Heidi's Spinach Artichoke Dip

I've been waiting for a chance to make this dip since I saw it earlier this year...unfortunately having people over is not something that happened often in our last little apartment! I finally got a chance to break out the recipe this past weekend & I was more than pleased. I added some spinach to the recipe, of course forgetting to wait until after I'd blended the other ingredients, so I ended up with something that looked like ectoplasm. It still tasted delicious, & since I completely forgot to take pictures, today's recipe is sans illustration, which might be a good thing. ;) Check out Heidi's website for some delicious looking photos instead!

Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 12-ounce bag of frozen artichokes (mine were Trader Joe's brand...you can use canned too)
3 cups baby spinach, chopped
3 ounces silken tofu
3 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/8 tsp freshly ground sea salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a blender or food processor puree the artichokes, tofu, and garlic. In a separate medium bowl whisk together the spinach, parmesan cheese, yogurt, salt, and cayenne. Stir in the artichoke puree and pour mixture into a medium-sized baking dish (or multiple smaller dishes). Sprinkle the top with more Parmesan. Bake uncovered until heated through and the cheese on the top starts to brown, about 45 minutes.

Now, I have a big block of silken tofu left over, & unfortunately I have no idea what to do with it. I don't want it to go to waste, so...what can I do with silken tofu? I don't like it in smoothies, but other than that I've never really had it. Any ideas? I trust your foodie brains more than my own!



Ok. One picture. Because, really, is a post a post without any photos?

Lately I have been making these every night for a snack. It feels healthy. :)

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter "Milkshakes"

1 frozen banana
1 cup cold chocolate milk
1 Tbsp peanut butter

Throw in blender & blend!

(The guinness glass purchased by Tim's mom at a yard sale is optional!)

Mexican Monkey Cake

Whew...I have been AWFUL at getting here lately. Well, this is one of the first recipes I found when I began reading food blogs...time sure flies, doesn't it? I finally had the occasion (& the bananas) to make it, and I was so excited. It was indeed as delicious as it seemed it would be, and even though only about 1/2 was eaten at the event I brought it to, we've managed to polish off nearly the rest of it in the past few days.

I especially liked the little kick that the chili powder added. I figured if it's going to be called mexican cake, I might as well add some chili!

Farmgirl's Mexican Monkey Cake
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

cinnamon streusel:
8 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup oats
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder

cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 mashed, ripe bananas (as ripe as they get)
2 Tbsp vanilla yogurt
1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8x2" baking pan. In a small bowl, combine chocolate, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar & egg with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add bananas, yogurt and milk & mix well. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & remaining 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder until just blended.

Spread slightly more than 1/2 of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the cinnamon streusel. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the streusel and then top with the rest of the streusel. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.


According to the original directions, the cake freezes well, but I wouldn't know since we ate it so quickly! This is definitely worth repeating, and I'm already looking forward to making it again! It was also so easy & looked beautiful. I made it in the morning before our "end of the semester" party & we were eating it by 11:30. If you are looking for something new to make, definitely try this one!

PB Dulce de Leche & Chocolate Bread Pudding

FINALLY! Yes, I know, it's taken me forever to get to this recipe. But I'm finally using what Blake Makes. If you haven't already heard, read a little about it here.

First I have to tell you a little secret...I'd never had bread pudding. At least I don't think I ever had. I've been living my life thinking I don't like it. You see, I hate stuffing. Ew, it's one of my most repulsive foods. Soggy, wet bread? No thanks. So when it came to bread pudding, I decided early on that it was akin to stuffing, and therefore repulsive.

But lately I've been seeing all kinds of bread pudding recipes. And they all looked SO amazing. I've been dying to experiment, but I've still been very reluctant. Then came Blake's peanut butter dulce de leche (PBDDL), and I was determined to try the heavenly dulce de leche & chocolate bread pudding recipe in Bon Apetit.

