Dip it, Dip it Good!

4 things happened to me in the past week or so.
2 different people asked me when I'd be blogging again and 2 other different people asked me for 2 of my dip recipes.

Genius, I though, I shall blog about dips!

The Best Spinach Dip Ever is totally not original but whenever I bring it somewhere, people marvel. And I'm talking 7 years ago and 7 months ago - always always a hit.
Most notably, I attended a golf pros and tennis hoes party in New York, at a great friend's apartment and made this dip. She and other party goers raved as though I had invented something spectacular. Nope, its a back of the box recipe.

But hey, if you don't look on the back of that box, you'd never know it so here goes:

Best Spinach Dip Ever
1 8oz container of sour cream (fat free isn't a good idea here)
1 cup mayo (light is fine if you'd like)
1 envelope dry veggie soup mix (if you get Lipton, it's on the back!)
1 frozen brick of chopped spinach, thawed and drained.

Step 1 - thawing and draining spinach is quite a trip, esp if you attempt to do it in hot water. Just don't. Either let it thaw over time or take the packaging off but leave the "box" closed and nuke. Then drain by squeezing the box. Strainers don't work.

Step 2 - Mix all ingredients in a bowl

Step 3 - Serve with bread or crackers.

My personal favorite, a big, dark, round loaf of pumpernickel bread, hallowed out into a bread bowl. Yum!


Taco Dip
1+ lb ground turkey (or beef if you must)
1 can refried beans
1 hard taco kit (or packet of taco mix and fav tortilla chips)
1 bag of finely shredded Mexican Blend Cheese (thank you shop rite for inventing this)
Optional - sour cream, salsa, guacamole, diced tomato, etc

Step 1 - Brown meat and flavor with taco seasoning as directed
Step 2 - Layer meat, beans, cheese, repeat in small glass bowl
Step 3 - Microwave such that beans heat and cheese melts (not very long)
Step 4 - Top with optional goodies mentioned above
Step 5 - Open chips or break hard taco shells

Dip and enjoy.

This is basically a twist to taco kit night that I guarantee you'll love. Espeically if taco kit night happens too frequently in your home

Why my mom didn't like it

A little while ago, there was an evening that I didn't have super awesome dinner plans.

I tossed some chicken breasts into a pan with garlic powder and looked around the kitchen. There I saw a few boxes of stove top stuffing and decided, what the heck, why not make that as a side dish?

The back of the box caught my eye - Bruschetta Chicken bake, or something like that. It required not much more than the chicken and stuffing mix - just 1/2 cup of water, some mozzarella cheese, fresh garlic and a can of diced tomatoes. Oh and some basil, but I was able to skip that.

I didn't go into the recipe expecting much. After all, it was a 30 minute, back-of-the-box recipe and would probably be bland. It was worth a shot.

After making it - and loving it - I did what any self-respecting, independent woman would do: I called my mom.

It only took about a week for her to make the recipe at home but surprisingly, she didn't like it. What could be the issue, I wondered.

Aha! When I cook, I tend to triple the amount of garlic called for. And I didn't have plain diced tomatoes, I had a basil-and-something flavored can.

So I tried again, to see that the first go wasn't a fluke. It wasn't.

1 - Lay Chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces in a casserole dish.
2 - Sprinkle with garlic powder and Italian seasoning.
3 - Top with as much shredded mozzarella cheese as you think looks good to you.
4 - Mix stuffing mix, 1/2 cup water, undrained can of diced tomatoes (flavored variety) and lots and lots of fresh garlic, chopped as small as your patience will allow. Or just mash em up in one of those nifty garlic presses.
5 - Add more garlic than you just did, for good measure.
6 - Toss the stuffing mixture on top of the cheese covered chicken and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until chicken is done.

The lesson this time is that when you're making a back-of-the-box recipe, or any for that matter, don't be afraid to throw your own style in. There's a reason that even spaghetti tastes better at a restaurant, and the key lies in fresh garlic. I'm going out on a limb and guessing my mom followed the recipe verbatim. Me on the other hand, I've always liked to march to my own beat. Or my own spice combo.

The official recipe, courtesy of Stove Top plus my renegade spice usage:
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained - Use a flavored variety
1 pkg (6 oz) stove top stuffing mix, chicken flavored
1/2 cup water
2 (that means 6 or more) cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp dried basil leaves (I skipped this)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1 - Heat oven to 400 degrees. Stir tomatoes, water, stuffing mix and garlic just until stuffing mix is moistened.
2 - Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish, spring with basil, top with cheese then stuffing mixture
3 - Bake 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

Enjoy! But only if you put your own flavor to it

Best Beef & Vegetable soup ever... made with leftovers

So,
I made a roast again. Beef in a pot - aka "pot roast."
That was Thursday night or so. By Saturday, we were snowed in and I wanted nothing more than to take the leftover roast and create a pot of hot soup.

That I did and it came out INCREDIBLE!!

Ingredients:
Leftover roast, cut into small bits
~6 cups beef broth
~4 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 can of basil/spiced diced tomatoes
1 bag of frozen veggies (I used steamers, corn/carrots/peas); thawed
~1/2 box elbow macaroni or small pasta of choice; cooked al dente
1-2 Stalks celery

Directions:
Heat all ingredients in a large pot. Noodles were only partially cooked and thus will get fully cooked (or over cooked, so be careful) during heating.

This seriously came out delicious. I was stoked!
It was a little too flavorful at first, perhaps tangy because of the flavored diced tomatoes so I decided to toss in celery to neutralize. You may want to use plain tomatoes. (Where did I get to smart to have the idea to toss in celery to soak up some of the flavorness? No frickin clue!)

Enjoy!

American Pierogie... melts in the mouth and lands on the thighs.

This recipe is not healthy. Not one bit. It doesn't contain much in the way of nutritional value either but we're Americans and we don't tend to care much do we?

All I can say is this is super yum and can feed an army or be used as a perfect and easily-transportable pot luck dish.

less than 1 box elbow macaroni, cooked (3/4 lb. or so)
1.5 large onions, diced finely
3 sticks butter or margarine (I used 2 marg, 1 butter)
Roughly 1/2 lb American cheese, sliced
6 small potatoes, cooked and mashed (I used Ziploc steamers to cook)

In ungreased casserole, layer macaroni, potatoes, sliced cheese.
Repeat.
Pour butter/onion mixture on top and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Lessons:
This will nearly overflow your casserole dish
Chopped onions still burn your eyes when using a Cuisinart
Cuisinarts on "high" will turn onions to almost-liquid