Decadent Dip

This is SUCH a wonderful dip! Two years ago I happened upon a woman selling packets of powdered dip mixes for $4.50 each at a festival. One of them was a Cajun spiced dip that was oooohmygosh good! I came home with a package and was disappointed that it only made one batch. We had just become acquainted with Sriracha sauce and I thought that might make a good substitute mixed with mayonnaise and sour cream. It did. But I wanted a more substantial dip with more flavor. Here is what I've arrived at...

Decadent Dip(makes a ton)

2 8oz pkgs cream cheese, very soft

1 8oz block of cheddar cheese(mild or med, you choose), grated

1 24oz container sour cream(I use full fat everything)

1 3.5oz pkg nitrate free real bacon bits(or regular real bits)

3-4 green onions, sliced very thin

1 tablespoon sriracha sauce garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and dill to taste

Combine cheeses, sour cream and sriracha sauce, its good exercise for your arms! Add bacon bits and seasonings and mix some more. Refrigerate for 4 or more hours to blend flavors and let it thicken back up. Serve with corn chips, fritos, or use as a filling for lavash or tortilla roll-ups. This is a very forgiving and adaptable dip, leave things out, add some chopped nuts or olives, etc., etc. Enjoy!!!

Easy Italian Chicken Veggie Soup...

Imagine, if you will, the soup in my header picture with lovely chunks of zucchini, freshly wilted spinach, chicken breast cubes, fluffy quinoa, and a few more dark flecks of spice and you'll have a mental image of what went down tonight. It was soooo good and healthy on this chilly night.

Easy Italian Chicken Veggie Soup

2-3 quarts homemade chicken stock
1 jar(23-24oz) spaghetti sauce of choice, I use one that has no added salt.
Combine in large stock pot and bring to simmering.
Meanwhile, cube 3-5 medium boneless/skinless chicken breasts and add to liquid.  Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
Quarter 4-6 medium zucchini squash and add to soup along with 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa.  Let simmer another 10-15 minutes.
 Add 2-3 tablespoons balsamic, red wine, or apple cider vinegar and olive oil.  Season to taste with basil, oregano, garlic powder, and parsley, salt and pepper.
Add about 3-4 cups fresh spinach and let it get good and wilted.  Adjust seasonings and serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese!

This makes a ton so we'll be set for tomorrow night and I even froze a few servings.

Paleo-ish Chili Eggs

Or something like that. I made these because I don't care for plain eggs unless I have toast for the yolks to soak into. Since I'm not doing bread and I love savory, spicy breakfasts, this came about.

Chili Eggs(serves 1 hungry person)

1-2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup leftover homemade chili(*mine had beans, I'm a 2012 paleolithic so deal-leave them out if you are devout). you can also use taco meat, spaghetti meat sauce, or other saucy-meaty combo that sounds like it might taste good with eggs.

2 farm eggs

**cheese

Melt butter in a 8-inch cast iron skillet. Add chili and spread around, leaving some spaces for the eggs. Crack the eggs into the spaces and mix the whites into the chili being careful not to break the yolks. When they are heated thru and white, quickly break the yolks and mix it all up. Dump it in a bowl and enjoy!

*I made my chili from leftover taco meat(spiced ground turkey with ground chicken livers mixed in), canned diced tomatoes, black beans and spices.

**if you are doing dairy, I used about a teaspoon of cream cheese.

Sarah Boop's Campfire Cookie Treats

It was Mark's birthday on Thursday so that meant he didn't have to work(isn't that cool?) and he had Good Friday off too.... So we decided to go camping! We headed out Wednesday afternoon for Lake Bob Sandlin State Park near Pittsburg, Texas. It is one of our favorite spots and just over an hour from home.



I woke up frrrreezing on Friday morning so I stoked the fire and got a good one going with the last of our firewood. By the time it died down the girls were awake and hungry. Sarah thought it would be awesome to have grilled Chips Ahoy cookies, and she was right! But what really made them special was what she did next....




2 cookies per person
1 marshmallow per person(or treat, however you choose to see this, I don't judge!)

Put the cookies on a cooler part of the grill. Wasn't our fire ring the best? I LOVE the flip grate!! Roast the marshmallows over the coals to desired doneness. I do mine ever-so-slowly so the insides are pretty much liquid while the outside is a nice golden brown. The girls burn theirs. Anyway, carefully lift a cookie off the grate, apply a marshmallow, and then another cookie. Eat up and thank Sarah later!!





(Sarah and friend)

Decadent Coconut Oil Chocolate

First, I didn't measure anything here except the powdered sugar(sort of). You should do this to taste and make adjustments accordingly. Sorry no pics, camera batteries are dead.


Coconut oil
Cocoa powder
vanilla or maple extract
stevia
powdered sugar
nuts
chia seeds
cinnamon(optional)
foil or waxed paper

Mix about 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup coconut oil with 4-5 tablespoons cocoa powder. When its well combined, add a few squirts of liquid stevia, or powder to taste. Add a tiny glug of vanilla or maple extract, whichever you prefer, and maybe some cinnamon. We liked this taste but the stevia had enough of a bitter edge that I decided to try 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar in the mix. It helped tremendously and I wouldn't recommend leaving it out. I think it even made the texture better!

Stir in about 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and about 1/2 cup nuts of your choice, toasted or not, chopped small but not too fine. I used sunflower seeds because they were handy and I did not chop them. It starts getting harder to mix at this point! Taste to see if it needs adjusting. Taste again. Lay out a square of foil or waxed paper and plop all of the chocolate onto it, stop sampling! Working in small circular movements, spread it out little by little with the back of a large spoon(not wooden, it sticks too bad) until its about 1/4th inch thick. Mine made about a 10-inch diameter pancake.