Yet something was holding me back. I mean, what if this is the only container of PBDDL that I ever receive? How would I live with the disappointment if I hated the bread pudding?

Finally, I bit the bullet. Every step of the recipe seemed great. But I was anxious for the final product...

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Just like every other person in the world, I now love bread pudding. I made a few changes to the recipe, of course using peanut butter dulce de leche instead of regular, and adding a banana to the custard. Also, I used the bread I had around, which turned out to be a slice of whole grain bread & a slice of "cinnamon chip" bread. I liked the addition of the cinnamon, so if you use regular white bread, you might want to add a little cinnamon to the recipe.

And I'll admit, I only have 1/2 a bowl of the bread pudding left. :)

Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche & Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding
adapted from Bon Apetit, March 2008

2 slices cinnamon swirl bread, crusts cut off & cut into 1/2 in cubes
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup PBDDL
1 medium banana, mashed & very ripe
1 large egg
1/2 large egg yolk
1/2 tbsp kahlua
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 oz dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place bread in 4 cup glass baking dish. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon melted butter; toss. Transfer to rimmed baking sheet. Bake until bread begins to color, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Cool. Return bread to glass baking dish.

Stir whipping cream and 1/4 cup peanut butter dulce de leche in small saucepan over medium heat until blended and bubbling. Remove from heat. Whisk eggs and yolks in large bowl. Add mashed banana, kahlua, vanilla, and salt; gradually whisk in warm dulce de leche mixture. Stir in bread cubes. Let soak 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mix chocolate chunks into custard mixture. Return mixture to glass baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoons sugar. Bake pudding until puffed and set in center, about 35 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve warm, passing more dulce de leche topping alongside.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the actual PBDDL. It was yummy...much more peanut buttery than I expected it to be. Check out Blake Makes & keep an eye out for PBDDL so you can make your very own bread pudding! :)

Brown Bag "Cookies"

Oh. My. Goodness. These were SO good! I love peanut butter, and I've probably had peanut butter on wheat bread (minus the jelly) 4 days a week for the past year. So it only follows that these would be amazing to me. I spent weeks dreaming about making them. :) Now that I finally have, I can tell you it's definitely worth it! And it's not too difficult a recipe either.

Brown Bag Cookies
adapted from Cookie Baker Lynn
original recipe found here

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 extra-large egg, at room temp
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups blackberry jam (mine was Trader Joe's brand)
1/2 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (accidentally used unsalted)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until well combined.

Sift together into a small bowl the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread two thirds of the dough in the prepared pan, using a knife to spread it evenly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; the dough will spread when it bakes. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts (I chopped them using a food processor) and bake about 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into 16 squares.


The biggest change I made was obviously using the white whole wheat flour. I was a little worried that the taste would be too strong (the batter tasted surprisingly wheat-y) but once baked you couldn't even tell I'd used wheat flour. Also, I added a little cinnamon because I love cinnamon & pb together...my favorite combo.

One comment about the instructions...I think because I used the wheat flour, my batter was a little thicker, and I kind of had to spread the second layer of batter on top of the jam. It definitely wouldn't have flattened out on its own for me like it says in the original recipe. But it wasn't difficult to just spread it out instead.

Best of all, these get better with time...I think the jam & the peanut butter merge & get even softer as they sit. I really really loved them the second day. And of course, they were also loved by all (even the first day). :) Definitely a winning recipe!

Pound Cake Poppers

Ok, here's those lime pound cake poppers you've been hearing about.

Oh, wait, no one's been talking about these...just me! I made these for a presentation I gave on Monday (to butter up the audience before presenting...haha...pound cake...butter...get it?) & I think they were well-received. They were even more loved than the other dessert I brought (which I personally liked better).

This recipe was modified from Chow...I didn't really want to make a loaf cake so I decided to put the batter in a mini muffin pan, and I really liked how they turned out! I decided not to add the glaze (actually, that's a lie, I made the glaze, put it on a few of them, and decided I liked them without the glaze better) because they tasted delicious right out of the oven.

