Cucumber Feta Dip

Or as my friends and husband like to call it…CRACK! Because once you start eating it you just can’t stop! Seriously this stuff is so good.

I found the basis for the recipe years ago when my friend T and I were planning a Greek Gods/Goddess costume party. We wanted most of the foods to be reflective of the theme. It is similar to a Tzatziki sauce but definitely with my own twists.

Cucumber Feta Dip
2 8 oz packages of cream cheese soften
12 oz Greek yogurt – Plain (you can use regular plain yogurt. The dip will be a little thinner)
1 cup sour cream
6 oz crumbled Feta cheese
1 large cucumber (2/3’s chopped the remaining third sliced)
1 small can of sliced olives, drained roughly chopped and reserving 1.5 TB for garnish
3 TB crushed garlic
1.5 ts kosher salt
1/2 ts ground white pepper
1 Roma tomatoes – chopped (optional)

Combine cream cheese, yogurt and sour cream into a mixer and mix until combined. Don’t worry if the dip looks really thin as the cucumber and feta really help to thicken it up. Add the chopped cucumber (I leave the peel on as I love the flavor it adds. I just wash it well to make sure it no longer has a waxy texture), olives (yes I know I can just use chopped olives instead of chopping sliced olives but I find that the flavor of the olives get lost and I like the texture of the chunkier olive pieces). Mix well.

Add garlic, salt and pepper mixing well after each addition. NOTE REGARDING SEASONINGS: I highly recommend starting the spices out at lower measurements. My hubby and I are self-proclaimed garlicholics. And the salt and pepper are to our tastes. Just mix well, taste and adjust to your liking.

Smooth out into a container and top with the remainder of the olives, tomatoes (optional) and line the pan with the cucumber slices.

Serve with pita chips or wheat thins (normally I do both. Wavy Lays will work as well)

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs Every Time!

I was asked by a couple of my co-workers how to properly cook hard boil eggs so I thought I would share my secret for the perfect hard-boiled egg here. After all it’s not that big of a secret.

Here is the key to the perfect hard-boiled egg: DO NOT BOIL THE EGGS!

What? Are you kidding? Is it really as simple as that? Yes, yes it is.

I love hard-boiled eggs but there is nothing worse that rubbery whites and a grayish green crumbly yolk.  If you are making deviled eggs you can work around the yolk but the whites? Nope not gonna happen. It’s a tricky thing. If you cook the whites perfectly then the yolks are goopy. If you made sure the yolks are done then your whites are the consistency of rubber.

So try this way and tell me if it’s not better.

Take a large pot and place your eggs in it. Make sure not to overcrowd your eggs. If that means you have to cook them in multiple batches then do it. Trust me the extra time is worth it.

Cover your eggs with COLD water. You want to have about an inch of water over the eggs.

Turn the burner on medium high and bring to a light boil. You start to get bubbles going but not too many.

Take the eggs off the heat and cover firmly with a lid. Leave covered for at least 10 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE LID! Covering the pot contains the heat and steam and that will cook the eggs gently yet thoroughly. After 10 minutes, you can check the eggs by sacrificing one. Cut it open to check the yolk. If it is still not to your desired firmness, cover and let sit for a few more minutes.

Once eggs are done either rinse under cold water or let sit in an ice bath. I prefer the ice bath method as it does double duty. It stops the cooking process and two if you let them sit for a bit it will also make them easier to peel.

You can also use vinegar or baking soda in the water to make them easier to peel. I find out of the two I prefer baking soda. I only use a teaspoon of it. But the ice bath works just as well in my opinion.

Bacon Wrapped Potatoe Bites

Every so often the mood just strikes you. You start to crave something…sometimes you don’t know what other times you know exactly what it is. And then if you’re like me it will take on a life of its own.

Earlier I was getting a bit hungry and started to crave potatoes, specifically roasted potatoes. I knew we had some red potatoes left over from when I made corned beef and cabbage last weekend. Then I started to look through Pinterest and saw a recipe I just had to try. Bacon wrapped potato bites…my mouth started to drool just thinking about it. I was already craving potatoes and well bacon just makes everything better. Really bacon needs to be its own food group.

So I gather up all my ingredients and set out to make these bites, changing it up to suit our tastes a bit better. And let me tell you THEY ARE SO YUMMY! The husband and I inhaled these things. Already we are plotting on when we can take a batch (or two) over to our best friends’ house as we know they will love them as well.

