  We will definitely have the base mac and cheese recipe again though because it was really good.  Thanks, Lori!

   

 

Mac & Cheese Bites

  

10 oz macaroni by weight

3 Tbsp butter

1 clove garlic, minced

4 Tbsp flour

2 1/2 C milk

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

4 oz grated swiss cheese

8 oz grated cheddar cheese

small amount extra cheddar for garnish

paprika, for garnish

  

Preheat oven to 425 and grease a 24 cup mini muffin tin.

 

Boil macaroni until al dente in a pot of salted water.  Drain and return to the pot.

 

Make the sauce while the macaroni cooks.  Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium-high and add garlic, cook until it just starts to turn golden.  Add flour and cook and stir for a minute, until flour is smooth.  Whisk in milk 1/4 C at a time  for the first cup and a half, making sure the sauce is smooth between additions, then add the rest.  Stir constantly until sauce comes to a simmer, then continue to simmer while stirring for a minute or two.  Remove from heat, whisk in mustard and salt, then stir in cheese until smooth.  Stir sauce unto cooked macaroni.  Spoon mac and cheese into greased mini muffin tin (you will have extra), sprinkle with a little extra cheddar and paprika, and bake at 425 until golden on top, about 12 minutes.  Remove muffin tin from oven and let them sit for 10 minutes or so before carefully removing them, blotting off any excess grease with paper towels, and serving.

 

Yield: 24 mac and cheese bites, plus a bowl or two extra to have for lunch!

An InLinkz Link-up

<!-- end InLinkz script —>

Will It Waffle #1: Toasted Cheese Wavioli

Welcome to my very first Will It Waffle post!  I came upon Daniel Shumski's cookbook Will It Waffle a few months ago (he also has a blog) when I first made Cheddar Bacon Potato Waffles, and was immediately intrigued.  Shumski has posted several of his recipes in assorted places on the internet, and they all looked really good to me.  I had the chance to flip through the book at a book store and was no less intrigued.  Rarely have I seen a cookbook that I wanted to make almost everything from!  This inspired me to attempt to make every recipe from Will It Waffle, and post about each one.  My interest in the book aside, it seemed like a good choice because there are only 53 recipes (no Mastering the Art of French Cooking, thankfully!) and they span snacks, breakfast, main dish, and desserts, so there's a lot of variety.

 

My plan here is pretty flexible at this point.  I'd like to make at least 2 Will It Waffle recipes per month, so it will probably take me about 2 years to waffle my way through the entire book.  Maybe longer, knowing me.  For each recipe, I will write a recipe intro, describe what I changed, how it turned out, if I think it actually benefited from a trip through the waffle iron, what I'd change next time, and whether I would make the recipe again.  I will then post the recipe itself, but with whatever changes I made.  For anyone who has poked around on my blog, it's obvious that I like to tinker with recipes.  For this little project, I will attempt to keep tinkering to a minimum, but won't hesitate if I think sticking to the recipe would lead to inedible results.  For example, for this recipe, I didn't add any garlic powder because my bread crumbs already had 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and a teaspoon of garlic powder would have absolutely been overwhelming.  Additionally, we would have been eating raw ravioli if I'd pulled them out of the waffle iron after only 2 minutes, so I noted 2 to 4 minutes of cook time in the recipe.

 

Let the waffling begin!

 

For my first recipe from Will It Waffle, I chose Toasted Cheese Wavioli.  It just sounded like a fun recipe to kick of my waffling adventure with.  The recipe is just purchased ravioli rolled in bread crumbs and toasted in the waffle iron.  It calls for seasoned bread crumbs, but the kind in the cardboard can have never appealed to me.  They're just dry and salty and blah.  My husband has aptly named them Bread Dust.  I wanted better for my ravioli, so I made my own bread crumbs using sandwich bread from my pantry and this recipe, but toasted them in a large skillet until golden instead of in the oven.  They were really yummy and the recipe conveniently made exactly 1 C of bread crumbs!  