The only problem with these is that they are so little, you can't stop eating them! Check out the original recipe for the lime glaze if you're interested...Tim really liked the glaze, I just thought it was unnecessary.

The major changes I made were to half the recipe & then quadruple the lime zest. Mmmmm...I love the taste of lime in baked goods! Reminds me of when I made Patricia's lime sugar cookies. :)


Lime Pound Cake Poppers
adapted from CHOW

Ingredients:

scant 1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
1 stick (4 oz) butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs & 1 egg white, room temp
finely grated zest of 2 medium limes (abt 2 packed tbsps)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter & lightly flour a mini muffin pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder & salt.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar & beat until light & fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly in between.

Add flour in two phases, mixing in between each addition until just combined. With rubber spatula, fold in lime zest. Pour batter into mini muffin tin and put into oven.

Bake until muffins rise & sides are golden brown When inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 10-15 minutes, the muffins are ready.

Makes about 30 mini muffins.

Carrot Cake

I came home today miserable, broken down, and determined to forget all about my day (and basically my life). What is that you're talking about? I don't have an adviser. Graduate student, what? Thesis, huh? Masters defense in a week...? I don't know what you're talking about, you must be referring to someone else. I just bake. And cook. And babysit.

So I headed to the supermarket, where I bought everything I needed...except lentils. Yes, that was the basis for the dinner I was planning on making. I had somehow convinced myself that there was a bag of lentils in the cabinet, but of course there wasn't. Luckily, this just allowed me to make a quick trip to the little (only) natural foods store in our town.

I got home at 4 (turned on the nice loud "musica urbana" station on the tv (bonus points if you can name 3 artists who would be played on this channel...and please forgive my taste in music), I'm sure my neighbors love me), and in an hour I managed to do 2 loads of laundry, get dinner ready, make rice pudding, clean my bedroom, wash dishes & eat soup. Yes, I was convinced I could forget.

While I did not necessarily succeed in completely letting go, I did make a yummy carrot cake instead. And actually, I did a pretty good job of not thinking too hard about that stupid email & its consequences all night. Oh, and I also succeeded in eating more sugar than I have in months.

Without further ado, the fruits of my labor:

*The original recipe used a bundt pan...I of course didn't, because I don't own one. Also, sometimes I drain the carrots, but the author of the recipe didn't, so I didn't either, and the amount of moisture was perfect. I soaked the raisins in hot water for about 10 minutes before I added them to the recipe, and I also tossed them with flour so they wouldn't add too much additional moisture to the recipe.*

Carrot Cake
adapted from Cookie Madness
changes noted in recipe, original recipe found here.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup applesauce
1 heaping packed cup shredded carrot
1 cup plumped raisins
1/3 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 inch metal pan. Sprinkle with some flour.

In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg.

In a second bowl, stir together eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Add oil mixture to flour mixture and stir with a mixing spoon until blended.

Add applesauce and stir just until mixed, then stir in carrots, raisins and coconut. Pour mixture into pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then flip from pan. In the meantime, make the icing (below) & let the cake cool completely. When cake is cooled, spread icing onto cake.

Cream Cheese Icing
(I just concocted this as I went)

8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 generous cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp butter, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract

Throw all ingredients into small bowl & beat with an electric mixer. (Ok, maybe you're supposed to cream the butter & cream cheese first, which I sort of did, but basically the throwing it all into a bowl & mixing it worked for me!)

Honestly, I thought this would be good, but it was AMAZING. I really liked it...if you've never made a carrot cake before, now's the time! And I HATE carrots, so you should believe me. :)

Oh, I almost forgot...with the extra batter from the cake (I probably could have fit it all in the pan, but I had other plans for that batter) I made some carrot cake "cookies". Basically, I just added flour to the batter until I felt like they were cookie texture, then I put the batter in the fridge for 1/2 hour. There is a recipe for carrot cake cookies on Epicurious here but I didn't really use that recipe, so I can't vouch for how good it is. The reviews are really positive.

