Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

In addition to Peanut Butter Pie, I was also responsible for bringing an appetizer to Mother's Day at my sister's.  My go-to appetizers are my mom's cheese ball and my paternal grandma Laverna's olive nut spread, which some day I'll post, but I wanted to do something different. My girl Raleigh (Rae's sister-in-law-to-be) planned to make a hot caprese dip, and I thought I'd compliment it with another hot dip.  Spinach Artichoke Dip it was, but I couldn't find a recipe I liked.  There were a couple good candidates including some interesting ones with Alfredo sauce, but I wanted to use mostly ingredients on hand.  Will all this in mind I did something I am still new to; I looked at a bunch of recipes and from them made my own.  Turned out pretty well with no major critiques from Momma D.  I served it with toasted mini pitas.

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip
1 (10 oz) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 can artichoke hearts, chopped (doesn't have to be a fancy jar)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
8 oz cream cheese 
2/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup grated Parmesan 
2 teaspoons garlic 
1/2 teaspoon salt

Green Pancakes with Lime Butter

     As usual, I came back from work with a couple of bags of spinach and swiss chard in my bike paneers. The pancakes are a great way to use up an abundance of produce. I followed the recipe in Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook, Plenty almost exactly to make these. The double batch was a hit at girl dinner and with my roommates. I was inspired to post these (finally) after I saw Laura's scallion pancakes which are also delicious. All the pictures I'm seeing of Pittsburgh online make it look like Spring is really here!!!
     I just found out my dad is going to be visiting for my birthday! We'll get to spend the week with my friend, Cate and then 2 days with my dad. He's bringing me lots of books that I can read on the beach. English books are limited here; therefore, I've been reading everything (good and bad) on our 2 shelf library.
I'm wrapping things up with an anti-smoking presentation along with some of the other volunteers.
     We're having our goodbye dinner tonight. The main dish is a special treat our friend brought from Switzerland. This was one of my favorite dinners to eat while I was studying in France called "La Raclette." The basics of it are melted cheese + fingerling potatoes. It is heaven, really. We'll miss our friends but we plan to come back to Vietnam often (perhaps for the long-term). A European trip is already being planned for next summer with my little sister (her first time in Europe--yay!). Anyone want to join?

Ingredients
Lime butter:
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Grated zest of 1 lime
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chile flakes

Pancake Batter:
4 cups spinach, chopped roughly if leaves are large
4 cups swiss chard, chopped roughly
3/4 cup gluten free flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
2/3 cup buttermilk
6 medium green onions, finely sliced (or 3 shallots)
2 fresh green jalapenos, thinly sliced
Coconut oil for frying

Directions
Make the lime butter first so the flavors can meld together while you're frying up the pancakes. You can halve the butter recipe since there will be plenty of extra. Place the butter in a medium bowl and mix with a fork until creamy. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. It takes some time to mix the lime juice into the butter, so just keep working with the butter. Place into a small, glass container with a lid. Place in refrigerator.
To make the batter bring some water (1-2 tbsp) in a large, shallow skillet to a boil. Throw in the spinach and swiss chard and stir until just wilted.

 


Drain in a sieve and squeeze out as much water as possible. Chop finely and set aside.
Mix the flour, baking powder, cumin, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well and then add the eggs, melted butter, and buttermilk in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Fold in the green onions, jalapenos, and spinach with a rubber spatula.




Pour a small amount of coconut oil into a cast iron skillet and place on medium-high heat. To cook the pancakes, ladle about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet. When the side facing up turns bubbly and the edges start to dry out, flip over the pancake.



You want a nice golden brown on both sides. Keep them in the oven at 200 degrees for warmth and serve with a generous dollop of lime butter and a drizzle of sriracha.
The extra lime butter is great on anything. I especially liked it on bagels and toast topped with a fried egg.

Couscous Winter Salad

This week my grandpa's sister and her two daughters visited from Texas, so we had a big family dinner on Saturday before they headed back south. The last time they had visited was about twenty years ago, so it was good to see them.

Linda took this picture of Great Aunt Margie, Grandpa and Grandma, and, of course, Twilly.

My mom had a lot of food and I brought this salad, which is a winter version of the summer salad I posted a few months ago. Instead of blueberries and basil, this salad's got roasted butternut squash ad dried apricots and cranberries. I used spinach this time because I didn't know how the family would do with a kale salad, but normally I would have made it with "massaged" kale.

My mom bringing the salad to the table.

COUSCOUS WINTER SALAD

2 cups couscous (I used whole wheat ones this time)

2 cups water

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Bring the water to boil with the turmeric, cinnamon, olive oil and salt. Once it's boiling, turn off the heat and add in the couscous. Cover and let sit for about 10 minutes before fluffing it with a fork.

Strawberry & Spinach Grilled (Goat) Cheese

A beautiful spring-y grilled cheese! Normal grilled cheese is great with tomato soup on a nasty cold day (like every day for the past million years or so...) but this grilled cheese is for spring.

STRAWBERRY AND SPINACH GRILLED CHEESE
Adapted (a lot) from Cookie + Kate

Double or triple, etc., for more than 1 sandwich

2 slices bread 

1.5 oz goat cheese (on sale at GE!)
2-3 strawberries, sliced
1/4 white onion, sliced
5-6 leaves fresh spinach
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp butter

Slather goat cheese over one side of each slice of bread. Either scrape the other side with butter or just coat your skillet or griddle with butter. (I use a cast iron skillet.) 

Cream of Spinach Soup

I had a craving for this soup the other day, and I finally got around to getting some spinach to make it. When I studied abroad in Ecuador, my favorite host mom in Quito made this soup (crema de espinacas) a few times. And you have to serve it with a bowl of popcorn in the middle of the table! Use the popcorn like croutons in tomato soup - it's not that weird when you think of it like that, is it?

CREAM OF SPINACH SOUP

Adapted from Simply Recipes

2 cups chopped fresh spinach, packed (or 1 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed) 

3 medium potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped (about 1 pound)

3 cups chicken or veg broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup sour cream