Chili Cheese Dip

 

Those of you who remember the 70s may also remember consumer advocate, David Horowitz. He always used to say, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I have carried that with me all of these years, and never found it to be wrong. Until now. When I read online of a dip that only used two ingredients, and those ingredients were neither Velveeta nor Rotel tomatoes, I was skeptical. Cream cheese  and a can of chili? I wasn’t quite so sure that would be a desirable mix. As it turns out, it was. The suggestion was to serve it with Fritos, and that does seem to be the chip of choice. This is 100% junk food, and 100% delicious.

Chili Cheese Dip

1 15-oz. can chili
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese

Mix together chili and cream cheese, warm, and serve with Fritos. Try to stop eating it.

 I let mine hang out in my mini slow cooker, and it was perfection.

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Dijon Potato Soup

  

Yesterday I reviewed the unique and fascinating Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places cookbook. Today I am sharing a recipe from that cookbook. This recipe was adapted from Tastes and Treasures: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona produced by the Historical League, Inc., a nonprofit fundraising arm of the Arizona Historical Society, published in 2007, featuring modern recipes from historical places for today’s cooks. It’s an easy soup to make, creamy and delicious, with a lot of complexity to the taste. 

   Potato Dijon Soup

1 yellow onion, chopped,
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced*
3 oz. pancetta, diced
6 c. chicken broth
3 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 c. heavy cream or half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh chives, and/or parsley, chopped, for garnish.

In a large stockpot over medium heat, cook the onion, leeks, and pancetta until the vegetables are soft and pancetta is rendered, about 10 minutes.

Add the broth and potatoes, and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Add the mustard, and simmer for five minutes.

Purée the soup using an immersion blender, or in batches in a stand blender. Add the cream or half-and-half, and then simmer until hot. Add the salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with fresh herbs.

* I made it easy on myself and used 2 6-ounce packages of Melissa’s cleaned and sliced leeks.

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Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, Reviewed

 

Whether you are interested in the paranormal or not, I’ll bet every one of you will admit to loving a good ghost story. I know that I do, and have many fond memories of sitting around a campfire with my fellow Girl Scouts, listening to them. A couple of my own rather strange experiences have pushed me in the direction of believing in the paranormal, if only slightly, versus scoffing at it previously.

 

Those of you interested in the paranormal may be familiar with Ami Bruni, co-star and Executive Producer of the widely successful paranormal series, “Kindred Spirits” wherein she helps frightened people reclaim their homes from the mysteries of the unknown. Bruni, who admits that she grew up in a haunted house, was also one of the stars of the program “Ghost Hunters,” with which everyone is no doubt familiar.

 

Her combined love of vintage regional recipes and the paranormal shine through in this unique and fabulous cookbook, Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, a book dedicated to Lizbeth “Lizzie” Borden, “…whose killer meatloaf recipe inspired the idea for this book.” I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading a cookbook as much as I did this one. It combines haunted sights across the country — mysterious hotels, eerie ghost towns, and possessed pubs (one of which was visited by “Ghosthunters” in my town) — pairing these with recipes reflecting happenings on those sites. Case in point, there is a recipe for Lizzie Borden’s meatloaf. What a perfect dish to serve at a Halloween party, proffering slices on the blade of an axe.

  Bruni is not wrong when she says, “Food can bring the dead back to life.” A rather frightening sentiment, but an accurate one, considering that I can’t make fried chicken without thinking about my grandmother. I could really relate to Bruni when she talked about her late mother, her signature dish being a Caesar salad recipe that the family loved, but for which there was no physical recipe. When her mother passed away, the recipe went with her. This caused her to associate food and recipes with the dead and paranormal experiences. She was delighted when she found a Caesar salad recipe from Sheboygan Asylum, that reminded her so much of her mother’s. I’m just going to leave that there. 

The recipes are largely gleaned from other sources, many of which are now out of print. Imagine serving cinnamon sugar cookies from Alcatraz. What a great way to give your kids a tasty dessert and teach them some history at the same time. Many of these recipes do come from penitentiaries, all of which have a haunted past.

If you are looking for a new way to host a dinner party, you need this book. Nothing, I guarantee, will make you as popular in your neighborhood, at family gatherings, or as a member of your gourmet club, but to follow one of the menus and recipes in this book, pairing them with creepy music and a complementary story.

The book is full of wonderful vintage photographs as well as fabulous full color photos, along with recipes from the corresponding haunted places. I was pleased to see two places from Missouri listed in this book, but at the same time surprised that one of the most haunted places in Missouri, namely the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis was not.