 

What did I change?  I left out the garlic powder because my bread crumbs already had 1 tsp garlic powder as an ingredient.  I would also be careful with adding any extra salt if you choose to use packaged, pre-seasoned bread crumbs.  Also, I had enough of the egg mixture and bread crumbs to make a full pound of ravioli, rather than the 8 oz in the recipe!  This may be because I used very large spinach and cheese filled ravioli from Sam's Club.  Perhaps you go through more bread crumbs with the smaller variety.  I also had to cook my ravioli for 4 minutes instead of the 2 minutes stated in the original recipe.

 

How did the recipe turn out?  Quite well!  Pretty much exactly how I hoped.  They're crunchy, toasty, and yummy.  Easy to make, too!

 

Did the recipe benefit from waffling?  Honestly, I'm not sure.  They were good, but I think they may have turned out just as well in the oven.  No regrets, though, this method was almost surely quicker than the oven and was certainly tasty.

 

What would I change next time?  The only thing I can think of is to try mixing the olive oil into the bread crumbs instead of into the milk so the ravioli would have more of that fried texture.  I'm not sure this will actually work, but it's worth a try!

 

Would I make this recipe again?  Yes!  They turned out pretty well and were fun.  My husband really liked them and gave them a rating of 9/10.  I would say more of an 8/10, but liked them enough that I would enjoy making (and eating) them again.  I think they would make a creative appetizer for guests.  We had them for dinner with salad on the side, and I can see serving them like that again.

  

  

Toasted Cheese Wavioli

 

1 C seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 tsp salt (only if your bread crumbs don't have salt added)

1/2 tsp garlic powder (only if your bread crumbs don't have garlic powder added)

1 egg

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 C milk

8 to 16 oz refrigerated cheese ravioli (mine were quite large, see note above)

1 C marinara sauce (I used this recipe)

 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and preheat waffle iron to medium.

 

On a plate, stir together bread crumbs, salt, and garlic powder.  Set aside.

 

Crack egg into a small bowl and beat with a fork.  Stir in olive oil and milk.  Set aside.

 

One at a time, dip ravioli into egg mixture, then coat thoroughly with bread crumbs.  Set on a piece of parchment paper next to your waffle iron.  Repeat with remaining ravioli.

 

Spray waffle iron with nonstick spray and fill waffle iron with as many ravioli as will fit in a single layer.  Close waffle iron and cook for 2 minutes, then lift lid to check on them.  If they aren't yet golden and toasty looking, close the waffle iron and cook for another minute or 2.  Mine took 4 minutes per batch.

 

Remove ravioli from waffle iron and place on an oven safe plate in the oven to stay warm while you cook the rest.

 

Serve ravioli with warm marinara sauce.

Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels

This is another recipe from Macaroni and Cheesecake.  We love buffalo chicken, so of course it caught my eye.  I've had bad luck in the past with refrigerated tortilla rolls getting soggy, but these ones were fine.  I used a mixture of new tortillas and slightly stale ones.  The stale ones softened perfectly and the fresh ones were a little softer than that, but still okay.  This is an appetizer recipe, but we actually had them for dinner and loved them!  When I make them for dinner next time, I'm going to cut the cream cheese in half.  They were fine this way, but a bit richer than I would prefer for a main dish.

Quick Note:  I used my food processor to grate the cheddar, chop the green onions, and shred the chicken.

Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I used the breasts from a rotisserie chicken)
2 green onions, finely chopped
8 oz soft style cream cheese, softened briefly in the microwave (this is the cream cheese in a little tub)
1 1/4 C finely grated cheddar cheese
1/2 C Frank's Red Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons dry ranch dressing mix (I used my own)
8 six inch flour tortillas

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except flour tortillas.  Stir until well combined.  Place 1/8 of mixture on each tortilla and spread evenly to the edges with a spatula.  Roll tortillas up tightly, place on a plate, and keep covered in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  To serve, slice rolls into 3/4 inch wide pinwheels and arrange on a plate.

The pinwheels keep nicely in the refrigerator for a few days.  I experimented with placing two of the rolls in the freezer and will update after they've thawed.

Yield: 8 servings as a main dish and probably about 25 as an appetizer.