Bacon Wrapped Potato Bites
1# red potatoes
3/4 – 1# bacon (cut into thirds)
2 tsp salt (divided)
1 tsp fresh crack black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp Mae Poi (sweet chili sauce)

Place a pot of water onto boil with a teaspoon of the salt. While that is heating up, wash the potatoes and cut into 1 inch pieces. You get the best bacon to potato ratio and they are the perfect popping size. Place the potatoes into the boiling water and cook just until you can pierce them with a fork. You don’t want them too cooked or they will fall apart in the remaining stages. Drain the potatoes and place into a large bowl. Add the rest of the salt, pepper, garlic, seasonings and olive oil to the potatoes and gently toss.

Next take your cut bacon and wrap each piece around a potato. Secure with a toothpick and place on a foil wrapped cookie sheet pan. I had a few extra potatoes so I just placed them on the tray as well. Using a basting brush I coated the pieces with the olive oil and seasonings that had gone to the bottom of the bowl. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn the pieces over and cook for another 15 minutes.

While the bites were in the second oven round, I mixed up the sauce. In a bowl mix the sour cream and the Mae Poi together until smooth. I layered a little extra Mae Poi on top as I just love the stuff and thought it would provide a nice extra little kick. Then plate and serve!

Trust me you will LOVE these things! Even just the plain potatoes with the sauce were delicious!

Lemon Scones

My husband and I love scones. It is not something I make often though, I don’t want us to get tired of them. I promised that I would make him some this weekend and he requested that I make Lemon Scones. This recipe turned out so yummy. The scones was tender and flaky. They were dense but not heavy as some scones can be. They were soooooo good.

Lemon Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter (one stick cut into pieces)
1 cup heavy cream
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoon lemon juice
Additional sugar

Mix all the dry ingredients together with a fork. Add the butter pieces and mix until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add zest, lemon juice and cream and mix until incorporated. It is easiest to mix with your hands at this point to get it mixed. Trust me. Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Pat the dough into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into pieces – you can get anywhere from 4 to 8 pieces depending on how big you cut them.
Lightly brush the flour off the dough before placing on a greased cookie sheet. Make sure you have at least an inch of space in between the scones on the baking sheet. Sprinkle some sugar over the tops. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. I normally start checking them at 10 minutes. You want them to turn to just a light golden brown. Let scones cool for about 10 minutes before glazing and serve.

Glaze
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar – shifted
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Shifting the sugar helps eliminates the clumps. Slowly mix the lemon juice until smooth. If you want the glaze to be thinner you can add a little milk to it but do so a teaspoon at a time.

Enjoy!

Homemade Sloppy Joes

As a kid I loved sloppy joes. It was always a treat when mom made them, which wasn’t very often. I’m not sure why but she didn’t. As I got older, the thoughts of sloppy joes went to the wayside. Occasionally the craving would hit like it did today while texting back and forth with hubby about what to do for dinner.

But I didn’t want to use the can mix. It has so much sugar and salt not to mention preservatives. It’s not really that hard when you think about it. It’s a tomato based sweet savory sauce. So I did a little bit a brain storming and this is what I came up with.

Homemade Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground beef
1 chopped small onion
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp garlic (optional)
12 oz tomato sauce
¼ tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef with onion  and garlic. Drain the fat and add remaining ingredients, stir and let simmer for 10- 20 minutes until nice and thick. Serve on toasted buns (I used onion rolls – so yum!)
Serves 4 to 6 (depending on the size of buns you are using).

I used tomato sauce instead of ketchup as my husband does not like ketchup. The lemon juice I added for the acid. It helps cut through the sweetness and the Worcestershire adds a nice little oomph of flavor.

This is an easy recipe to adjust to your particular taste. If you want it sweeter you can use ketchup instead of tomato sauce or add a bit of bbq sauce for an extra little zing. This is a great recipe to add in some extra vegetables like diced up tomatoes, green peppers and/or carrots if you have someone who doesn’t like their veggies. You can also top with some cheese and pop under the broiler so it melts. You could even use different types of ground meat like turkey, elk or venison. Really the possibilities with this sauce is quite amazing.