Ok, I'm going a little tangential here. Anyway, so I added some flour to the batter, put it in the fridge, spooned scoops of it onto the cookie sheet, baked them at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes, and let them cool. Then I creamed together the extra icing & some vanilla ice cream, sandwiched 2 of the cookies with the icing ice cream, and put them in the freezer for a few hours. Possibly even more delicious than the carrot cake! No, wait, it's a tie.

Rice Puddin'

I must admit, I used to love the smell of rice pudding only for its cinnamon sprinkled on top. Once I tasted it, I had an entirely different feeling about it. How could something that smelled so wonderful taste so awful?

Over time, though, I grew to LOVE rice pudding. I go through phases where I will eat an entire container in 2 days. Once I decided to try making my own, I started with the basics. And that's where I've stayed. :)

This version is super simple, but time consuming. It basically involves letting rice, milk & sugar simmer on the stove for over an hour. I never exactly time how long it takes (one of my worst tendencies when it comes to cooking), rather I watch it until the milk is mostly soaked up. It will thicken a little more once you take if off the heat, but you should get it close to the consistency you desire before you remove it from the stove.

I would love to hear if anyone has any variations. Most of the recipes I see just vary in amount of each of the ingredients. Oh, I've forgotten to mention the biggest secret to my rice pudding...skim milk.

I know, I know, skim milk does not a rice pudding make. But it's all I ever have in the house, and honestly it thickens up pretty well. And it's a guilt-free dessert! So if you'd prefer a dessert that actually tastes good (just kidding!) feel free to use whatever milk you'd prefer.

Rice Pudding

1 3/4 cups skim milk
1/4 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 tbsp sugar (more if you like it really sweet)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pour milk, rice, sugar, and vanilla into a saucepan on the stove. Mix together & begin heating on medium until the sides of the pot begin to bubble. Just before the mixture is going to boil, turn the heat down to low or medium-low (whatever keeps the pot at a low simmer) and keep an eye on the pot for the next hour, stirring occasionally.

Add cinnamon either a few minutes before you take the mixture off the heat, or sprinkle it on top to serve.

Serves 2 (or just one if you're me!)


I actually accidentally ate most of this hot off the stove. Many people eat it warm, and it does taste good this way. I prefer it cold, but I find that I can rarely wait that long. You really just need to be patient & keep an eye on the pot. Oh, I will mention though that at some point during the process I walked away from the stove for a while & came back to a nice thick skin on the top of the milk...so I skimmed it off, threw it out, and continued cooking. I know, gross, but just remember, little mistakes often don't have that much of an impact.

Hope you enjoy!

My contribution to dinner with Tim's parents!

We had dinner the other night with Tim's family, but since I don't eat meat like all the other sane people, Tim's mom had an alternate recipe for me, and since we got there hours before dinner, I helped prepare it. I'm not sure exactly where the recipe came from, and I looked for it online with no success, so if anyone knows where it came from, please let me know. I decided it is called yummy zucchini potato bake.

Here it is, with some modifications:

Yummy Zucchini Potato Bake

2 medium zucchinis, diced into tiny pieces
7 baby sized red skin potatoes
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 head broccoli, cut up into florets
1 carrot, diced
1 tsp diced garlic or garlic powder
1 bag shredded Italian or Mexican cheese (we used mexican)

Throw the potatoes & carrot together in the bottom of a greased glass casserole dish with salt & pepper. Drizzle with olive oil (add more if you wish). Toss. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 min.

Remove the dish from the oven and add the rest of the vegetables, as well as the diced garlic or garlic powder. (We used garlic powder because it seemed easier, but diced garlic probably tastes much better!) Mix thoroughly. Bake for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven, cover top of casserole with cheese, and put back in oven for a few more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

It was very tasty & the spices (& veggies) can be adjusted according to your taste!