Copycat Frito Lay Bean Dip

This is just a really tasty, easy, and CHEAP recipe for bean dip.  We think it's better than the canned stuff from Frito Lay.  It has more flavor, as well as a definite spicy kick.  You could also make two batches of this for the price of one tiny can of bean dip!  I found the recipe over at Food.com and it's basically perfect exactly as written.

Copycat Frito Lay Bean Dip

1 can refried beans (check the ingredients if you want to make your dip vegetarian or vegan!)
2-5 jarred jalapeno slices (depending on how spicy you want it)
1 Tbsp brine from the jar of jalapeno slices
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Blend all ingredients in a food processor, or alternatively, place everything in a smallish bowl and blend it with an immersion blender until smooth.  Serve with corn chips or tortilla chips, or you can make a quick lunch by spreading some on a flour tortilla, sprinkling with a bit of shredded cheddar, and rolling it up.

Yield: About 8 servings

Cheese Straws

Okay, yesterday I said I'd sit on this recipe until I make them again next year since I didn't have the cayenne pepper amount quite right.  They turned out less hot than I wanted (though extremely flavorful!) so I sprinkled cayenne pepper on some of them before baking.  My plan was to up the amount of cayenne pepper in the actual dough next year and then post the recipe here with that amount included.  However, many of the cheese straws went to work with my husband and he returned home with feedback that his coworkers (all guys who usually like spicy stuff) preferred the cheese straws without the extra cayenne on top.  Also, I'm pretty sure the ones without extra pepper would be fine for kids and people who don't like hot things.  Decided to just go on ahead and post the recipe as is with the recommendation to either add more cayenne pepper in the dough or sprinkle some extra on top if you want them hotter.  My in-laws are visiting for Christmas and I'm actually glad I made the cheese straws as I did, because they'll be able to enjoy the less spicy ones while my husband and I eat the ones with extra cayenne.

Until I made these the other day, I'd only had cheese straws once in my life.  On one of the Christmases I spent with my dad in Louisiana as a teenager, lots of neighbors and friends gave him tins of treats.  One of those tins contained cheese straws!  Neither my dad nor I have all that much of a sweet tooth, and the cookies all went neglected because we only had eyes for the cheese straws.  They were so cheesy, crunchy, and very spicy.  I don't have an especially high tolerance for hot things, but loved those cheese straws.  Yum. 

A few nights ago, I got to thinking about how good they were, and decided to try to make some myself!  Basically picked this recipe from the Food Network because it had the highest cheese to flour ratio of all the recipes I saw, and cheese is of course what it's all about.  I then halved the recipe but kept the amount of cayenne and black pepper the same and added some other spices.  I also used my cookie press with a flat extruder plate to make long, rectangular crackers, then cut them in half down the middle and slightly separated them on the cookie sheet, but you could roll the dough out and cut it into long, skinny strips instead.  Lucky for me, the cheese straws turned out extremely well and basically just like I remember, especially the ones with the extra cayenne sprinkled on top!  My husband loved them just as much, if not more.  They're very similar to a cheese cracker, but richer, cheesier, and just all around better.  I can't promise these will be made every Christmas from now on because there are so many other recipes we love and still others I want to try, but they will definitely appear frequently.

Update: I made these again for Christmas 2014, and we somehow forgot about them after a few days.  The tin was in the pantry for a solid month and the cheese straws were still very good and quickly eaten!

Cheese straws with extra cayenne on top, and plain on the bottom!  This is a very small tin.



Cheese Straws

15 oz sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated, then covered and allowed to sit out until it reaches room temperature (not the bagged, shredded cheese, it won't combine with the butter properly- also 15 oz is an odd amount, but you can just take care of that extra ounce by having a little snack!)
1 stick salted butter, at room temperature (needs to be quite soft)
1 1/2 cup white flour, plus a bit more
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you could try 1/4 t cayenne if you want them spicier!)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat your oven to 325 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the cheese and butter.  Attach the paddle and beat on low until the mixture is very soft, about 15 minutes (you could try this with a hand mixer as well, make sure your ingredients are very soft to start with).  You'll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently.  While that's happening, whisk together 1 1/2 cup flour and the spices.  Add to the cheese mixture about 1/3 cup at a time and beat in each flour addition thoroughly.  When all the flour has been added, add more flour 2 or 3 tablespoons at a time- up to 1/2 cup total- until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky, but still pretty soft.  I only needed about 3 tablespoons more.

