Friday, April 18, 2008

So good you'll stick your fingers in it...

So, you found us! Thank you for visiting our new site. Now if you've come from my blog you'll have to read this entire post to find out the reward that I mentioned...and if you skim or skip I will totally know....I won't really....but I encourage you to read.

In my house there are signs if something is truly good. For example if the FH (which stands for Fantastic Husband, which sometimes also does not stand for Fantastic....but anyway) requests to have dinner leftovers for breakfast the next day (like my ChicFunitas recipe, which is coming later this week, I know I'm a tease, have been forever) then I know it's really good. If people see that you've run out of dips and you can see them wondering if it's appropriate to stick there hands directly into the dip bowl to eat the rest of the dip you know it's good. The Triple Play of dips below is SO good you'll stick your fingers straight in the bowl....I've seen it done....and I may have done it.

Pita Chips with Triple Dip - Hummus, Spinach Onion and Greek Salsa

Pita Chips:
You can buy pre-made Pita Chips but if you're like me and you bought Pita bread a week ago thinking you'll totally eat them but left them and now they're on the stale side of fresh you can make them super easy. Take the Pita bread, spray it with Olive Oil Pam (you could also brush on Olive Oil if you were less lazy then me), sprinkle with garlic salt (or onion salt), pepper and paprika - Cut each pocket into 8 pieces - throw on cookie sheet, put in the oven at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes or until crispy....if your chips aren't as stale as mine usually are it will take a few minutes longer.

Hummus: I love me some Hummus and it's so healthful. You can double/triple up this recipe.
What you Need:
1 can of chick peas, strained and rinsed (this is important as that liquid makes for a funky taste)
4 cloves garlic minced (you can add more or less to taste - if you're not a big garlic person roasted will be less garlic tasting and you'll like that better)
1/3 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (you want the good stuff here)
4 Tablespoons Tahini (you can leave it out and it still tastes good)
1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Paprika (plus more for garnish)
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (if you slice into a lemon for this use half of the juice of one lemon)
What you do:
Throw everything into your food processor until smooth. If you don't have a food processor - double bag your chick peas and the lemon juice and some of the olive oil and let a kid go to town mushing it (double bag is important because I've seen this mess on my floor and I don't recommend it) then stir in the rest of the stuff with a fork, smushing away as you go - your texture won't be as smooth but the results will still be delicious. Put in a serving bowl and drizzle a teeny amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top, sprinkle with paprika (and pepper if you like it).

Spinach Onion Dip: I feel like the Hummus is enough work, but you need an alternative for people that don't like Hummus so I adapted the French Onion Dip recipe and it's tasty.
What you need:
1 Package French Onion Dip or Soup Mix
1 16oz Container of Sour Cream (I like the Daisy Dallop commercial so I use that brand - you can go low fat here but not fat free)
1 Frozen box of Chopped Spinach Thawed and Drained so it's not mushy
1/2 Teaspoon of salt (you need this to bring out the flavour in the Spinach)
Handful of chopped chives - I have them in my herb garden so I add them in.
What you Do:
Mix it. How much do you love that action. That's it. Well you could always put it in a serving dish...or you could eat it straight from the mixing bowl while you're standing in your kitchen...and when you look down and it's all gone DO NOT blame me.

Greek Salsa: I made this one day when I realized that I had a whole lot of tomatoes that were in the use it or lose it category. This is an eyeball recipe...so these measurements are not scientific at all.
What you need:
4 big tomatoes chopped into little pieces
1 small red onion or 1/2 a bigger one chopped into little pieces
1 handful (I know really precise) black olives chopped into little pieces
1 cucumber (leave the skin on - or at least 1/2 on - the color is great) chopped into little pieces
1 splash of Olive Oil (doesn't need to be the best stuff here- I always have two grades of OO; expensive because it matters and not expensive because it doesn't matter. In this, it doesn't matter)
Some Feta Cheese (I happen to like Feta in little doses so I use very little here so the ratio is 8:1 otherstuff:feta but it's all up to you - you'll need less salt if you have more feta)
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon (this is not a "must have" but if you have sliced into one for the hummus throw it in it's fresh)
What you do:
Stir. Use the gentle approach here lifting from the bottom of the bowl to the top until it's well mixed. This is really better if you let it sit for a few hours to get good and married and cold in the fridge. And it's SO yummy on grilled chicken the next day.

There you made it through the Pita Chips with Triple Dip - Hummus, Spinach Onion and Greek Salsa so on to the announcement: Baby Girl's name is going to be Alexandra and we're going to call her Lexi....couldn't you just DIE thinking about the cuteness?!?!?!

7 comments:

AndreAnna said...

Yay for Lexi!!!

AndreAnna said...

And ay for some dippity-dip I'm gonna be making!

Michelle Smiles said...

Love me some hummus! I lost my fav recipe for it and haven't found one that I love as much since.

Super cute name! Thanks for sharing!

jenny said...

sweet blog. put it in the reader. cass, i think the name lexi is adorable! :)

jessica said...

ok so i skimmed down so i could read the name first! ha ha!! great name :)

Anonymous said...

I always wanted to call my little girl Lexi. Good choice and congratulations! I got here via a "share" from Pocklock. I think she deserves a prize!

Nicole said...

Such a cute name!