Cannellini Bean Dip with Garlic Scapes
July 5, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers
We’re off visiting family in the Adirondacks this week, enjoying a small town Fourth of July celebration, fishing, hiking, playing at the lake, cookouts, and evening campfires with roasted marshmallows, s’mores, and campfire pies. We’ll return in a few days feeling rested, a little sunburned, and ready to resume work in the garden, which hopefully won’t burn up in the current heat wave. Read more
Pesto Hummus
February 20, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Grow Your Own
Snow falls occasionally here in Northern Virginia, usually no more than about 4 or 5 inches at a time, and it’s a chance for fun followed by a quick melting, but we have more than our normal share of snow this winter. We still have plenty of snow on the ground leftover from the back-to-back blizzards two weeks ago, which dumped almost 30 inches on us. The DC area set a new record for winter snowfall, beating the previous record set in the winter of 1898-99, and our county has received over 75 inches this winter, far above our average of 23 inches. Read more
Caramelized Onion Dip and a Giveaway
January 13, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Salsas & Dips
And continuing the entertaining theme, we move on to dips, a key ingredient for any good party. I confess that I grew up on grocery store French onion dip, and boy did I eat my share of it. In fact a really good French onion dip such as this one and a few wavy potato chips could set me back weeks on my diet.
Party recipe #2 this week comes from Great Party Dips, a new cookbook from Peggy Fallon. Dips are a must for any party, and this book has tasty recipes for all kinds of dips and dunkers, giving you plenty of variety to choose from. This caramelized onion dip is creamy, rich, and full of flavor and is a great make ahead for parties as it can sit in the refrigerator for up to two days. At the minimum, let it rest for four hours to give the onion flavors time to permeate the sour cream mixture. The dip is easy to make, but caramelizing the onions properly takes some time, so plan for that. Read more
Slow Roasted Tomato Hummus
January 8, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Condiments, Grow Your Own, Middle Eastern
In the summertime we grow tomatoes in our garden, and sometimes we get a bumper crop like we did this past year. We ended up with so many tomatoes we couldn’t eat them fast enough and I slow roasted a few batches to put away for the winter. If you look up “slow roasted tomatoes” on Food Blog Search you’ll find several blogs have written about it, and I chose to follow the instructions at A Veggie Venture. After roasting I packed the tomatoes into jars with the olive oil and spices leftover from roasting and topped off with more olive oil. The jars keep well in the freezer.
We’ve used them in several ways, and last week we opened another jar and added some to a batch of hummus. It only took a few bites for Michael to proclaim this the best-tasting hummus we had ever made and we quickly went through it and made more. This makes a great healthy dip that I like to nibble on for lunches, but we also like to spread it on sandwiches. Read more
Live Blogging: The Daring Bakers Make Lavash
September 27, 2008 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Breads
Today is posting day for the monthly Daring Bakers challenge, and I’m live blogging the challenge. This month our hosts Shel of Musings from the Fish Bowl and Natalie of Gluten A Go Go chose an alternative challenge for us: vegan and/or gluten-free lavash crackers from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice with vegan and gluten-free dips. Read more
Cannellini Bean Dip with Herbed Pita
April 24, 2008 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers
Bean dips are one of my favorite appetizers because they are versatile, easy, and (usually) healthy. Just start with a can of your favorite beans, two or three herbs and spices you like, then add some olive oil and a little salt and some kind of pepper and you have the formula for a tasty snack or even a light lunch. Today a bean dip with pita was calling my name, so after finding the cannellini beans in the pantry, I whipped out the skillet and the food processor and had lunch ready in about 10 minutes. This dip recipe uses fresh rosemary, sage, and garlic, and to extend the theme I made extra herbed oil and spread it on whole wheat pita then toasted it. I thought the combination was quite yummy, and so did my boys.
The full recipe makes about 3 cups of dip, but you can easily halve it for a smaller batch, and it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.
This is my contribution to this week’s installment of Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. This week’s host is Margot from Coffee & Vanilla, so be sure to check out her blog with the round-up next week!
UPDATE: The round-up is posted here.