If you're going to use a cookie press, fill the press according to the manufacturer's instructions and choose an extruder plate that will allow you to make long, skinny crackers.  If they're still fairly wide (mine were about an inch wide), cut them in half down the center and separate slightly.  The dough doesn't spread much, so you can put them fairly close together.  If you don't have a cookie press, you could just roll the dough out directly on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet, cut into skinny strips, and separate them.  If you'd like, you can sprinkle extra cayenne pepper on top of the cheese straws, but remember that a little goes a long way!

Bake the cheese straws until they turn light golden and are crunchy, about 20 minutes.  I confirmed they were done by taking one out of the oven and sticking it in the freezer so it would cool quickly.  They're good while still soft, but are more like a cheese cookie than a cracker!  Let the cheese straws cool completely, then store them in an air tight container. 

Yield:  Lots!  I failed to count, but got 3 large cookie sheets full.  Guessing about 100 cheese straws.

Sour Cream Fruit Dip

Usually we have fruit plain, but sometimes it's nice to make it a bit more special with a sweet dip!  My mom has been making this one for as long as I can remember.  It's super easy and definitely my favorite.  A bit tart, brown sugar sweet, and the cinnamon pleases my cinnamon loving soul.  Over the years I've had it with basically every kind of fruit you can imagine and it always tastes good!

You can change the recipe around by altering the sour cream.  You could try light sour cream, greek yogurt, a mixture of whipped cream and sour cream, or a mixture of sour cream and cream cheese if you want it thicker.  Also, the amount of brown sugar you use is completely up to you.  I tend to go kind of heavy on the sugar but you don't have to!  I'll bet a few drops of vanilla extract would be really nice, too!  Point is, you can't go wrong with this dip recipe and feel free to make it your own.

Sorry about the lack of a picture!  I meant to take one but it was all gone by the time I got around to it!  Will try to remember next time.

Sour Cream Fruit Dip

1 C sour cream
1/2 C brown sugar (you may want to start with 1/4 C and add more if you think it needs it)
1/2 t cinnamon

Stir everything together in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for an hour or so before using if possible so the brown sugar can dissolve.  Serve with any kind of fruit!

Ham & Cheese Hedgie Bread

I've seen this type of bread around the internet under the names hedgehog bread, bread pulls, and blooming bread.  Whatever you want to call it, one thing is certain:  it is DELICIOUS!  I mean really, really good; perfect for an occasional treat or a fun appetizer for a small group. The bread has interested me ever since I saw it over at The Girl Who Ate Everything, and this is my spin- I kind of combined her Bloomin' Onion Bread and her Ham and Cheese Sliders recipes.  Even though I made this back in May and just hadn't posted it yet, looking at the picture makes me want some RIGHT NOW!

Ham & Cheese Hedgie Bread

8 oz mini sourdough bread boule (California Goldminer Sourdough is what I used)
4 oz shaved ham, cut into 1 inch squares (I used sundried tomato rosemary ham)
4 oz thinly sliced cheddar, cut into 1/2 inch strips
3 T thinly sliced green onions
4 T butter
1 1/2 t poppy seeds
2 t dijon mustard
1/4 t Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350 and place a large piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  Cut bread to look like a hedgehog, going first one direction, then the other, and being sure not to cut all the way through the bottom crust.  A serrated knife works best for this.  Place sliced loaf on the baking sheet.  Stuff in cheese (you may need to break the pieces more), then ham, then sprinkle on green onions, then spoon on butter mixture.  Wrap with the foil.  Bake covered 10 minutes, then unwrap and bake 10 minutes more, or until cheese is melted and bread is light golden.  Serve immediately with lots of napkins, but watch out for burned fingers!

