Smoky White Bean Queso Dip

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A major staple in my diet during my high school years was jalapeño bean dip. That, and a bag of nacho cheese Doritos, and I was good to go. Good times. It wasn’t the greatest diet for a growing teenage girl, but at least the beans provided protein. It could’ve been a lot worse. Today, that love for bean dip continues, only now instead of buying it in a can, I make my own. This recipe is a favorite. If you like it extra spicy, feel free to add more jalapeños. Me? I think it’s perfect as it is.

Smoky White Bean Queso Dip

1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 10-oz. can [Rotel] diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
1 15-oz. can white chili beans, drained
½ t. kosher salt
¼ - ½ t. cumin
Few gratings coarsely ground black pepper

In a medium microwave safe bowl, combine cream cheese and tomatoes, and microwave on high for one minute. Stir in beans and microwave again for two minutes, stirring after one minute, until the cheese has melted and the mixture is smooth. Add remaining ingredients, and serve warm with tortilla chips. Garnish as desired.

Creamy Olive Dressing

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I eat a lot of salad; I think I get that from my dad. There was not a day that would go by that he didn’t have a salad. Those, and his martinis, are probably what led to his long life. He chalked it up to clean living, but who knows? (Insert wry smile.) Unlike my dad, I don’t have bottles of salad dressing stacked up in my fridge like cord wood as he did. No, I make my dressing fresh. One thing that makes homemade salad dressing super easy is having a mini ninja blender. If you don’t have one of these, you need to get one. It has a multitude of uses, of course, but it makes brilliant salad dressing. When you use this blender to make salad dressing it will stay emulsified no matter how long you keep it in the fridge. No more shaking in the hopes of returning it to the wonderfully blended state that it was initially, it stays that way. This creamy flavorful dressing will delight olive lovers. If one of them happens to be you, you must try this. It is equally as good on a green salad as it is in a pasta salad.

Creamy Olive Dressing

½ c. mayonnaise

½ c. sour cream

1 garlic clove, halved

¼ c. roughly chopped parsley

1 T. chopped scallion (1 medium)

1½ T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1½ T. olive oil

1/3 c. ripe (black) olives, drained

1/3 c. Kalamata olives, drained

1/8 - 1/4 t. kosher salt

Few gratings freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients into a blender (I use a mini ninja blender) and process until smooth. Keeps in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days.

 

Special St. Pat's Postmark

It’s not always that things go to plan, but they did this month, at least for me. Last month when I mailed out St. Valentine’s Day cards well in advance, a woman who lives four houses down from me didn’t get hers until a month later. I made sure, when I mailed out my St. Patrick’s Day cards, that I also included a greeting for a Happy Easter in case there was a duplicate of that scenario. 

 
I decided to mail the St. Patrick’s Day cards on the first of the month, doing so via Saint Patrick, Missouri in order to get their special postmark as I mentioned in this post. I was so pleased to see mine arrive on the 17th. I said that I would share what the postmark for this year looked like, and here it is. This is a nice service that they offer, free of charge, and it adds so much to the envelope.

I did learn that there is an Easter, South Dakota, but it’s a small town and they don’t have a post office. Unfortunately. ;-)

 

Italian Meatloaf

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As a kid I never liked meatloaf. My mother used to make it covered in tomato sauce, and it wasn’t until I got into college that I embraced the goodness of tomatoes. Even though I now like tomatoes and tomato sauce, I still like my meatloaf unadorned. When meatloaf is not buried under a heavy sauce, it has to have a lot of flavor. This one certainly does. It’s delicious warm from the oven with a side of pasta, served on top of a pile of mashed potatoes, or the next day on a sandwich. It freezes well, so even if there are only a couple of you dining, freeze some for later. You’ll crave it.

Italian Meatloaf

1½ lbs. ground chuck
2 eggs, beaten
¾ c. Italian breadcrumbs
¼ c. chopped flat leaf parsley
¼ c. ketchup or marinara sauce
¼ t. Montreal steak seasoning
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
1 t. garlic salt
½ t. dried minced onion
¼ t. granulated garlic
1 14.5-oz. can petite diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, drained
1½  c. shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a broiler pan with PAM, or place a rack into a foil-lined jelly-roll pan, and spray the rack with PAM; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together ground chuck, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, and ketchup (or marinara sauce). Stir in Montreal steak seasoning, Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, garlic salt, minced onion, granulated garlic, diced tomatoes, and cheese. Shape into a loaf and place it on the prepared rack. Cover loosely with foil.

Bake approximately one hour, or until internal temperature reaches 160° F.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Tablescape

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It’s going to be a socially-distanced party of three for St. Patrick’s Day this year, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be festive. Quite the contrary, as you can see from these photos I went for drama.

Whereas I would normally opt for layered plates in white and green, I decided to go with the boldness of black. Water Hyacinth placemats are topped with Bordallo Pinheiro geranium leaf chargers on top of which are square black plates from Rachael Ray. The square plaid plate on top of that was a local find; the bowl another Bordallo Pinheiro find is their cabbage leaf design. In each bowl is a Guinness Irish Soda Bread Muffin. Each place setting will have its own special vintage postcard reproduction plaque. You can use regular postcards to do the same. You might consider hand writing a recipe from the dinner on the back.