I love it when a recipe comes together

A while ago I was rummaging in my pantry and I noticed that we had quite a few boxes of spaghetti. Now I love me some spaghetti with marinara or equivalent sauce but even I get tired of that. So I start to think of different ways to use the spaghetti and I remember having the pasta in a browned butter sauce a long time ago. I remember how I really liked it. I kicked the idea around with the hubby and on grocery day I picked up the needed ingredients.

Garlic Brown Butter Spaghetti with Spinach and Sausage.

1 pound of spaghetti noodles
4 pre-cooked sausages
4 oz rinsed and coarsely chopped spinach
1 1/2 sticks of salted butter
1.5 T of Garlic (can use less if desired)
1/2 cup of shredded Italian cheese blend (mine was Asiago, Parmesan and Romano)
2 T cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring 4 quarts of salted water to boil. Cook spaghetti per directions. Reserve a cup of the cooking water once you drain it.

While spaghetti is cooking, slice sausages and cook with spinach in a medium sauce pan. Cook until spinach is starting to wilt and the sausage is warmed through.

I used this type of sausage. They were pretty tasty.

 

Slice the butter and melt in a separate pan with the garlic. You want to slice the butter to ensure that it melts evenly.
 

Cook the melted butter and garlic down until the butter gets a nice rich golden brown color. You want to keep a close eye on it because it doesn't take long for it to go from browned butter to burnt butter. The butter will have a nutty smell to go along with the garlic. Trust me it smelled so good while I was cooking. If you want you can add the cream to add a touch of creaminess to the sauce. Add the sausage and spinach giving it a quick toss and then add in the drained spaghetti noodles. Add the cheese and toss until everything is coated. You can add some of the reserved cooking water if you want to thin out the sauce if desired. I found I didn't need to. It coated the noodles just fine.

 

Plate and serve with some garlic bread. It was so good. The flavor of the noodles didn't get lost in the sauce, something I find that happens many times with tomato based sauces. And surprisingly it wasn't greasy at all. The sauce was very light and the spinach added a pop of freshness to the dish. I think next time I will brown the butter just a little bit more as I didn't get as much of the nutty flavor from the butter as I was expecting. And I think I'll try it with some Linguica or maybe some Andouille sausage.

New Kitchen Toy!

I have a new kitchen toy and I LOVE IT!

See I do enjoy my coffee. But unless it is on the weekend I normally don't get coffee unless I decide to splurge at the little cafe in the lobby of my office building. But that get's expensive. The thing is I don't like a lot of coffee. I'm good with just a cup. But to go through the hassle of making getting everything put together for a single cup of coffee...especially in the mornings? It ain't happening.

I've heard about Keurig for a bit but didn't think much of it until our best friends got one. Suddenly I learned the joys of having a good cup of java whenever I want it. I became hooked. So when we got our Federal taxes back last week I picked us up one as our splurge item. I picked up some extra coffees and some hot chocolate.

And I have been in love. It's nice to have a cup of coffee in the morning as I'm getting ready for work. A 10 ounce cup is the perfect size. Before I pick up the Keurig I did so some research. Which one was I going to get? What were all the features? The features I decided on that were the most important? Being able to select cup size, a decent sized removable water reservoir, and an auto-off feature. Looking at my options I decided that one of their more basic models would suite us just fine.

The convenience of the Keurig is the best part. Now I can have my coffee when I want it without a hassle. It doesn't take up much counter space at all, no more than my regular coffee pot does. AND I have found you can just run hot water through it if you want. You don't have to put a cup in there. This makes it even better as I can still use my teas when I want. I love me a good strong cup of black tea. The one draw back I have found? The boxes of the kcups can be a bit cluttering. They have a carousel you can buy but eh I'm not a big fan of it. I'm thinking I want a under the cabinet drawer type of thing. Something that I can put ALL the kcups in. Not just the few the carousel holds. I haven't found one yet.

Hmmmmm maybe the husband will be getting a new honey do item for his list. 

New Recipe! Superbowl Munchies

After talking with my friend who is hosting the game day party we decided on....

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken Bites!

It was an meat dish I found on Pinterest but I've made a few tweaks to it for my liking.

You need:
2 pounds of chicken tenders, thawed out (about 13-15 pieces)
1 T of salt
1 tsp of fresh cracked pepper
1/4 tsp of paprika
2 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Enough bacon to wrap (about 1 1/2 packages depending on the bacon)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
Toothpicks

Mix all seasonings in a bowl. I prefer to mix all the seasonings together for things like this to ensure a more uniform flavor.