Yield: about 6 servings

Tuesdays with Dorie: Pizza Rustica

My second recipe from Tuesdays with Dorie turned out great! It's not a recipe I would have tried normally but I'm so glad I did because it was really unique and really yummy. This time I made Pizza Rustica, an Italian pie that is often served around Easter but can be served other times as an appetizer or light meal. It really isn't similar to pizza at all, if anything it's more like an Italian inspired cheese quiche, but isn't super eggy in flavor or texture. Really quite hard to describe- My husband kept saying, "I don't know what I'm eating!" when we were having dinner. If it had been served to me in a restaurant I would have had no idea what was in it, not even the ham because it was shaved thinly and then cut up really small. The crust is a bit sweet and also nice and sturdy, while the filling is savory and creamy.

I personally LOVED how the flavors and textures went together, but my husband was a little more reserved in his opinion and felt it was kind of bland (though he liked the leftovers better). That's okay! I can definitely see myself making it again for a very occasional treat, or making it as an appetizer. It would make a good brunch dish, too. It should be fun to mess around with the filling ingredients. I'm thinking sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives, or green chiles and cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella (to appease the husband).


To see the recipe, check out Capital Region Dining. Someone also found this great video of Julia Child making it with Nick Malgieri. I watched it before making my pie and it helped. My only changes were to use shaved ham from the deli because prosciutto is so, so pricy, and parmesan instead of romano. Oh and my ricotta was the skim milk kind because that's all the store had. For ME, those are very minimal changes at least! My crust was a tiny bit hard to work with because the dough was dry and I added 2 teaspoons water but should have added another. Could have certainly been worse though and the finished product was most definitely worth it! I could even see using the crust to make apple pie. Yum!


As you can see, the pie held it's shape very well. This was the first slice removed when the pie was still warm but not hot. You could easily pick it up and eat it with your hands like in the video, though we used forks. I should also note that the Pizza Rustica reheats well and is good cold, room temperature, and hot :)

Hummus Without Tahini

Look at that, another hummus post! I decided this one was worth posting too because some people can't find tahini or won't buy it because of the price. Sometimes I can get it at the grocery store but about 3/4 of the time, there's none to be found. If the health food store has it, it's about $15 for a jar and I just can't bring myself to spend that much on a jar of sesame seed paste. That's when I turn to this recipe, which I also made up! It's pretty similar to the other recipe except it uses canned garbanzos (for the sake of convenience) and it has more olive oil (for flavor and fat that the tahini would add) and more coriander (for flavor- I love coriander). So if you don't have tahini, I suggest you give this recipe a go. It will still be yummy.

Hummus Without Tahini

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and liquid reserved
6 T olive oil
5 T lemon juice
4 T bean liquid
3 garlic cloves
1 t salt
1 t dried ground coriander seed
1/8 t dried ground cumin
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Combine everything in the bowl of a food processor or heavy duty blender.

Yield: about 4 cups

Hummus

I've never really cared for garbanzo beans and wasn't expecting much when I first tried hummus about 8 years ago, but I was hooked after the first bite! And my husband hadn't tried it until he met me and we bought a container, but he was won over immediately, too. Unfortunately, it's very expensive at the store. Good news though! It's super easy to make if you have a food processor or heavy duty blender and much, much cheaper. My food processor is basically a hummus machine because that's what it's used for 90% of the time. Here's a recipe that I made up and have fine tuned over the past few years. We think it's perfect! You can also add a small jar of oil packed artichoke hearts and replace the olive oil with oil from the artichokes.

Hummus

1/2 lb dried garbanzo beans, sorted, soaked overnight and drained
1/2 C cooking liquid from the garbanzo beans
3 cloves minced garlic
4 T tahini (sesame seed paste)
5 T lemon juice
4 T olive oil
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t dried ground coriander seed
1/4 t dried ground cumin
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Place garbanzo beans in a slow cooker with 6 cups of water and cook until tender, about 4 hours on high or 8 on low. Or just cook them in a pot on the stove. When the beans are tender, drain them and reserve 1/2 C of the cooking liquid. Place the beans, reserved cooking liquid, and remaining ingredients in a food processor or heavy duty blender and blend until smooth. Serve warm or chilled with pita bread, tortilla chips, or raw veggies or make a sandwich with pita bread, hummus, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and olives.

