BLT dip

We enjoyed some super bowl sadness last week with friends.  There was so much awesome food there!  I know my southern friends think I was going to be walking to 'northern we don't cook here' territory, but they are certainly giving you a run for the money here.  David brought wings and I decided to bring my A game with some BLT dip.  You know bacon makes everything yum-tastic.

Materials

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

1 lb bacon

3/4 pint grape tomatoes chopped

2-5 green onions

Methods

Combine the sour cream and mayonnaise and mixed well.  While the  bacon cooks,  chop the tomatoes an green onions up into small pieces.  Take the cooked bacon and crumble into the dip.  Mix and chill.  The longer you let it sit the better it tastes!!!

Verdict --

Bacon makes everything taste awesome.

Grove Dip

We caught the Steelers-Bengals Game a couple of weeks ago at our friends place. I wanted to bring something, and dip came up. I immediately thought of Grove Dip, from the Moo Groceries Cookbook for the Vicksburg Historical Society.

Materials
2 11-oz cans corn, drained and rinsed
1 4-oz can chopped green chiles
3 green onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tbl sugar
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Methods
Drain and rinse the corn. In a bowl mix mayonnaise, sour cream, and sugar. Add corn, chiles, green onions, red peppers, and cheese. Mix and Chill for several hours before serving with tortilla chips.

Verdict
It was delicious! I had a sample of this once before, and it was about as good as I remembered.

Things to note about the recipe -- it makes a ton of dip, and I mean a ton!!! I would definitely recommend halving it if you aren’t feeding a crowd. Likewise, I’ve actually considered two substitutions -- I would consider omitting one can of corn for a can of black beans. I would also consider subbing some strained non-fat yogurt or some greek yogurt for the sour cream, mayonnaise, sugar combo. Corn, beans, and yogurt would mean you could eat as much as you wanted!

025 -- Peanut Thai Noodle Salad

My friend Lulu had a few of us over for dinner a few weeks ago. She had recently introduced me to this awesome food blog, Our Best Bites, which always has yummy looking recipes. To intensify my love for OBB, Lulu made their Thai Peanut Noodle Salad. I have seriously had dreams, ok well really daydreams, about that salad. It was way too yummy for its own good. Obviously (a) I have major issues, and (b) I had to give it a try of my own.

Plus, this gave me an opportunity to use my *new* blender. My parents gave me a blender/food processor combo about 3.5 years ago (I think) for Christmas. They share a base, but have different tops. Since then I have used the food processor tons of times, my general favorite thing to make being hummus. However, I had never actually pulled the blender portion out. Now I feel a lot better about it. I swear I usually don't wait that long to use gifts... the week the infamous pasta roller shows up I plan to make something special :)

In other conversational news... this was the first time I actually used raw ginger in a recipe. I usually sub ground ginger, skip it, or just skip the recipe in the first place. I think am closing in towards having cooked with most of the veggies at our little Kroger save the greens.

Materials
Dressing
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 lime
2 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbl rice vinegar
2 tbl soy sauce
3 tbl honey
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbl minced ginger
1/4-1/2 cup copped cilantro
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1-3 tsp siracha chili sauce
2-4 tbl water (as needed to make dressing-y)

Salad
6 cups chopped Nappa Cabbage/Savoy Cabbage, or some other greens
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, sliced or chopped
Handful of baby carrots, julienned
1 box whole wheat linguine

Method
Combine all dressing ingredients in blender and mix. Set to side and chill


Cook linguine until al dente. Rinse in col water. While linguine is cooking chop vegetables.

Toss dressing, pasta, and veggies and serve!

Verdict
Awesome! It doesn't taste like I remember Lulu's tasting, but i could still have dreams about this. I'm sold on OBB! About the only problem i see is that it feeds a bunch! I knew it would be more than a meal or two when I looked at it, but I was dumb enough to think I didn't need to halve (or quarter) it. Really, since the dressing is the super star of this meal, you could make a pretty good meal out of just the veggies and the dressing without the noodles, but what fun would that be? So, anyone want to come over for dinner tomorrow or Tuesday? You can see the super awesome yellow kitchen in person!!

020 -- Southwest Veggie Eggrolls

While scouring the food blogs I ran across this recipe at Ezra Pound Cake. It spoke to me and I've been thinking about it ever since I read this recipe. After a great day of springtime fun it was definitely what the doctor ordered -- and at 2 WW points per eggroll it isn't too shabby on the health side. Taste-wise this was absolutely A-Ma-Zing! Plus it was good and filling. I would serve with greek yogurt or some guacamole if I had one of them on hand.

Materials
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 oz package chopped spinach, thawed and dried
1 1/2 cup colby jack or mexican cheese
4 oz can of diced green chiles, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
dash cayenne pepper
20 eggroll wrappers

Methods
Combine everything except the eggrolls and mix well.


Place about 1/4 cup of mixture on top of an eggroll wrapper.

Wrap eggrolll up. Roll one corner towards center. Continue rolling and fold sides over center. Wet final corner and roll up to seal. This recipe should make about 20 eggrolls in this manner.

Spray baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. Place eggrolls seam-side down on baking sheet. Spray top of eggrolls with vegetable oil spray. Bake for about 15 minutes at 425 F, until crispy and brown. Turn eggrolls once during cooking.

Serve and ENJOY!