For Your New Year's Eve Party: Dips

These dips are good for any occasion, not just New Years. Hot artichoke dip is great for those who love savory--it's great on baguette slices, crackers, bagels, chips, and vegetables. The sweet and creamy yogurt fruit dip is for sweet-tooths like me. It's delicious on bananas, strawberries, raspberries, mango, pineapple, apples, and pretty much anything else you can think to dip in it. And don't forget to whip up some bean dip; check here for the recipe.

Hot Artichoke Dip
Makes 1-1/2 cups of dip

1/2 c. mayo or ranch dressing (can substitute half of mayo with plain yogurt)
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/4 c. chopped green onions (about 4 onions)
1-14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1-10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (optional)

Combine mayo and cheese in a small bowl. Add onions, spinach (if desired) and artichoke hearts. Spoon into 1 qt. microwave/oven safe casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until hot.

If you're microwaving, simply combine all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap (folding one edge back 1/4 in. to vent steam), and microwave on med. high for 4-5 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes.



Yogurt Fruit Dip
Makes 2 cups

1-8 oz. package neufchatel cheese, softened (or homemade cream cheese (recipe here))
1-6 oz. container orange yogurt (or homemade yogurt in the flavor of your choice)
1/2 c. orange marmalade (or a different kind of jam in a flavor similar to your yogurt)
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 tbsp. coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc.)

Beat cream cheese in med. bowl until creamy. Beat in yogurt, marmalade, and nutmeg until smooth. Either serve immediately or refridgerate to allow flavors to blend. Before serving, sprinkle with chopped nuts.

For Your Holiday Dinner: Pan Rolls

Would Christmas dinner be complete without homemade rolls? I don't think so. This recipe for pan rolls is great for any time of year, but I especially like it for holiday dinners, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Including mixing, kneading, rising, shaping, and baking, this recipe takes almost 3 hours, so you'll want to make sure you start it nice and early, so that your rolls will be done in time for dinner.

Pan Rolls
Makes 27 rolls.
2-1/4 tsp. yeast (1 package)
1/3 c. plus 1 tsp. sugar, divided
1-1/2 c. warm water (110-115 degrees), divided
1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted
2 eggs
1/4 c. instant dry milk powder
1-1/4 tsp. salt
5-1/2 to 6 c. all-purpose flour

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in 1/2 c. water. Add butter, eggs, milk powder, salt, 3 c. flour, and remaining water and sugar. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, until dough is smooth. Stir in enough flour to get a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a floured surface and knead dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Punch dough down. Divide into 1-1/2 to 2 inch balls (about 27) and shape into rolls. Place about 1/2 inch apart on greased baking pan (any pan with a 2-inch height will work well, though you may need to use two pans). Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 375 for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on wire racks, and enjoy!

Homemade Cream Cheese

This is actually a mock cream cheese, and it's made the same way as homemade yogurt. In taste tests my mother-in-law and I have had, it tastes almost the same as regular cream cheese, and you can use it in all the same recipes--cheese cake, cheese balls, key lime pie, and all the rest. The best part is, it's fat free. To incubate, you can use either a cooler with warm water or a yogurt maker.

Homemade Cream Cheese
Combine:
1-1/2 c. warm water
2 1/2 c. non-instant dry milk powder (5 cups instant)
1/4-1/2 c. plain yogurt with active culture

Add:
2 c. warm water

Pour into containers and cover with lids (use a yogurt maker or canning jars with lids).

If you're using a yogurt maker, set the timer for 12 hours and rotate the jars after 6 hours.

If you're using a cooler, surround jars with warm water, and cover. Replace the water every 2 hours or so to maintain a temperature range between 100 and 120 degrees F.

Makes approximately 6 cups of cream cheese.

Note:
If your cream cheese is too runny, you can drain it by placing the cheese in a strainer lined with cheese cloth or a towel. Just let it sit for as long as it takes to reach your desired consistency.

Holiday Party Food: Cheese Balls

Hello out there!

Christmas Eve parties are just a few days away, and New Year's Eve parties aren't that far away either. Have you started planning your menus? Cheese balls make great appetizers--they're fast and easy to make, and they look and taste impressive. You can make the cheese balls in the recipes below with either store-bought cream cheese or homemade cream cheese (for a recipe for homemade cream cheese, check my next post here). Cheese balls made with homemade cream cheese may not be as firm, but they will still set up and hold their shape, and they taste every bit as good.

Cheddar Cheese Ball
1 c. finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, or 1/2 cup homemade cream cheese
2 T butter
1 T milk
1 T finely chopped green onion
1 T diced pimiento (opt.)
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2-1/3 c. chopped walnuts or slivered almonds

Bring cheeses and butter to room temperature. Combine in med. sized mixing bowl with milk, onion, pimiento, and worcestershire sauce. Cover and chill for 4-24 hours. Shape mixture into a ball; roll in nuts. Let stand 15 minutes. Serve with crackers or vegetables.


Basic Cheese Ball
1 c. cream cheese
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried minced onion
1/2-1/3 c. chopped walnuts or slivered almonds

Bring cheese and butter to room temperature; combine all ingredients except nuts. Refrigerate 4-24 hours; shape into ball and roll in nuts. Serve with crackers or vegetables.