The flatware once belonged to my mother, the pitcher an older, but much loved and often used, design from Fitz and Floyd. The leprechaun salt and pepper shakers are a part of that set, and a real treasure.

The large shamrock wine glasses with the Happy St. Patrick’s Day greeting that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, are from Pier One. Despite my every effort to follow the care instructions to the letter, i.e. washing them carefully in lukewarm water, by hand, the letters spelling out the greeting were improperly adhered, and most of them floated right off, or into the next letter to create some garbled message of dubious meaning. Grrr. The glass that you see in this picture is complete only because I don’t use it, and haven’t washed it, because it has a chip in the rim. Sigh.

There always has to be a pot of gold somewhere, and each place setting has its own, but instead of the gold-wrapped chocolate coins that I have used in the past, this year I chose the festiveness of green mint M&Ms.

I hope you’re celebrating as well as you are able. But if not, at least treat yourself to a special dinner and toast yourself for how well you’ve done the past year under difficult circumstances

Sláinte.

This post is linked to:

Tablescape Thursday

 

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Walnut Crunch

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Let’s face facts. It’s hard to find something new by way of a green salad. We’ve all had various combinations of salad greens tossed with various combinations of vegetables and fruits. What makes a salad different and special is that little extra something, as in this case with the walnut crunch. It takes your already tasty fresh salad over the top, changing it from every day, to a special day. 

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Walnut Crunch

Fresh baby spinach
Fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled, and quartered
Walnut Crunch (recipe below)
Raspberry Vinaigrette (recipe below)

To make walnut crunch:

1 large egg white, room temperature
¼ c. packed dark brown sugar

½ t. espresso powder
Pinch of kosher salt
1 c. walnut pieces, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper; set aside. You can also line your pan with foil, and spray the foil with PAM.

Whisk egg white with sugar, espresso powder, and salt in a medium bowl until blended. Fold in walnuts until coated. Spread mixture into your prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until dry to the touch. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Lift with metal spatula and break into pieces. Store in an airtight container on the counter. Keeps for 10 to 14 days.

Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

¼ c. canola oil
¼ c. raspberry balsamic vinegar
3 T. granulated sugar
1 t. Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Few gratings freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of dried oregano

Method #1: Place sauce ingredients into a mini ninja blender. Pulse until emulsified.

Method #2: Place all ingredients EXCEPT the oil into a small mixing bowl. Whisk together until blended. Continue to whisk as you slowly pour in the oil. Whisk until emulsified. Drizzle over salad.

 

 

Cranberry Walnut Irish Soda Bread Muffins

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Oh my goodness, these are so good! I was perusing the Guinness website because I had bought a six-pack, but only had firm plans for two bottles (one for my traditional corned beef, the other for Irish Guinness Brown Bread), and was wondering what to do with all of the rest. (I am not a beer drinker. No.) When I came across this recipe, I had to try it. This recipe also included another recipe for what they referred to as maple butter, although instead of using maple syrup, they used honey. Umm, that would be honey butter, not maple butter, but I digress. So, I adapted that to use real bourbon-aged maple syrup, and it is phenomenal on pretty much anything in the baked good category.

I am not a baker, as you all know, it irritates me. This recipe, however, didn’t irritate me as much as some. You don’t need any special equipment to make it, and I didn’t have to drag out the mixer. That pleased me. These are good at any time of the day. I can’t speak for how well they freeze, but my hope is that they will because they’re going into the freezer until I serve my St. Patrick’s Day dinner au deux on the 20th.

 Cranberry Walnut Irish Soda Bread Muffins

(with Whipped Maple Butter)

Slightly adapted from Guinness.com

 ½ c. dried cranberries*

1 c. Guinness® Extra Stout

2¼ c. flour

2 t. baking powder

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 c. buttermilk

6 T. melted Irish butter

½ c. chopped walnuts

Flaky sea salt**

Demerara sugar

 Preheat oven to 400°F.

 Combine cranberries and Guinness® Extra Stout. Microwave on high for 45 seconds and let it steep and cool, to allow those cranberries to saturate with all that lovely beer flavor. Strain and set aside.

 Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and melted butter. Combine the dry and wet ingredients until just mixed. Do not over mix, you just want all the dry ingredients hydrated.

 Gently fold in cranberries and walnuts.

 Fill muffin tin with tulip liners (or spray muffin tin with a liberal amount of non-stick cooking spray). Fill each section about ¾ of the way up. Top with a pinch flaky sea salt and Demerara. Bake for about 18-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

 Cool for 5 minutes and quickly remove each muffin from the tin and finish cooling on a wire rack.

 Whipped Maple Cinnamon Butter

 2 Sticks Irish Butter, room temperature

¼ c. pure maple syrup

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. kosher salt

 Using a whisk, whip butter until everything is combined. Season to taste. Use on everything!

 *I used Melissa’s dried tart cherries. I think they are much more flavorful, and because of their larger size tend to hydrate better, holding more of that Guinness goodness.

**I used Fleur de Sel.