My Go-To Tzatziki

I’ve recently fallen head over heels for Greek yogurt. Cabot Creamery’s triple thick vanilla yogurt (no sponsorship here, just pure love) has become my nightly obsession, piled high on fresh berries. I’m plowing through two big tubs a week—yes, I’m mildly mortified to confess that—and I’m pretty sure the dairy guy at the market is starting to side-eye me. Lately, I’ve ventured into savory territory with their plain Greek yogurt, whipping up some tzatziki that’s honestly unreal. I’ve been slathering it on sandwiches, smearing it on my morning croissant, pairing it with crackers for snack attacks, and dunking veggies in it like it’s my job. Confession? I could eat it straight from the bowl with a spoon. I’ve tinkered with a bunch of recipes, and this one’s my winner. Some folks swear by fresh mint in theirs, but I’m not sold on it here—your call, though. Give this a whirl and tell me what you think.

My Go-To Tzatziki

½ c. finely grated Melissa’s organic cucumber
1 c. whole milk Greek yogurt
¼ t. fresh lemon zest
1 T. fresh lemon juice
½ T. extra-virgin olive oil 
1 large garlic clove, grated
¼ t. (heaping) sea salt 
2 T. chopped Melissa’s fresh baby dill

Lay the grated cucumber on a towel and gently press out some of the extra moisture. Toss everything else into a medium bowl and mix it up.

Pro tip: give your lemon a quick grate before juicing it. Fold in t he drained grated cucumber. Pop it in the fridge to chill until you’re ready to dig in.

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Cannellini Bean Dip with Black Olives

 

I’ve been trying to eat healthier while still satisfying my snacky cravings, so I decided to do away with the ranch dip that I generally use with crackers and crudités, and replace it with this creamy and nutritious cannellini bean dip. It is so super simple to throw together that I find myself making it every week. The recipe can be doubled, if like me, you find yourself craving it.Cannellini Bean Dip with Black Olives

 1 large clove garlic

1 15.5-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

10 small pitted black olives

½ t. kosher salt

¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

 Throw all ingredients into a mini food processor and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate to allow flavors to meld for a minimum of 4 hours.

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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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Herbed Ranch Dressing

 

I’m not proud. I will gladly admit that I like ranch dressing. I also like a wedge salad. To me a wedge of iceberg lettuce, topped with ranch dressing, and a few crumbles of blue cheese (perhaps some crumbled bacon) is like heaven. I also like to keep ranch dressing on hand for crudités, crackers, and pretzels, because all of these things cry out for a dip. I like to tinker around with different recipes, and I think this quite possibly might be my favorite.

Herbed Ranch Dressing

½ c. Duke’s mayonnaise
½ c. sour cream
½ c. buttermilk
1 t. fresh lemon zest
1 t. dried minced onion
1½ t. dill weed
½ t. dried parsley
½ t. garlic powder

¼-½ t. Johnny’s Seasoning Salt
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

  Place all ingredients into a medium bowl, and whisk until creamy. Refrigerate for at least eight hours or overnight to allow flavors to meld. This will keep in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days. Before you ask, yes, you can use fresh herbs, but it will only keep for 3 to 4 days.

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Jalapeño Pimiento Cheese

 

There is something about summer that makes me want to stock the refrigerator with all sorts of dips and spreads in order to make snacking and sandwich making quick and easy. As you are well aware, if you have read this blog for any length of time, I am a bit of a pimiento cheese fan, am constantly trying new recipes, and tweaking existing ones. It occurred to me this morning when I was chopping vegetables for crudités that I had yet to make pimiento cheese with jalapeño added, so I did just that. This is spicy and delicious, so easy to gobble right up.Jalapeño Pimiento Cheese

2 c. freshly grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese

4 oz. cream cheese, cut into 1” cubes, room temperature

4 oz. Melissa’s fire roasted red peppers, chopped

3 T. Duke’s mayonnaise

¼ t. garlic powder

¼ t. onion powder

¼ t. Slap Ya Mama 

1 Melissa’s pickled jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed, minced

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 Place all ingredients into a medium mixing bowl, and beat at medium speed with a handheld mixer until combined. Turn into a lidded container, and refrigerate for at least eight hours or overnight in order to allow flavors to meld. Keeps refrigerated for 7-10 days.

