Jalapeno Popper Dip

This will be my treat this weekend. I've never made this recipe but I'm sure it will be delicious.

Ingredients:

1 8oz package of cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated, medium cheddar cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese separated into 2 1/2 cups
1 small jar of pickled jalapenos
1 small tin of green chilis
1/2 cup breadcrumbs


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, cheeses, jalapenos (with most of the juice/brine) and chilis. Pulse until well chopped and combined.

Combine breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.

Pour dip into an 8 inch baking dish (or any 2 slightly smaller baking dishes). Top with an even layer of breadcrumb mixture. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the sides are bubbling and the top is golden brown.

Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

Original recipe at Impeccable Taste

Do try this at home

Here is a roundup of a few things you may want to try at home...or not. Some of them I've tried and others are on my bucket list. They range from crafts to recipes to sports and everything in between. If you have an interesting activity you would like posted send me a link.

Garlic Herb Bread Sticks at seven spoons
Recycled magazine holders at How About Orange
How to make a folded paper CD case at curbly
Make ahead fruit pie filling at sunset
Download, print and hang up vintage posters from Agence Eureka
Vintage deck of cards decor at just something I made


Do NOT try this at home...but it is sooo on my bucket list.

Extreme Base Jumping in Wingsuits

Maple Vinaigrette

Fancy a sweet dressing? This will satisfy your sweet tooth while eating healthy.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Maple syrup
1/3 cup white wine or apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp chopped thyme
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Whisk all of the ingredients in a bowl until smooth.

Can be kept up to 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Pastry with Brie and Maple syrup

When I was younger I would look forward to go to "la cabane a sucre" for some outdoor fun but especially for the maple syrup. Visiting a cabane a sucre involved a tour of the site showing how maple syrup was collected from the sap to the finished product at the table. We would then drown everything we ate with Maple syrup that day and ate the snow-hardened syrup on sticks for dessert. For the love of Maple syrup. This is recipe is to die for.

Ingredients:
300g wheel Brie cheese
½ cup walnut crumbs
½ cup sultana raisins
¼ cup maple syrup
500g or 1 pkg of puff pastry, thawed.

Mix walnuts, sultanas and maple syrup. Set aside.

Roll out puff pastry to 12" diameter circle.

Cut Brie in half so you have 2 circles. Spoon walnut mixture onto one of the Brie circles and top with remaining circle.

Place the Brie and mixture in the middle of the pastry and fold the pastry over the top of the Brie.

Bake in oven 400F/200C for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Let cool before serving.

Butternut Squash Soup

I decided to try this recipe because I had the most intense experience with a Butternut Squash Soup served in the Denver Airport one year. This recipe doesn't do it justice but it comes close. Oh, peeling and cubing the squash isn't fun either. If anyone has any tips on that please forward them to me.

Ingredients
2 cups chopped onions
3 lbs butternut squash cubed and peeled
4 cups chicken broth
1 ½ cups applesauce
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
¼ curry
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ ground pepper

Caramelize onions in a pan. Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. You may want to use a food processor near the end of the cooking time to blend all the ingredients into a smooth consistancy.

Here is a YouTube version. Different recipe but well illustrated.

Baked Yams with Bean Salad

I'm in love with the sweet potato AKA Yams. The taste is amazing with this salad and it can be an entire meal if you want it to. Quick and easy to make, its also good on the pocket book. I'm not sure where I found this recipe but its a keeper. Originally called for 4 Yams, the bean salad is good for 6.

Ingredients

6 medium Yams
1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin you can use any spice you want. I was out of cumin so I threw in Italian spices instead.
¾ tsp salt
¼ cup light sour cream optional
Grated cheese optional

Poke Yams with a fork in several places. Microwave on high 12 to 15 minutes (or use the potato settings if you have one), Halfway through, turn Yam over once. You may also bake the Yam at 218 C (424 F) for one hour.

In a bowl, mix beans, tomatoes, oil, cumin or spices of your choice, salt and microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Cut each Yam lengthwise, make a bowl shape, sprinkle with cheese, bean salad and top with sour cream.

Heaven!

Shortbread

I felt like a little dessert today. This recipe was given to me after begging a friend at work. She had made this to.die.for shortbread for us. When she gave me the recipe, I was amazed at how something so tasty could be so simple.

Ingredients

1 lb softened butter
1 cup white sugar
4 cups pastry flour

Cream butter and sugar. Gradually add flour. Mixture will be stiff. Put in a greased 9 x 13 pan & press down. Poke randomly with fork. Bake at 325F for 45 min to 1 hr

The top should be golden and not too brown. Remove from oven & sprinkle with sugar. Let sit for about 10 min then cut while still warm.