For dessert we had a cake that I made for Tim's sister Kate because it was her birthday, and while I wasn't entirely successful in my cake making, it was my first time making a cake from scratch (I must confess, I love cake mixes) & it still tasted pretty good!

Let's see, where did I get the recipe from...

It was originally from Gourmet, January 2008. I found it on my #1 favorite website (I know, I've said that about a million different websites already): Smitten Kitchen

I definitely can't explain it better than her, so please click on her link if you want to try it! I can say, I've never made caramel before, so this was definitely hard for me, and I ended up almost burning it (ok, ok I burnt it the first time & had to make a second batch, which was successful until I realized I made it too early, had to turn off the heat, and reheat it later), which caused me to completely forget the vanilla. I know it would have had much better flavor with the vanilla, but I got compliments without, which means you should try it, it can turn out great even if you mess up!

(This is me making caramel, possibly unsuccessfully, but it will definitely boil a lot. I had more success putting it on medium heat to keep the temperature rising slowly.)

I think the success to the cake recipe is the buttermilk, which definitely added a good texture & moistness to the cake. I often don't like yellow cakes, but this one was better than most I've had. And, as I've already mentioned, everyone really liked it.

Coconut Chocolate Pudding

Tim had something or other to do the other night, so after finally straightening up the house now that we've been back from Jersey for a week, I decided to make some pudding that I've been threatening to make forever. We also had some mini graham cracker crumb pie crusts that we had bought so we could find something to put in them, so I figured this would be perfect.

The pudding turned out AMAZING. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull it off, but it was relatively easy. I had to go out and buy special cocoa for this project, as it calls for dutched cocoa, or cocoa processed with alkali. The grocery store didn't carry it here, but it might be in grocery stores elsewhere. Just check the ingredients to make sure it states: cocoa processed with alkali.

This website shows the original recipe & instructions:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/coconut-chocolate-pudding-recipe.html

I didn't modify this much at all, except I didn't have lite coconut milk so I used regular. Probably tasted better (richer) that way anyway! I also didn't use curry powder, but used a mix of ingredients suggested by one of the reviewers

Coconut Chocolate Pudding Recipe

1 14-ounce can of coconut milk, divided
3 tbsp sugar
scant 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cornstarch, sifted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp chili powder
3 tablespoons alkalized dutch-cocoa powder, sifted
3.5-ounce Ghiradellhi bittersweet chocolate chips (or any dark chocolate)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut flakes, toasted in a dry skillet

Shake the can of coconut milk vigorously for a few seconds. In a heavy saucepan bring 1 1/4 cups of the coconut milk, sugar, and the salt (just) to a simmer over low heat.

While that is heating, in a separate bowl whisk together the remaining coconut milk, cornstarch, spices, and cocoa powder. It should look like a chocolate frosting.

When the coconut milk and sugar mixture has started simmering take about 1/4 cup of it and whisk it little by little into the cornstarch mixture, creating a slurry. Turn down the heat to the very lowest setting. Now drizzle the cornstarch slurry mixture into the simmering pan of coconut milk whisking vigorously all the while. Keep whisking until the pudding comes back up barely to a simmer and thickens up a bit, about a minute.

Remove the saucepan from heat, continue whisking while it is cooling for about a minute. Now whisk in the chocolate and vanilla. Keep stirring until the pudding is smooth. Place in a refrigerator to chill thoroughly. To prevent a skin from forming press plastic up against the surface of the pudding. Serve dusted with the coconut flakes.

Serves six.

This was really rich, almost like a heavy mousse (or maybe not like mousse, I don't know that I've actually ever had mousse). It wasn't anything like pudding that I've had before, but it was good! Send me a comment if you have any questions & I'll be glad to try to answer them!