 

After seasonings are mix, cut each chicken tender into two or three pieces, depending on how big you want the bites to be. Season the chicken liberally with the seasoning. You may end up with a little extra seasoning mix but you can store it in an airtight container for another use.

 

Cut your bacon into smaller pieces. One strip of bacon is way too much for a bite, no matter how much I like bacon. Wrap each piece of bacon around a piece of chicken and secure with a toothpick. (Note: I find it easier to skewer the toothpick at an angle vs straight in. I find it holds the chicken and bacon together more securely for the latter stages).

Take your brown sugar and put into a plate. Scrunch it around so it is nice and loose. Roll, coat each bite into the brown sugar and put into a pan sprayed with a Pam. Don't be surprised if by the time you are done coating the bites, the earlier pieces don't look like they have much brown sugar. The bacon soaked up that yummy brown sugary goodness and it will make for some nice caramelization. Trust me.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven. It took about 35 minutes with me turning the bites over every 10 minutes. I hate when something that is bacon wrapped but the bottom part of the bacon is soggy. No I like my bacon crispy all the way around. I found some pieces were done before others so I pulled them out and set aside so they didn't burn. The one good thing is the bacon fat keeps the chicken moist so they don't dry out.

End verdict? Well so far the husband and I have given them two thumbs up. First you taste the sweet smokey bacon and then the juicy spicy chicken. The spice leaves just a touch of lingering...enough to for you to know you had some spice but not enough to over power your taste buds. 

I will let you know what the group thought of them after the game.

Oh, as a bonus picture...my two pups who act like they never get fed kept watch over me while I made these. Every time I looked behind me I saw this:

Please Mom, can we have some? We love bacon!

EDIT: The group LOVED the bites! They are best warm as cold chicken tends to toughen up a bit. But there wasn't a single bite left by the then of the evening. Found out that it is REALLY good with pineapple so next time I just may make a pineapple chutney to accompany the bites.

Superbowl Foods

Ah the Superbowl...a day of football, friends and in our case good foods. See we normally don't do just the standards at our football parties. There is always something different. That is what happens when a group of foodies are best friends. Two weeks ago, for the conference championship games besides the standard chips and chicken wings, we had hummus, cucumber feta dip (which we call crack), one of the girls made this wonderful salad with homemade raspberry vinaigrette and our main dish was meatloaf burgers. They were sooooooo good.

So this brings me to the quandary of what shall I take this Sunday to the game party. I can't do crack as I made that last time. And I don't always like to make sweet stuff. I'm finding that this is where Pinterest is coming in handy. There is always a myriad of recipes and ideas there. I found a cheesy bacon ranch pull apart bread that sounds appealing. As well as some sweet and spicy bacon wrapped chicken. Hmmmm decisions decisions...

So what do you like to have on Superbowl Sunday?

Pinterest is useful after all

So I finally decided to give Pinterest another shot the other night. Of course being somewhat drunk and bored may have had something to do with it. So through my random clickings and pinnings I run across a picture of a breakfast I just have to try...bacon pancake strips. There were no instructions to go with the picture but lets face it...it's pancakes and bacon. How hard could it be?

This morning while my husband was out doing a Starbucks run for us, I decide to let's do this. I fry up some bacon in a pan, a few pieces at a time so that they are out straight. I didn't cook them in the griddle I was going to cook the pancake strips because I don't want all that grease. I transfer the bacon to the griddle when it's about 3/4ths of the way crispy. It's still slightly chewy but I let it cook for about a minute more.

While the bacon is cooking I get my pancake batter together. Just your simple everyday pancake batter, nothing to write home about except I do add cinnamon to my batter. The husband and I love our cinnamon pancakes. I make the batter thinner than I normally do to ensure easy pouring and the covering of the bacon.

With my griddle I got to cook about three strips at at time. The bacon makes for some more interesting shaped pancakes.

Buttering them was a little interesting. I found just plopping little pats of butter on them and let it melt was the most effective method.

Overall they were good. The novelty of them is getting a piece of crispy bacon in every bite. I think next time I want to make the pancake batter a bit thicker. I much prefer the thicker pancake and we found that the bacon separated from the pancake at times while eating. But it was a fun idea and one we'll definitely will do again.