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Posts Tagged ‘appetizer’

Buffalo Hummus

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2012 | 2 Comments »

I’m back! Singularly employed, once again, and looking forward to 1. having my weekends back! Two whole days off?? CRAZY! and 2. spending a little more time on content for WV. yeah! Now, back to the food…

There is a scene in Ten Things I Hate About You where Biana and her friend are chatting and their conversation goes:

Biana: I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed but can you just be whelmed?
Her Friend: I think you can in Europe…

Well, consider this Europe because “just whelmed” is exactly how I usually feel about hummus! I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, it is just something that’s…ok. I’ll eat it every now and again randomly but I never end up finishing a container and it usually ends up going bad.

But this recipe is definitely the exception. My friend, Amelia, made it a few months back when we had our pretentious drive-in experience. She brought this along with pita chips and veggies. In fact, it was the pita chips that almost caused me to have to pull the car over because there was a squabble regarding how soon movie snacks can be opened before the movie. The answer: definitely not on the way to the movie!

Anyway, Amelia sent me this recipe a few weeks ago and I’ve been dying to make it…and then eat it immediately. Like, all of it.

Buffalo Hummus
courtesy of Amelia

  • 1 can of chickpeas (or the equivalent if you are using dried)
  • 1 TBSP tahini
  • 4 TBSP Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (you can use regular Frank’s Red Hot if that’s what you have or you don’t feel comfortable with the “butter flavoring” ingredient. This was just what I had in my fridge)
  • 5 Peppadew peppers (these are located in a jar, generally in the deli section. They have mild and hot. I used mild cause I’m a whimp but hot would be great, too)
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 TBSP of olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • red chili flakes (optional)

Put the chickpeas, tahini, Frank’s Red Hot, peppadew peppers, garlic olive oil and salt into a food processor and process until smooth. Taste. Add more heat if need be. Drizzle more Frank’s Red Hot on top and sprinkle with red chili flakes for garnish.

I seriously love this hummus recipe. I was scraping every last bit out of the food processor with the cucumbers. I may have even pulled out a bag of old potato chip when I ran out of cucumber slices. Those didn’t really work but I did try them! I was able to restrain myself a bit and actually make a rather delicious meal with this. You will have to tune in later in the week for that recipe. Two words, though: caramalized. pineapple. Oh yeah!

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Blueberry Salsa

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on June 1, 2012 | 7 Comments »

This has definitely been a week of celebrating! The most fun was celebrating my friend, Melinda’s, birthday.

If you read this blog often enough, you know Melinda is my fellow foodie friend. As such, I feel like I should give a little shout out to her:

Melinda and I have known each other since we were youngin’s in college. We met at a find-a-roommate night: I needed a roommate because my freshman one ended up not working out and Melinda needed one cause she had just transferred. We bonded over her purple vans and ended up rooming together off and on through college and after we graduated.

What can I say, a good pair of shoes can change your life.

We’ve come a long way since we rocked the vans and ate ramen noodles in our dorm room. I think one of the reasons we’re still hanging out (besides the fact that we’re both awesome!) is that our interest in food has weirdly enough followed a similar path. Granted, Melinda is always a step or so ahead of me buuut…she’s a year older then me. So, you know, with age comes wisdom? Or something like that…

Anyway, so it goes without saying that to celebrate Melinda’s birthday, we cooked. Obviously!

Homemade veggy burgers, grilled veggies and potatoes and almond joy cake truffles. Yes, please! Oh yes, there was also dancing in the rain, some speeches, drinking and Melinda as grill master. All good things!

Of course, I’ve already made and posted most of what we ate which meant I need to incorporate a recipe that I hadn’t shared with you.

Introducing Blueberry salsa aka, our appetizer:

Blueberry Lime Salsa
 from How Sweet Eats (aka, the queen of fruit salsas)

  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 5 medium strawberries
  • 1/4 red onion
  • 1 teaspoon lime zest
  • juice of two limes
  • 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste

put blueberries, strawberries, onion, lime zest, lime juice and cilantro in a food processor. Pulse 5-6 times for a chunky salsa or longer if you want it smoother. Pour into a bowl and fold in the chopped avocado. Season with salt and pepper.

Basically, this was just an excuse to feed my new lime addiction. It’s weird because I loath lemons and anything with lemon in it. But limes? Limes I can’t get enough of! I had a ton lying around because I’ve been drinking lime water like its going out of style (and possibly margaritas…)so obviously, blueberry lime salsa was just begging to be made.

