Cheese Ball and Crackers

Lime 'n Chili Chocolate Covered Nut Clusters

1 cup Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

1 can Blue Diamond Bold Lime 'n Chili Almonds

In a microwaveable bowl, melt chocolate chips for 1 minute.  Stir with fork.  Continue to microwave fifteen seconds at a time and stirring until chocolate is smooth.  Pour in almonds.  Stir until well coated.  On wax paper, mound nuts (three to four nuts each).  Let cool and set.  Enjoy!

Best Movie Popcorn Ever

3 Tablespoons coconut oil*

1/3 cup popcorn

3 Tablespoons melted butter

salt (to taste)

Spoon oil into a large skillet.  Turn heat to medium high.  Pour in 1/3 cup popcorn.  Cover the pan, and shake gently over heat.  Pretty soon you'll hear the popping going on.  Remove the pan from heat when the popping stops.  Pour into a large bowl and drizzle with butter and sprinkle with salt to your taste.

*For everyday popcorn use affordable LouAna Coconut Oil.  For special occasions, splurge and use extra virgin coconut oil.

Alfajores and Dulce de Leche

The recipe I used for Alfajores is found here, but I had to add 2 Tablespoons of water to get the ingredients to form into a dough, and instead of rolling in sweetened coconut, I just sprinkled them with powdered sugar.  They were tender and delicious!  My good friend Barbara (who also served in Argentina) tells me the cookie could be thicker and there's usually a lot more Dulce de Leche sandwiched between them, but she still gave them a thumbs up for flavor!  You can see commercial and homemade images of the real thing here. 

The Dulce de Leche recipe was obnoxiously simple.  You just take a can of sweetened condensed milk (unopened, but with the label removed), submerge it in a pot gently simmering water and let it cook for 3 hours--checking the water level from time to time to make sure it is still submerged.*  When it's done, let it cool (I filled the same pan with ice water to hurry it along), and when you open it up you have Dulce de Leche. 


*Caution:  if the pot is allowed to boil dry, the can will overheat and explode!  I found this recipe that is just as simple (and takes less time!) but it's done in the oven and out of the can so there's no chance of an explosion.  It would also remove the necessity of scrubbing the bottom of my pot with steel wool to get it clean.  So I might try it this way the next time.  This recipe inspired me to try my own version of these Dulce de Leche Brownies.  Look for the results next week!

Bruschetta with Fontina and Greens

Serve this with Chicken, Artichoke and Cannellini Bean Spezzatino, or even as really good snackage. This is one of the many great recipes from Giada at Home.




Bruschetta with Fontina and Greens

Toasts:
1 (1-pound) loaf ciabatta bread, trimmed and cut into 14 (1/2-inch thick) slices (I couldn't find ciabatta bread, just use any Italian loaf bread you like)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling (I could have used the extra-light olive oil that I always have on hand, and butter would be fine too)
1 garlic clove, halved (If you don't have whole garlic, hopefully you have minced garlic [in a jar] in your fridge. Just mix some of that with the oil or melted butter and let it sit for a minute so the garlic flavor permeates the oil. And, of course, that would be done prior to brushing the oil on the bread.)

Topping:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
12 ounces (12 cups) baby spinach
Kosher salt
2 cups (4 ounces) shredded fontina cheese (One reason to use fontina cheese is because it melts really well. But I just picked up an Italian blend of three cheeses that I liked.)

Directions:
For the toasts: Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Arrange the bread slices in a single layer on the baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Bake until light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes. Rub the warm toasts with the cut side of the garlic. Set aside.

For the topping: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 of the spinach and stir until it begins to wilt, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the remaining spinach and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Season with salt, to taste. (This is simply a great way to serve spinach. Serve it as a side dish whenever you want to get some good, dark greens on the plate.) Using tongs, arrange the spinach on top of the toasts. (For people who won't eat the spinach--naughty people--just sprinkle on cheese--they'll be happy, happy.) Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 5 to 8 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Season with salt and cool for 2 minutes.

Transfer the bruschetta to a platter and serve.

Sweet Potato Fries

Aunt LeeAnn told me how good these chips are. But if you don't have any on hand, and if its cold and rainy, like it is today, and you really don't want to leave the comfort of your snuggy house, and you have a couple of sweet potatoes on hand (yes, I actually keep sweet potatoes on hand just for this purpose), you could make Sweet Potato Fries instead, and be just as happy, happy! We enjoyed them watching October Sky the other night. Grandma Carlene tried these. She loved 'em!




Sweet Potato Fries (I will admit to have something in common with Dan Quayle here--every time I spell Potato I want to add an "e".)

2 or 3 Sweet Potatoes (this will work with carrots, parsnips, butternut squash)
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

I'll take my cooking directions from Ina.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the sweet potatoes into 1 to 1 1/4 in cubes. All the vegetables will shrink while baking, so don't cut them too small.

Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. (Hands are your best tool.) Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

Season to taste (I usually just add more salt), and serve hot.

Muddy Buddies

It's General Conference Weekend and some snackage is always good to keep the kids happy. Kathryn recently discovered Chex® Muddy Buddies, so that's what we made tonight.


Chex® Muddy Buddies

9 cups Corn Chex®, Rice Chex®, Wheat Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination) (Our combination is just Corn and Rice Chex®)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine (BUTTER!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. (2-gallon bags? Who's got 2-gallon bags? We have 1-gallon bags and do this in two batches.)

3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

18 servings (1/2 cup each)

Cheese Ball

We make this every year at least once between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is a slightly altered version of the one in the Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book, 1981 Edition.

Cheese Ball

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream*
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tablespoons finely chopped roasted red peppers
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley or 1 Tablespoon fresh, snipped parsley
1 teaspoon grated onion (Really. That's all you need.)

1/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Combine cream cheese, sour cream, and butter; beat with electric mixer till fluffy. Mix in red peppers, parsley, and onion. Chill. Shape into a ball and coat with nuts.**

Makes about 1 3/4 cups.

*This used to say 1/2 cup sour cream, but we decided we wanted a little stiffer cheese ball.  If you keep it at 1/2 cup sour cream, it would fill celery quite nicely though.  Also, to keep this cheese ball from getting watery, store leftovers level.

**Lately I just chill it in a bowl and sprinkle the nuts on top. Easy peasy.