Let cool and enjoy.

Spinach Cheese Dip - Kelsey style

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese
¾ teaspoon garlic powder. I normally use 2-3 cloves finely chopped garlic
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 tbs romano cheese
1 tbs very finely chopped sweet red pepper
1 green onion (scallion) white and green finely chopped
½ package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
½ cup grated medium cheddar
cayenne pepper - to taste


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix cream cheese, garlic, parmesan and romano cheese until softened.

Add red pepper, green onion and spinach to the mix. Keep mixing and work those forearms people!

Transfer mixture to an ovenproof dish sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Top with cheddar. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes or until bubbling around the edges.

Remove from oven and allow to set for 5 mins before serving. Serve with fried or baked pita wedges, or tortilla chips.

Beef and Black Bean Sauce

I'm not a foodie but I'm on a recipe rampage this week. I would like to share with you my all-time favorite recipe. I live a few years with a Chinese family so I love "real" Chinese food. The recipe is taken from Cook's Library Wok & Stir-Fry, I won't take the credit for it. It takes about 3hrs for the marinade to work its magic but I usually leave it overnight.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cup vegetable oil
300g beef steak strips
1 scallion (I call them green onions)
a few slices of fresh gingerroot
1-2 small fresh green or red chiles, seeded and sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and sliced

Marinade

½ tsp baking soday or baking powder
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese rice wine, dry sherry or white vinegar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil

To make the marinade, mix together all the ingredients in a shallow dish. Add the beef, turn to coat and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours.

Heat the vegetable oil in a preheated wok or large, heavy-based skillet. Add the beef and cook for about 1 minute, or until seared. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep warm and set aside.

Pour all but 1 tbs of oil from the wok. Add the scallion, ginger, chiles, onion, and green bell pepper and cook for about 1 minute.

Add the black bean sauce and stir until smooth. Return the beef to the wok, stir well and cook for another minute. Transfer the stir-fry to a warm serving dish and serve hot.

Oriental Salad

A friend of mine did this at a pot luck lunch at school one day. It was delicious and the texture of the salad made it fun to eat. Of course I asked her for the recipe which she said she found on the interwebs.

Ingredients

1 bag of coleslaw
3 stalks green onions
¾ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup slivered almonds
2 beef Mr. Noodles or Ramen (in packages)

Dressing
¾ cup white vinegar
½ cup sugar
½ cup oil (not olive)

Must be prepared the night before serving to allow the noodles to soak.

Mix dressing. Break up noodles and mix all dry ingredients together then pour dressing over and allow to soak overnight.

Garlic Meatballs

I felt like a meatball recipe today. What can I say?

Ingredients

1 can 10oz cream of tomato soup
1 lb cooked ground beef
1 egg beaten
1 cup cooked rice you can also use bread crumbs
¼ cup finely chopped onions
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic
2 table spoons oil
½ soup can of water
1 teaspoon of mustard

Mix ½ cup of soup with the ground beef, rice, egg, onions and salt.

Make 16 meatballs and brown them in oil. When done add the meatballs with the soup mixture and add the remainder of the ingredients.

Cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes.

Vodka and Skittles, a potent combination

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were born out of the love of chocolate and peanut butter. Remember the old commercials "You have peanut butter on my chocolate. You have chocolate in my peanut butter!"? Well I love Vodka and I love Skittles so why not combine them together? I got a hold of an awesome recipe for infusing Vodka with different flavoured Skittles on Twitter one day. Explained in detail and photodocumented here, it gave me the confidence to try it out. This is my attempt at making this wonderful concoction.

Ingredients

1.14L of Vodka (used 30 oz) I used Smirnoff but any kind will apparently do. It was recommended to stay away from the cheapest stuff I got mine was on sale.

1 lbs or 454g of Skittles I had 2 x 320g bags, more than was needed but I needed to ensure the Skittles were fresh.

Coffee Filters

1 measuring cup

5 Empty water bottles

5 containers 1 for each flavour.

5 mason jars to contain the final infusion.

The Infusion Process

1- Separate the Skittles into different colours and containers. You must sample a few of each to ensure freshness of said Skittles. It would probably be dangerous at this point to start sampling the vodka.

2- Deposit 60 Skittles of each colour in the water bottles.



3- Fill each bottle with 6oz of vodka. Shake vigorously. Let stand overnight so that the Skittles dissolve completely.