Anyway, you will notice there aren’t any action shots with this salsa. It’s because someone who was in charge of the chips *cough Amelia cough* took their sweet time arriving. By the time the chips did arrive, we were so famished and weak from hunger that we bypassed the photo sesh and just dug right in.

And it was delicious! Totally worth the excruciatingly long wait for chips and it was the perfect light, summery appetizer!

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BLACK BEAN SALSA

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on February 5, 2012 | 5 Comments »

IT’S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

My roommates and I are having people over and I still need to:

- Buy a few more things to make another batch of this below bean salsa (like, um, the beans! Totally forgot those yesterday on my shopping trip)

- Make and decorate cupcakes (they are seriously the best cupcakes ever. I’ll give you the recipe tomorrow)

- Clean up the kitchen a bit and tidy the house, find enough chairs, etc.

Oh yeah, and do all this in the 90 minutes I have after I get out of work and before the game starts. Really? Whose going to go to a book store today? It’s practically a national holiday in New England people. Grocery stores? clearly need to be open.  Packies? Definitely! (though I bought my beer yesterday just in case! I forgot the black beans but hey, I remembered my beer!! Priorities!)

Anyway, so here is my last recipe for the super bowl. This was suppose to go to you last week since I usually don’t post on the weekends but after I talked about how I had no life and went to bed at 8:30, suddenly I got a life again. How annoying!

Black Bean Salsa
from Cooking Light

*the measurements for this recipe were weird. Who measures out 2 TBSP of chopped out jalapeno? If you do actually do that, please see the Cooking Light recipe above. 

  • 1/2  red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1/4 red onion, chopped
  • 1 cucumber, chopped
  • 1/2 plum tomato, diced
  • 1/2 – 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, chopped (depends on how much heat you like)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; stir well. Cover and chill 2 hours. For best results, chill over night.

As you can see, my chopping skills are a bit lacking. I had about 15 minutes to throw this first batch together so it could chill overnight before heading to a friends. So, my tomatoes are more chunky then chopped BUT it still tasted delicious. You could also throw in some chopped avocado if you wanted because, really, what doesn’t avocado make better?

Oh yeah, one last thing:

GO PATRIOTS!!

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Spinach Artichoke Dip

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on January 26, 2012 | 7 Comments »

This post is dedicated to Amelia…because I stole her recipe… even though her sister gave it to me and told me to try it. Then again, she also put open markers in Amelia’s bed when she was little so maybe I shouldn’t trust her with Amelia’s things…

Anyways, I never had artichokes growing up. I’d never even tried one until I think after college when my roommate ordered it on pizza. I still don’t really get them and I certainly couldn’t make them edible if I was presented with one.

BUT…

I can saute them out of a can and then bake them into a dip! Oh yeah! Mad cooking skills right here! Hollah!

…I’m so cool…

Anyways, consider this part 3 of my Super Bowl recipes- BBQ Chili and Funfetti Footballs being Parts 1 and 2.

Amelia’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip
courtesy of  Theprettyvegan at Food.com

  • 1/2 yellow onion , diced
  • 1 (12 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach (I believe Amelia used fresh and it worked great but I’ll let he comment on that below if she wants)
  • 1 (8 ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts*
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 (12 ounce) package firm silken tofu
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 -3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
 
Preheat the oven to 350. Saute the oil, spinach and artichoke hearts over medium heat for about 6 minutes or until the onions are soft. Set aside
 
In your blender, combine the rest of your ingredients until smooth.
 
Pour the tofu sauce into the pan with your spinach and artichokes and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer to a baking pan and bake for 15-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown (the recipe says 15-20 but mine needed the extra 5 minutes. Also, I used a 9″ round cake pan). If your pan is not non-stick, give it a quick spray with cooking spray before pouring your mixture in.

*I have no idea what “marinated artichoke hearts” are. Like I said, I’m an artichoke virgin. All I know is, nothing at Whole Foods had this on the label. So I opted for a can of organic artichoke hearts packed in water, not oil, and salt and pepper. They worked perfectly!

uncooked

This. Is. Delicious. I know my pictures are atrocious because I opted for that awful yellow background (sorry about that) and because quite frankly, artichoke and spinach dip just isn’t pretty! But trust me.

It’s also significantly healthier then a traditional spinach and artichoke dip which has tons and tons of cheese and mayo. It will help you and your friends keep those New Years Resolutions. Yeah, remember those?

In fact, I can’t think of one reason you shouldn’t make this recipe! So there!

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