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Pretzel Dip

 

What I am about to say is going to be controversial, but I am not a pretzel person. Unless they are warm and right out of the oven, I always think they taste like rather dull pieces of bread. In fact, I think that I prefer dull pieces of bread. That said, I stumbled upon some pretzel crisps that I quite like, and thought would go well with this dip that I adapted from one I found online. The pretzels that I chose were sprinkled with that “everything” seasoning, and while they were very good on their own, they were fantastic with this dip. With Super Bowl coming up in a couple of weeks, you may give this some consideration. It helps to make it a day ahead to allow flavors to meld — an added bonus.  Pretzel Dip

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

⅓ c. heavy cream

⅓ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. Frank’s hot sauce

½ t. horseradish

½ t. Melissa’s minced garlic

3 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

1½ c. shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

1 small Melissa’s shallot, minced

Parsley flakes, for garnish

 Place all ingredients EXCEPT the parsley flakes into a medium mixing bowl, and beat until well blended. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld. Serve with Everything Pretzel Crisps.

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Cream Cheese Olive Dip

 

I have a thing for olives, I just cannot resist them. As a consequence, I have an entire shelf in one of my kitchen cabinets filled with a wide variety. While I do enjoy a pimento-stuffed olive, I particularly enjoy those stuffed with garlic, jalapeño, or blue cheese. I have black olives, Kalamata olives, queen olives, stuffed olives, olive medleys, and olives that have no filled centers at all. I like to use them in all kinds of recipes, and find they never let me down. I have added them to dressing that I have stuffed into a turkey, to a vinaigrette that I tossed with fresh lettuce, included them in the dough when I made biscuits, and when I found this recipe online, I had to make it. It made me wonder why I hadn’t thought of using olives in a vegetable dip before, but having now done so, will make it again and again.

 

 This is so tasty! Not just due to the olives, but the acidity of the lemon juice gives it excellent flavor as well. This would be great on your Super Bowl buffet, make a wonderful spring and summer snack,  or a light lunch by spreading it on toast points or crackers.

Cream Cheese Olive Dip

Slightly adapted from Hearth and Vine

 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

½ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 clove garlic

1 t. minced onion

½ t. dried thyme

½ t. kosher salt

2 T. fresh lemon juice

12 small olives

2 dashes Tabasco sauce

Combine all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until well blended. Scrape down the sides and blend again. Spoon into a bowl and serve with a variety of fresh cut up vegetables.

 

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Olive Ham Salad

How did the holidays turn out for you? Ultimately, mine were reasonably good although they didn’t turn out entirely as anticipated. Due to illness, the dinner that I made for Christmas Eve was only enjoyed by my son and me. It was a pretty fancy dinner for just the two of us, but I think we really enjoyed not just the food, but the time that we spent together in such elegant surroundings.

 I sent him home with plenty of food, but I still had a good bit of ham left, as well as the ham bone. I set the bone aside to use in pea soup, used slices in casseroles and sandwiches, and decided to toss what was left into the food processor for ham salad. Generally, when I make ham salad I use sweet pickle relish, but because I had gotten a glazed ham that had a lot of its own sweetness, I decided to replace the sweet pickle relish for olives. It made a wonderful difference!

Olive Ham Salad

 ¾ lb. piece of baked ham, cut into chunks

1 rib celery, cut into fourths

1 scallion, cut in half

10 small pimiento-stuffed olives

1/3 c. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 t. Dijon mustard

Few gratings ground black pepper

Put all ingredients into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until. Cover and chill for at least a Cover and chill for at least an hour before serving to allow flavors to meld.

This will keep up to three days, covered and refrigerated.

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Carolina White Pimiento Cheese

 

By now, you, my faithful readers, are well aware that I am a big fan of pimiento cheese. Recently, I received a wonderful pimiento cheese bowl for my birthday. The bowl is from the fabulous Mud Pie, and I am totally in love with it (as I am with all of their products). Yes, I have tried the recipe illustrated on the side of the bowl, but today I was feeling a little spicy. I was interested in trying a white variety of pimiento cheese, which got me thinking about white barbecue sauce. So I combined ingredients that would normally be present in pimiento cheese along with a few other ingredients that would be found in white Carolina barbecue sauce, and thus Carolina White Pimiento Cheese was born. It’s a zesty winner!