4- Now comes the filtering process. Place coffee filters (the amount of filters used may vary depending on the type of filters so play with it) on top of the measuring cup and pour the infusion in. When the filter gets full of gunk (you'll know because the vodka won't filter as quickly) just take a spoon, swish it around, remove it, and keep pouring. Repeat with each colour washing the measuring cup and changing filters between pourings or you will contaminate the flavours. I had no idea when I began this step that my place would smell like a still. I found that the filters would get clogged quickly so I twisted them slowly from the top to the bottom, helping the fluid through. I found this step to be the most labour intensive especially for the purple, green and orange as they had the most gunk in them.



5- Pour your infusions into the mason jars (you can use whatever airtight container you want) and voila!



6- You can freeze the mixture if you are going to serve it at home. I don't recommend freezing if your intention is to give them out as gifts.

I'm calling the green-vodka mix Absolut Slytherin and dedicating it to the girls on Page394. Girls, I salute you, its absolutely deluscious!

(total cost of this experiment: $27.68 for 30oz of Vodka, $0.35 for 30 filters, 2 bags 320g Skittles $4.00, 5 mason jars $2.82, total= $34.85, enjoyment = priceless)

Other wonderful Vodka recipes, product and information:

Vodka Jello Shots: these so look like fun to make.
Vodka-based long drink recipes: there are tons of recipes here.
Infused-vodka.com: wow, they have beautiful bottles here just for vodka infusions.
epicurean.com: different infusion recipes using herbs and spices. I'm liking the hot pepper one for some reason.
Vodka Museum: You can book a tour when you are in the neighbourhood. Did I mention it was in Moscow?

Mock Tuna Salad

I had a bag of dried chickpeas at home and wanted to find some kind of recipe to use them in. Of course with dried chickpeas you would be soaking them overnight before using them in this recipe.

Ingredients

1 19 oz can chickpeas drained and mashed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard
2 green onions chopped
Salt and pepper
In a bowl, combine all ingredients together and mix well.

Used as a sandwich spread.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients

2 skinless boneless chicken cubed
1 small onion chopped
½ cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp parsley
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp ground black pepper
7 oz tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
½ tsp chili powder
1 small green pepper chopped
1 clove garlic
4 - 6 flour tortillas (I like the flavoured ones)
6 oz salsa
Preheat oven to 175 C

Cook chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain excess fat and cube.

Add chicken, onion, sour cream, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, parlsley, oregano and pepper to skillet and heat until cheese melts. Stir in tomatoe sauce, water, chili powder, green pepper and garlic.

Roll in even amounts into tortillas. Place in baking dish and cover with salsa and remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Curry Chicken with Yams

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken legs or thighs
2 large white onions chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/3 cup curry
1 banana
2 bay leaves
4 cups chicken stock
3 yams peeled and cubed
salt and pepper to taste

In a hot stock pot coated with oil, seasont he chicken and brown on all sides. Put chicken aside. In the same pot, remove all but a little chicken fat and saute onions, garlic and ginger. Caramelize well then add curry powder. Mix quickly to prevent curry from burning then add all the ingredients back into the pot.

Bring to a boil then simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Serve on rice

Chili

I found this recipe at a fall fair which called for chicken instead of beef. I didn't have chicken at the time so in the beef went instead. I have yet to try the chicken version of this.

Ingredients

2 lbs (900g) ground beef or chicken
1 large cooking onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (5 ½ oz) tomato paste
¼ cup non-fat beef or chicken broth
1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes with juice
1 can (19oz) red kidney beans
Frozen or can corn
Chili powder (to taste)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste)
Crushed Chilis (to taste)

Brown beef or chicken and drain. Mix all ingredients into crockpot and simmer for 3 hours minimum. (overnight leads to the best tasting chili ever).

Cheese Ball

Ingredients

250 grams cream cheese (softened)
12 oz mild cheese
¼ teaspoon garlic
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
½ milk (just enough to mix)
chopped nuts (whatever suits your taste)

Grate cheese. Use fork and blend everything together. Shape into ball and chill for 30 mins. Roll in chopped nuts.

Black Bean and Salsa Soup

Ingredients

2 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 cup chunky salsa
1 tsp cumin
4 tbsp sour cream
1 green onion, sliced thinly

In a blender combine beans, broth salsa and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth.
Heat the bean mixture in a saucepan over medium heat until thoughly heated.
Ladle soup into bowls and top with sour cream and green onion.