Transfer the paper/foil onto a cookie sheet or a plate and freeze for about 30 minutes before eating. Keep this in the freezer until its gone. It breaks off quite easily and melts very fast!

Enjoy!

Curried Mixed Potato Soup

Another Slapdash success! This is so easy to make and very forgiving. Here's what went in mine, adjust as necessary for your hungry group. I fed 5 with seconds for most of us. The blue cheese is awesome in this, don't leave it out unless you have to. Sub feta or more bacon for the saltiness if you do.

4 med-large all purpose potatoes
1 large organic sweet potato
4 green onions, sliced thin(with my new pink Komachi knife, Christmas from my brother)
2 garlic cloves, pressed
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 cups whole milk(mine's raw)
1 cup water
1/2 cup blue cheese
1+ cup whole milk yogurt
sprinkle of red curry powder, maybe 1 tsp or maybe less
little dash of salt and pepper

I baked the potatoes and skinned them mostly, cut into chunks and added to the pot. Poured on the milk, added the rest and heated for about 15-20 minutes on medium/medium-low(I didn't let it boil at all-barely simmered). Serve with crusty bread or crackers. My girls LOVED it... spoon is pointing to Amy scarfing hers down!

Pickle Juice Potato Salad...

This is awesome!!!

6-7 smallish-medium potatoes, maybe 2-3 pounds, diced(don't peel)

Boil potatoes til tender, about 15 minutes or so. Drain but don't rinse.

3-4 scallions, sliced smallish
1/2 of a green pepper, about 1/3 cup, minced
1 cup real mayonnaise
1/2 cup pickle juice(from dills)
1/2 teaspoon or to taste: dry mustard, garlic powder, dried dill, black pepper, caraway seeds
dash of cayenne pepper
(as with all of my dishes, these are very approximate measurements)

Combine well and wait for potatoes to cool off some. Pour over the potatoes and gently toss. Put in the fridge, and go play on facebook for a few. Toss the potatoes again, add more mayo if you need it(I didn't). Wait for the brats to cook and salivate.

Makes probably a good 6-7 servings. Enjoy!

Coconut Chocolate Bark...

I've been slapdashing again, this time with my favorite oil and favorite flavor(Chocolate). I made a tiny version of this concoction yesterday and was impressed that it tasted much like a gourmet dark chocolate bar so I set out to make MORE! Here's what I did...

All measurements are approximate, please taste test for your personal palette.

2/3 to 3/4 cup coconut oil. I used 3 scoops of a 1/3 cup scoop but it wasn't all the way filled for each scoop. Put in a shallow, wide container, you want this to be a thin layer, about 1/2 inch deep.

1 tablespoon cocoa powder. I shook it into the oil but it looked like a tablespoon or so.

Several drops of vanilla and several more drops of liquid stevia. I imagine you could use the powdered versions of both if you had it. Then, a tiny drift of cayenne pepper and a handful(less than 1/3 cup-that's all I had) of sunflower seeds.

Whisk it all together, taste and adjust flavors if needed. Chill in fridge until solid, break up with a knife and enjoy!

Ribollita...

Sorta kinda based on this recipe




1 pound navy beans, soaked and cooked.

Leave these in their cooking liquid and set aside.

2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
8 baby carrots(fat ones), chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
5 garlic cloves, smashed

Combine in saucepan and cook over medium heat til softened.

1 can diced tomatoes
dash of oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
few shakes liquid smoke

Add to veggies and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Combine with beans and 8 cups of water or so.

1 bunch kale, shredded

Add kale and let wilt, about 10 minutes.

1 sourdough sub roll or french bread, about 2-3 cups torn.

Add bread and simmer for about 20 minutes on med-low. Adjust seasonings, salt and pepper. Let sit for 20 minutes and serve with Parmesan cheese. YUM!

Golden Baked Potato Soup

Today was yardwork day so I wanted something fast but satisfying. It was uncomfortably cool today(60), yesterday was HOT(90) so it wasn't like we needed cold weather fare really, just something.... you know.... good and rich and creamy. I had to run out and get nails for fencing we replaced. Sarah rode with me and reminded me that she'd requested baked potato soup for a few weeks now.


(before)

Soooo, here we go! The short-cut version first, which I made tonight, is super easy but you'd get a teeny bit more "umph" with the traditional method in (these). As always, all amounts are approximate and subject to whatever you want to put!

Golden Baked Potato Soup

5 medium* potatoes, baked in microwave(or regular oven) until soft
2 medium* sweet potatoes, baked
2-4 cups water
1 tablespoon chicken broth paste
tiny sprinkle of nutmeg(or not)
onion and garlic powder(or chopped onion and garlic softened in butter) to taste
liquid smoke(or chopped ham or bacon) the l.s. gives it a nice flavor but start with a tiny amount, 1/8th of a teaspoon and taste before adding more. I think I have about 1/4th in mine and its just right.
2-4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chunk all potatoes, add to large soup pot with water, chicken broth paste, and seasonings. Stir over medium heat until hot. With hand mixer or immersion blender, mix til mostly smooth. Add liquid smoke and adjust flavors. Heat for about 10-15 minutes on med-low. Remove from heat and stir in butter, sour cream, cheese and salt/pepper. Return to burner and heat through to melt cheese. Stir, adjust seasonings again and serve with crusty bread(and a salad)!

*my medium is slightly larger than a regular soup can.


(after, but with more to go)