Note: The hummus will thicken after being in the fridge. If you want it thinner, you can stir in more olive oil or even water.

Yield: About 4 cups

Deviled Eyes

These spooky eyes are a yearly tradition for us. Mostly because we love any excuse to have deviled eggs and these are really cute! You can use your favorite deviled egg recipe. Normally I put dill in mine but I don't when I make these because I don't want little flecks of dill in the eyes.

Deviled Eyes

6 hard boiled eggs
4 T mayonnaise
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t salt
1/4 t onion powder
4 drops green food coloring
for garnish: sliced olives

Cut the eggs in half and place the yolks in a shallow bowl. Mash with a fork. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, seasoned salt, onion powder and food coloring and stir to combine. Alternatively, you can mix it all up in the food processor so you won't have any little bits of yellow yolk showing in your green filling. Scoop the mixture into a small plastic bag and snip off the tip of one corner, then pipe the filling into the egg halves. Press one sliced olive into each egg half and arrange on a plate to look like pairs of angry eyes.

Yield: 6-12 servings

Pumpkin Fluff

I stumbled upon the base recipe for this a few months ago and was intrigued but wanted to use real whipped cream and make a few other changes. Last night we went over to a friend's house and I decided it was my chance! The resulting dip/spread/whatever is very light and fluffy with great pumpkin flavor and a little bit of spice. It reminds me a lot of the filling my mother makes for her Pumpkin Chiffon Pie at Thanksgiving. If you love pumpkin and pumpkin pie, you're bound to like this!

Quick note: If you don't want to use the instant pudding, I'd imagine you could also leave it out and use extra vanilla extract and extra granulated or powdered sugar. No promises on how it would turn out but I don't really see how it could be bad! Maybe a little runnier.

Also, I know it isn't the prettiest thing ever but there are lots of things you could do it make it look nicer. Put it in a pretty bowl or a small hollowed out pumpkin and put it on a nice platter along with carefully arranged apples and cookies.

Pumpkin Fluff

15 oz can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

3 oz box instant cheesecake pudding mix

1/2 C powdered sugar

1 1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t ginger

1/8 t nutmeg

1 t vanilla extract

1 1/2 C whipping cream

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together everything except whipping cream until well combined. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to whip the cream. Start it on a medium low setting until the cream begins to thicken, then raise the speed and beat until it's reached the consistency of whipped cream. Be careful not to over beat or you'll have butter! Gently fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for an hour or two if possible. Serve with sliced apples and cinnamon graham crackers, gingersnaps, or homemade molasses cookies.

Yield: About 5 cups

Dilly Dip

Have you ever had Beau Monde seasoning? I'd heard of it and was intrigued by it, but never had it until the grocery store had a huge sale on Spice Island brand herbs and spices a year ago. We came home with about 15 jars of spices that day as I'd just got a spice rack and needed some new spices. One of the ones we brought home was Beau Monde. It is a very savory blend of salt, celery and onion. Neither of us are wild about celery (my husband outright detests it) but this unassuming sounding blend actually tastes great! Especially when added to dip. We like it with fresh veggies or tortilla chips and have it often because we have raw veggies with dinner frequently. This is a variation I came up with of the many Beau Monde based dips that are out there. It may be a bit salty to some so feel free to start out with a tad less Beau Monde if you want. When made with Greek yogurt (one of my favorites!) and light mayonnaise it tastes almost the same as the full fat version. I've also made it into a very yummy salad dressing by cutting back a bit on the sour cream and mayo and adding some milk.


Dilly Dip

1 C sour cream or Greek yogurt
1/2 C regular or light mayonnaise
1 T Dijon mustard
2 t Beau Monde seasoning
1 1/2 t dried dill
1/2 t onion powder

Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl. Easy peasy!

Yield: 1 1/2 cups, about 10 servings