 

 If you enjoy entertaining guests in a unique and memorable way, this is the guidebook on how to do it. The book is divided into the following sections:

Eerie Hotels
Horrifying Homes
Otherworldly Watering Holes
Hair-Raising Historic Landmarks
Hellish Institutions
Ghoulish Ghost Towns

It was so much fun learning the creepy history of so many places, as well as seeing the interiors the way these places looked back in the day, and even, in some cases, seeing a photo of their menu. I have to tell you that this book is the best cookbook that I have read all year. This book will appeal to those who love cookbooks as well as those who love the paranormal. It is a must have for either one of these personal libraries.

 

It is available for pre-order with the publication date of July 30, 2024. You can get your own copy (and you know you want to) by clicking here.

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 Disclaimer: I received a complimentary digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

Portobello Mushroom Soup

 

We all have our own ideas as to what constitutes comfort food. Generally speaking, outside of a cheeseburger, comfort food is always something served in a bowl. It can be pasta, it can be stew, but more often than not, it’s a creamy bowl of mushroom soup. Last week I made portobello mushroom broth that, while delicious on its own, provided a wonderful base for this creamy, beefy, tremendously delicious soup. This is one that is hard to stop eating.Portobello Mushroom Soup

4 T. unsalted butter

1 6-oz.pkg. Melissa’s cleaned and sliced leeks

2 large Melissa’s shallots, chopped

3 large Melissa’s portobello mushrooms, gills removed, chopped

3 T. flour

¼ t. dried thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

4 c. portobello mushroom broth

1 t. kosher salt

1⁄4 t. freshly ground black pepper

1½ c. heavy cream

2 T. dry sherry

 Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add leeks and shallots, and sauté, stirring constantly, until tender, 2-3 minutes.
Lower heat, add the mushrooms, and cook, covered, 10 minutes longer.

Raise heat to medium, stir in the flour, and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the thyme, bay leaf, stock, salt, and pepper.Simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.

Cool slightly, discard the bay leaf, and, using an immersion blender, puree the soup until creamy. Stir in cream and sherry. Heat through, and serve. 

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Sunflower Summer Tablescape

 

There is a little doubt that the star of this table is the wine bottle salad bowl. Designed to hold succulents, these food-safe glass, half wine bottles are perfect for serving a fresh starter salad with a side of dressing. It’s fun, and guaranteed to be a conversation starter. You can find the wine bottles  here and the salad dressing cups here.

 

The rest of the table is so wonderfully summery, with hot colors of yellow and orange against a forest green backdrop. (Honest to goodness, that tablecloth is hunter green. Why it photographed blue is beyond me, but I digress.)

Placemats are water hyacinth, chargers are metallic gold, and the plates with the rippled edges and bursting with sunflowers are by Maxcera in their “Sunset Sunflower” pattern. These are some of my favorites of all of the plates that I own, and trust me when I tell you, that’s saying something.

 

 The sweet coffee/tea cups are by Boston international in their “honeycomb” pattern. You can find them here.

The yellow stemware is by Lennox, I do not know the name of the pattern. The gold flatware can be found here.

 

The green napkins are from Amazon and can be found here. The pitcher is a Blenko double spouted glass pitcher in “Tangerine.”

  Summer will be gone before you know it, so get out that colorful dinnerware and set yourself a fabulous table.

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This post is linked to: Tablescape Thursday

Potato Salad Perfection

 

The late Mr. O-P was a big fan of potato salad. As he did all of the grocery shopping, every week he would invariably come home with a container. He preferred to enjoy potato salad with his sandwich at lunch rather than any type of chip, potato or otherwise, and, after a while, I tended to agree with him.

 Today, because I’m having ribs for dinner, I decided to make a big batch of potato salad to enjoy not just this evening, but for the coming week. I wanted to try something new, so this is a riff on Ina Garten’s potato salad that always gets rave reviews, not only for taste, but for her unique way of cooking the potatoes. I was not able to get fresh dill (it’s obviously being held hostage somewhere, and that place is a place I cannot find), so I had to make do with dried. I also like more crunch in my potato salad, so I doubled up on the vegetables, and threw in some hard boiled eggs. The end result was, in my opinion, potato salad perfection.

Potato Salad Perfection

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

 2 1.5-oz. bags Melissa’s baby red potatoes

Kosher salt

1 c. Duke’s mayonnaise

¼ c. buttermilk

  2 T. Dijon mustard

 2 T. whole-grain mustard

1 T. red wine vinegar

2 T. dried dill weed

1 t. kosher salt

1 t. freshly ground black pepper

1 c. chopped celery

1 c. chopped red onion

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Place the potatoes and 2 tablespoons of salt in a large pot of water. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are barely tender when pierced with a knife. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then place the colander with the potatoes over the empty pot and cover with a clean, dry kitchen towel. Allow the potatoes to steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, Dijon mustard, whole grain mustard, vinegar, dill, salt, and pepper; set aside.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in quarters or in half, depending upon their size. Place the cut potatoes in a large bowl. While the potatoes are still warm, pour dressing over them to moisten. Add the celery, red onion, and eggs. Toss well, cover, and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Season to taste, if necessary.*  Serve cold or at room temperature.