With this recipe, you're a little more free to experiment. Try adding bacon bits, sun-dried tomatoes, dried garden vegetables, or whatever flavor you want.

Bon Appetit!

Christmas Wassail

This is an old family favorite. I got this wassail recipe from my grandma, and it's the best one I've ever seen. The spices need to steep for an hour or more, and they make the entire house smell divine. Oh it's good! I like to keep a little pot of spices simmering even when I'm not making wassail just because it smells so good. The fact that it uses whole spices is nice too, because it means you don't wind up with yucky-tasting dregs at the bottom of your cup.

Cutchen's Christmas Wassail
1 qt. water
2-1/4 c. sugar
10 whole cloves
8 allspice berries
2 sticks cinnamon
2 qts. apple cider
1 qt. orange juice
2 c. lemon juice

Mix water and sugar in a small pot. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; add cloves, allspice berries, and cinnamon. Let stand for 1 hour or more. Remove spices and transfer sugar-spice water to a large 1-1/2-2 gallon stock pot. Stir in cider, orange juice, and lemon juice. Serve warm.

7-Layer Cookies

Happy birthday to my mother-in-law!

Ready for some extreme Christmas sweetness? One of my favorite Christmas recipes is this one for 7-layer cookies. It is extremely sweet, and extremely good. They're fast to make and they're a really fun change from the standard sugar and gingerbread cookies on your Christmas cookie platter.

7-Layer Cookies
1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 c. finely-crushed graham crackers
12 oz. butterscotch chips
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 c. flaked coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Melt margarine and pour into 9"x13" pan. Sprinkle graham crackers over margarine. Sprinkle the chips and the coconut in layers over the graham crackers. Drizzle the condensed milk over the coconut. Sprinkle the nuts over the top. Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes. Cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Winter Dinners: Chili and Texas Spaghetti

I was just looking over the recipes I've posted to this blog, and I noticed that there are hardly any meal ideas. I decided it's time to change that, so today I'm blogging on a winter favorite: chili. I found a good basic chili recipe in a cookbook a while ago, and as I usually tend to do with recipes, I adapted it and made it my own. It's chunky and has a stew-like consistency. Feel free to adjust seasonings depending on how hot you like your chili. I like to serve this chili with hot cornbread and cheddar cheese.

Leftover chili is great for Texas spaghetti. I grew up in a suburb of Dallas, and Texas spaghetti was a family favorite. Just cook up some pasta (we like spaghetti or fettucini best) and serve it with chili on top (instead of spaghetti sauce). You can also add cheese, onions, etc. If you don't have leftover chili, you can use cannedchili. That works really well too.

Chili
This recipe serves 4-6

1 lb. ground beef
1 med. onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 can diced green chilies
2 14-oz. cans tomatoes
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
1 tbsp. chili powder
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans


Cook beef, onion, and garlic in 3-qt. saucepan until beef is browned. Drain off fat. Add all the other ingredients except the beans. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for about an hour (to blend flavors), stirring occasionally.

Stir in beans. Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes, until the beans have warmed through and the chili reaches your desired thickness.

Wheat Bread to Warm Your Kitchen and Your Heart

Home-baked bread is another one of those "soul foods" for me. The smell and the taste just make my family and me feel safe, warm, and loved. Lately my husband and I have been on a whole foods kick--trying to cut down on artificial fillers and processed "fake-foods." One of the things I've started to do is make our own bread, and it's been wonderful. I was apprehensive at first; partly because I thought bread took a long time to make, and partly because whenever I'd made wheat bread in the past, it had always turned out dry and crusty. As I was looking through a textbook for my old foods class at BYU, I found a recipe for "Foolproof Wheat Bread" and decided to try it. It was wonderful! It uses vital wheat gluten to make the bread lighter, so it's not so dense and dry. Also, it doesn't need much attention and goes really fast. If you don't have wheat gluten and don't wish to buy any, you can substitute white flour for half of the wheat flour.

Foolproof Wheat Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 T yeast dissolved in
1/4 c. warm water
2-1/2 c. hottest tap water
2 c. whole wheat flour (we like the taste of red wheat best)
2 T vital wheat gluten
3 T vegetable oil
3 T honey
3 T molasses
1 T salt
2-4 c. additional wheat flour
Optional: cinnamon sugar, raisins, dried apples, nuts, etc.

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 c. warm water. In a large bowl, combine 2-1/2 c. hot tap water, 2 c. wheat flour, and gluten. Add oil, honey, molasses, and salt; beat well. Next, stir in dissolved yeast and enough of the flour to make a soft dough that pulls away from the bowl. Turn on to a floured counter top and knead well for 8-10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Divide dough into two portions and roll or press into long rectangles. If desired, rub cinnamon sugar onto surface of dough, and sprinkle on raisins, nuts, or dried fruit. (If you don't want to add anything, you can just shape your dough balls into loaves.) Roll dough and pinch the edges closed.
Place dough in greased bread pan, seam side down. Lightly grease top of each loaf, cover loosely with a towel, and let rise in a warm place until not quite double. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove bread from pans immediately; brush tops with butter. Let cool completely before storing in plastic.