Award Winning Dip

I made this tip for a super bowl party in the Fall and went home with 1st prize - I beat out buffalo chicken dip! It's a refreshing dip and will over well at summer parties.

Tips: I used an extra avocado and a little more spicy pepper when making this dip on my own. Additional salt may be added to taste.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001141983

Easy App! Asparagus & Gruyere Tart

Jim has made this twice, the second time better than the first. It's a simple recipe from Martha Stewart that makes a great lunch side or an appetizer for guests.

Tips:

• You can definitely use a little bit less cheese than indicated in the recipe.
• We bought the Pillsbury pizza dough in the tube and it has worked fabulously.
• Lastly, we added turkey bacon crumbles to our latest tart and well…bacon makes everything better!

http://www.marthastewart.com/318340/asparagus-gruyere-tart

Scones - First Attempt

My first attempt at scones turned out well! I took Alton Brown's recipe and added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the recipe. I love a chocolate chip scone with some dark coffee in the morning! I was informed that buttermilk helps the scones get puffy and this recipe uses cream. I plan to try another scone recipe with buttermilk next time.

Tips:

- I used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of cream and it worked just as well.

- Cut the butter into cubes (make sure it's cold, but soft).

- Mix the butter and shortening in with your fingers unless you have a dough setting on a food processor.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/scones-recipe/reviews/index.html

Kale & Bacon!

Everything is better with bacon!

This recipe is delish. If you don't like red pepper flakes then I'd cut the measurement to 1/2 of what this recipe requests. If you aren't trying to count your calories, then I'd also add another strip of bacon! We topped with a spoon of sour cream because that is what we had in our fridge.

Check it out, it's easy to make:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=50400000109639

Banana Nut Muffins

I altered a recipe from Joy of Cooking for the reduced fat Banana muffins. So these probably fall between reduced fat and full fat :). If you want the truly reduced fat, check out the Joy of Cooking cookbook, Banana Muffins II.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (i used whole wheat because it adds more flavor)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 pinch nutmeg

1/8 tsp cinnamon - few pinches

1/4 tsp vanilla

3 ripe bananas - mashed

2 tablespns vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup applesauce (all natural/no added sugar)

1/3 cup crushed walnuts - optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together wet ingredients into large bowl:

Egg, banana, oil, vanilla, applesauce

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add 1/2 the dry ingredients at a time and mix together. Batter will be lumpy and sticky. Add walnuts and mix in. Don't try to make the batter smooth - it's expected to be lumpy. Just work all the dry ingredients through.

Spray your muffin pan with non-stick spray, or grease with vegetable oil/butter to keep your muffin from sticking to the pan. I prefer to use the muffin pan that makes extra large muffins, so it makes 6 instead of 12 muffins. Either is fine. Bake the muffins for approximately 30 minutes - your toothpick will come out clean if you stick it through the muffin. I found the large muffin sizes took exactly 30 minutes to bake and they came out great.

Enjoy!

Instructions:

Ginger Spice Cookies - Delish

I decided to finally try something other than chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin this year for my holiday cookie exchange - ginger spice cookies! These were delicious. I found the recipe in epicurious.com, but I altered it as mentioned below: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ginger-Spice-Cookies-103156. The alterations were by default of what I had in my cabinet, but it worked out!

Changes:

- I tripled the recipe and only used 2.5 tablespoons of ginger. I recommend trying 1 tablespoon per batch.

- I had regular organic molasses and used it - it turned out just fine and delicious.

- I ran my candied ginger through the food processor for an easy chop. It totaled 1 cup for 3 batches. I recommend 1/2 cup per batch.

I think pairing down the strong ginger flavors actually worked out well for a more universal cookie that still definitely qualifies as a ginger chew cookie.

Tips:

* If you prefer "snaps" over chews, just make the cookies a little smaller and they will make the perfect bite size snap!