 *At this point in her recipe, Ina called for an additional 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. I didn’t think it needed either. Gee, Ina, can you say hypertension?

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Rainier Cherry Turnovers

  

I love cherries. I particularly love Rainier cherries. Truth be told, I could eat my weight in them. Besides, just eating them as is, this season I decided that I was going to do something different. I decided that I was going to cook them down and turn them into a filling for a cherry turnover. This worked spectacularly. I made enough filling to make eight turnovers (two sheets of puff pastry), but instead just decided to make four and save the rest of the filling to warm and pour over vanilla ice cream. I am in cherry heaven!

Rainier Cherry Turnovers

Turnovers:

1 lb. Melissa’s Rainier cherries, rinsed and pitted

¼ c. sugar

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. unsalted butter

Pinch of salt

1 pkg. puff pastry (2 sheets)

  Egg Wash:

 1 large egg

1 T. water

Glaze:

¾ c. powdered sugar

1-2 T. milk

 Place cherries, sugar, and salt into a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes, mashing down cherries as they begin to soften. (I used an avocado masher.) Stir in cornstarch, and cook over medium heat until thick. Remove from heat and stir in butter; set aside.

Place a Silpat or parchment paper onto a large baking sheet. Lay the puff pastry sheet(s) on top of the Silpat or parchment paper and, using a pizza cutter, cut each sheet pastry into 4 squares.  Place approximately 2 tablespoons of filling into the center of each square (I used a cookie scoop for this).

Whisk together egg and water to make egg wash, and brush each edge so that it will form a nice seal. Fold the pastries over, corner to corner, to form a triangle, and use a fork to press the edges closed.

 Brush the remaining egg wash on top of the turnovers.

Bake 375°F for 20-25 minutes until puffed and golden. Leave on the baking sheet for about five minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool.

 Make glaze by combining powdered sugar and milk, whisking until smooth. Drizzle glaze over turnovers. Serve immediately.

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Pink Lemonade Martini

 

A couple of months ago, I bought a bottle of citrus vodka. I am not a vodka drinker, per se, but I have really warmed up to that citrus vodka. In my opinion, it makes everything taste pretty wonderful, and this martini is one of those things. I sipped on it while I watched an episode of ”Detective #24.” It was a lovely evening.

Photo: Melissa’s Produce

Pink Lemonade Martini

2 oz. citrus vodka

½ oz. triple sec

1 oz. fresh Melissa’s pink lemon juice

 ½ oz. simple syrup

Splash of grenadine

If desired, after you have squeezed your lemon, run it around the rim of a martini glass and dip the glass in sugar.

 In a cocktail shaker combine all of the ingredients with ice, shake it until the shaker feels cold, and pour it into a glass. Because I used a large martini glass, I poured mine over ice. This makes one cocktail, but you’re going to want a double.

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Portobello Mushroom Broth

 

I like a good sipping broth, and mushroom is one of my favorites. When I’m in the mood for something savory by way of a snack, nothing beats it. Soothing and warm, it is packed with both flavor and nutrition. This past week I spent a good bit of time working with portobello mushrooms, and was wondering how mushroom stock made strictly with portobello mushrooms, both fresh and dried, would taste. It surpassed my expectations! The beauty of portobello mushroom stock is that it has a very beefy taste, as a consequence it can be used as a satisfying replacement for beef stock in any recipe that you have calling for same, making the conversion of some beefy tasting recipes to vegetarian far easier.Portobello Mushroom Broth

 2 large onions, peeled

1 t. extra virgin olive oil

3 extra large Melissa’s shallots

3 Melissa’s portobello mushrooms

6 celery stalks, scraped and coarsely chopped

6 large carrots, scrubbed and coarsely chopped

4 0.5-oz. pkgs. Melissa's dried portobello mushrooms

5 bay leaves

1 T. dried thyme leaves

1 t. Montreal Steak Seasoning

1 T. black peppercorns

Fine sea salt

 Cut the onions in half crosswise. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over high heat. When the oil ripples and the pan begins to smoke, place onions, cut side down. Reduce the heat to medium-high and brown the onions for 4 to 5 minutes undisturbed.

 Place the browned onions and remaining ingredients, except the salt, in a 16-quart stockpot. Add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 40 minutes, skimming off any foamy impurities.

 Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

 Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve lined with two layers of cheesecloth. Season with salt to taste and allow to cool.

 Makes approximately 9 quarts. Recipe may be halved.

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