Artichoke Dip

Image is of Sandra Lee's Artichoke Dip

Artichoke Dip: (recipe from my dear friend, Alyssa and her mama!)
2 cans quartered artichokes, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 clove minced garlic
1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved lengthwise)

Mix together artichokes, mayonnaise, cheese, and garlic.  Place in 9x13 glass dish and top with cherry tomatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.

SERVE WITH: Toasteds crackers and chopped veggies (carrots, celery, peppers, whatever you like!)

We made 1.5 recipes of this, and every bite of it was eaten at the party...which is generally what happens with this dish!!

Dinners Week 8: Turkey Chili, the most delicious Quiche, and some party favs

First off, let me apologize for the tardiness of this post.  Six of my best friends in the entire world were in town this weekend, and I wasn't about to miss spending one minute with them because I was on the computer...so here you have this week's meals a little late ;)

Turkey Chili Taco Soup:  Recipe from Skinnytaste found HERE

NOTES:  So, this is one of my new favorite blogs...www.skinnytaste.com.  I have only tried two of her recipes thus far, but they have both been easy and delicious.  In all honestly, this was not the soup that I thought I was making...I had planned on making her turkey chili with sweet potatoes...there is also one with pumpkin that looks delicious, but I wrote down the wrong recipe.
Well, good for me, because this was GREAT!!!






Quiche: (recipe from CovCom Cooks!...can y'all tell this is one of my favorite cookbooks?!??!)

1 9in pastry shell, unbaked (I used 1 sheet of puff pastry this time)
8-10 slices bacon, diced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 cup grated Swiss cheese (can substitute Gruyere)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  *Prick holes in pastry shell and back for 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees.  

Fry bacon in small skillet.  Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.  Place onion in skillet, and saute in bacon grease over m edium heat until golden.  Drain grease.  Spread onioin, bacon, and grated cheese in partially baked pastry shell.

Combine eggs, milk, cream, salt, cayenne, pepper, and nutmeg in medium bowl; mix well.  Pour into pastry shell.  Place pie plate on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until custard is golden brown and firm, and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

NOTES:  I wanted to make something with puff pastry since I had some in my freezer this week.  I thought maybe I'd do some sort of broccoli cheese puffs or mini pizzas, but I then realized that I had some leftover Swiss cheese and bacon that I also needed to use up, and it dawned on me that I hadn't made this quiche in a while and that puff pastry would probably work just fine...which it did!  It was amazingly good.  I don't really even like eggs, and if you ask me if I like quiche, I would probably say "not really."  BUT, this quiche is SO yummy!!!  I added broccoli to the onions and cooked it for a few minutes before adding them in to the pie shell.  *I poked holes in the puff pastry and spread it over a pie plate.  I added macaroni noodles to it to keep it from puffing up...ideally you would use beans for this, but I didn't have any, so I tried the noodles...they burned a little ;)  I cooked it for about 10 minutes.  I made this all at once because it comes together super quickly...my 4 year old helped!!



Stella and Dot party:

Photo by Susie D

I hosted a stella and dot party this past week, which was SO much fun.  I ended up with about 20 girls here just having appetizers, drinking some wine, and looking at fun jewelry.  I thought I'd share my menu with you:

Artichoke Dip: recipe found HERE.
Serve with wheat Toasted crackers.

Toffee Fruit Dip:  recipe found HERE
Serve with sliced Granny Smith apples.  Squeeze a lemon over the slices so that they don't turn brown.

Reese's Cup Toll House Cookies: 
Break and bake Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Miniature Reese's Cups

Spray two mini muffin tins with cooking spray, or line them with mini muffin liners.  Add one unbaked cookie to each muffin cup.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Unwrap Reese's cups and add one cup to each muffin tin.  Press down slightly so that top of Reese's cup is even with top of muffin tin.

 

Photo by GaylaJ

Bacon Wrapped Dates: recipe found HERE



Happy Cooking!!!

Running...in Every Sense of the Word

This week, I felt like I was running from one day to the next...literally and figuratively.  I am training for my 6th half marathon, and I am realizing, once again, that the more I train, the easier it will be, but finding time to run during the week is presenting lots of challenges :)  As the kids are getting older, they're involved with more activities, I am finding myself with more "time" while they are in school, which ends up getting filled by even more activities, creating less time than I actually started out with at times.  So, I am having to be very intentional in finding ways to get my runs in.

Also, this week was nuts for George in terms of work, meetings, etc.  I knew that I would find myself by myself with the kids most nights, so I tried to make meals that could be eaten by the kids and then reheated once George got home from his commitments.

I posted a picture of the Spaghetti Pie on Facebook and on my earlier blog post because I was truly astonished at the damage that my little family did to that casserole.  What in the world am I going to do when my kids are teenagers!??!  Every person (including the baby) LOVED the spaghetti pie, and it was a great dish to serve at different points in the evening.

I wasn't kidding when I said that I am a morning person.  I can get more done in the hour between dropping one child off at kindergarten and the other one or two, depending on the day, at preschool than I can during any other hour of the day.  I love to get up before my kids do, have my quiet time, and start preparing for the day.  So, when I said that I made the Chicken Corn Chowder before school, those of you who know me probably rolled your eyes with knowing smiles on your faces, with maybe a little voice in the back of your head saying, "well, that's kind of annoying!." ;)

The Shrimp Calzones are oh so delicious.  My 4 year old started calling them "shrimp pies," and asked for one again for lunch the next day.  They don't take too terribly long to prepare, but they are a little time intensive because you have to peel the shrimp, stand over the sauce/shrimp while they cook, roll out the pizza dough, and allow time for cooking so I would not suggest doing these on a day that is super busy in the evening.  You can always use chicken as a replacement for the shrimp in these, but I don't think they would be as good...plus, I have a great "recipe" that I don't even consider a recipe for Chicken Calzones that I'll share at a later date...maybe even this week now that I'm thinking about them!!

So, the Crockpot Green Chili.  You could do SO much with this from eating it as chili to wrapping it up for enchiladas, to making tacos, to piling it on nachos.  This is one of the easiest and yummiest recipes I have ever come across.  George was NOT happy that he was missing this one...don't feel too sorry for him, though, as he was being entertained at Nobles!  Just as a side note, this is definitely GREEN, so I try and hide it with lots of cheese in quesadillas for the kids...you know how funny kids can be about how things look.  We had friends over the night we ate them, and 3 out of 4 kids cleared their plates! (It could have had something to do with the fact that there were Oreos as a bribe for dessert, but I'd like to just think it was my culinary slyness!)

We had leftovers one night this week, and the other two nights were spent in Augusta with my sister, my dad, and my brother-in-law (Papa Johns and Vallarta were the perfect ending to the week!)  We did cook for a baby shower that my sister was helping to throw, so I'll share our artichoke dip recipe with you:

Artichoke Dip: (recipe from my dear friend, Alyssa and her mama!)
2 cans quartered artichokes, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 clove minced garlic
1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved lengthwise)

Mix together artichokes, mayonnaise, cheese, and garlic.  Place in 9x13 glass dish and top with cherry tomatoes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.

SERVE WITH: Toasteds crackers and chopped veggies (carrots, celery, peppers, whatever you like!)

We made 1.5 recipes of this, and every bite of it was eaten at the party...which is generally what happens with this dish!!

Up this week are:  Black Bean Burritos, Chicken Calzones (yes, that was just decided as I have the ingredients on hand,) White Bean Chili, and Chicken and Pesto Farfalle!  (Possibly some Crockpot Taco Soup too)

Happy Cooking!!!