Carolina White Pimiento Cheese

 1 8-oz. block white cheddar cheese, grated

2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

½ c. chopped Melissa’s Fire Roasted Red Peppers

3 T. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. brown mustard

1 t. horseradish

1 t. fresh lemon juice

Pinch cayenne

Pinch paprika

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 Place above ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. Using a fork, combine ingredients thoroughly. Turn out into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for at least four hours to meld flavors.

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Creamy Giardiniera Dip

 

This is the time of the year when I start thinking about holiday food — dips, snacks, side dishes, mains. I’m interested in trying things that I’ve never made before so that I can offer something fresh and new to my guests. I spotted this recipe in Bon Appétit. I was attracted to it by virtue of the fact that I had all of the ingredients on hand, including the giardiniera that I had bought during the summer to use in a sandwich recipe, and never used it again. Bon Appétit had you stirring together all of the ingredients with the exception of the giardiniera, using it on top, with the oil from the relish drizzled overall. That didn’t particularly appeal to me for two reasons. First of all, I didn’t like the idea of the oil drizzled on top. Ew. Second, once that top layer containing the giardiniera is eaten away, you end up with basically just cream cheese at the bottom. Seasoned cream cheese, sure, but cream cheese, nonetheless. So I decided to put everything into the food processor to ensure that the bold taste of the spicy relish was enjoyed in every bite. It worked! This is a snack that you can make one to two days ahead (maybe more, if I’m honest), and pull it out when you need it. After all, during the holidays, you just never know who’s going to happen by. It’s great on chips and crackers, even wavy potato chips work here because this tends to be on the creamy side. Me? I loved it with Fritos.

 Creamy Giardiniera Dip

Adapted from Bon Appétit

 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

½ c. finely grated Parmesan

½ c. sour cream 

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 c. well drained, coarsely chopped, oil-based giardiniera

Process cream cheese, Parmesan, and sour cream in a food processor until combined and smooth; season with salt and pepper (to taste) and pulse until incorporated but dip is not completely smooth. Add giardiniera and pulse until combined.

 Transfer dip to a small bowl and serve with the dippers of your choice. This can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

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Cheddar Ranch Dip

 

I’m not going to lie, now that I am an adult and can do what I want with never any scolding, there are times when I’ve had dip for dinner. Not just spooning it out of the bowl, mind you, but serving it with a nice array of freshly cut vegetables, as well as crackers, and the occasional bit of rolled salami — cigarette style — that I use as a dipper. Today I decided to use this dip as a topper for a baked potato. Why not? I mean, think about it. You top potatoes with sour cream, bacon bits, chopped scallions, and shredded cheese, why not combine all of that into one, making it so much easier to deal with, and far less messy. It's also amazingly delicious when dolloped on top of an omelet. Seriously, you cannot go wrong with this delicious dip that is suitable for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Cheddar Ranch Dip

16 oz. sour cream

3 T. (1 packet) Ranch dressing mix

1 3-oz. pkt. bacon bits

1 c. shredded Gouda cheese

2-3 scallions, chopped

 Whisk together sour cream and dressing mix in a medium bowl. Fold in remaining ingredients. Cover and store in the fridge overnight before serving.

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Cannellini Bean Dip with Kalamata Olives

 

 

I was feeling particularly domestic over the weekend, perhaps because it took a cold turn and I was able to use up the last of my logs for the season, perhaps it’s because I had a blank calendar for the week ahead. Whatever the reason, I whipped up a massive amount of things in the kitchen, one of which was this delicious bean dip that is so good I could have eaten it with a spoon. I did use it as a condiment on a TLT (turkey, lettuce, and tomato), and it was phenomenal!

Cannellini Bean Dip with Kalamata Olives

1 15-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 t. Melissa's minced garlic
2 - 3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
¼ t. rubbed sage
¼ t. dried thyme
¼ t. kosher salt
Few gratings freshly ground black pepper
1/8 t. lemon pepper seasoning
4 Kalamata olives, pitted
1 T. freshly grated Parmesan

Place everything into a food processor or blender (I used a mini food processor) adding oil as needed. This recipe can be doubled or tripled. Just play around with it, tasting as you go. You honestly can’t go wrong.

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