Slow Cooker Dip Week: Spinach and Artichoke

For our annual potluck, the Pie and I decided to make three hot dips and have them with crackers and vegetables for people to snack on while they waited for the rest of the food our guests to arrive.  As with all slow cooker meals, the prep pictures look prettier than the final shots, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that they’re well worth eating — so worth eating, I’m giving each dip its own post this week.  Today we’re making SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP WITH BACON.  This dip, adapted from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe, is easy and fantastically tasty, and we halved it to fit in our 1/4qt slow cooker.

First, cook up a couple slices of bacon.  Drain those on paper towels and crumble them when they’re cool.

Dice up about 1/2 a sweet onion and a few green onions, and chuck them in the bacon skillet with a little bit of the bacon fat and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent.

Chuck those in your 1.4qt slow cooker when they’re ready to go.

Roughly chop up the contents of a 14oz can of artichoke hearts and huck those in, as well as about half a drained 10oz box frozen spinach.

Chop up a sweet bell pepper finely and chuck that in.

Crumble up about 2oz blue cheese and pitch that in too, as well as 4oz package plain cream cheese (that’s half a block package).

Add in as well as much minced garlic as you like, and 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard and give the whole thing a good stir before covering and cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 2-3 hours, until everything is all melty and lovely.

Stir in your crumbled bacon and you’re good to go.

It’s the one on the right. Stay tuned for the middle dip on Friday!

Brussels Sprout Hash

This recipe comes from the Globe and Mail‘s 12 October food page, and worked really well as a side dish for our Thanksgiving celebrations.  And it’s easy peasy and a great way to jazz up Brussels sprouts for those picky eaters.

Cut about 8oz Brussels sprouts in half and remove the crappy outside leaves.  Set those aside for the moment.  Now, dump 6 large shallots and 8 garlic cloves into a pot (we doubled the recipe here).  Don’t even bother to peel them.

Add water and bring them to a boil.  Let that cook for 2 minutes, then drain them and peel them all.

Cut the shallots in half if they’re giants.

Chuck a nob of butter and a glob of vegetable oil into a heavy lidded sauté pan and let that melt over medium heat.

Toss in the garlic and shallots and stir for about a minute, then add in the Brussels sprouts and chuck them around.  Reduce the heat a bit and pop the lid on.  Leave that on the go, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes, or until the veggies are tender to your liking.

When you’re ready to serve, toss with salt and pepper and a generous helping of chopped fresh parsley and let ‘er rip!

Mashed Potato and Cauliflower Gratin

It’s November.  I’m cold.  I want something warming for dinner.  This’ll do, though I made a slightly lazier version below.

Start with 2lbs yellow potatoes, washed and cut into small cubes.  I used the thin-skinned ones as opposed to the baking ones because I didn’t want to peel them.  A little potato skin is good for you.  Plop those in a large pot, cover them with water, and boil them until tender, about 12 minutes.

When they’re pokable with a fork, drain them and add in 3/4 cup whole milk and 3 tablespoons butter and mash that until they’re all mooshy.

Add in about 2 cups grated Gruyère cheese and stir that around until it’s melted and glorious.

Now you’re going to need a large cauliflower.

And 4 cloves garlic.

Chop the cauliflower up and smash the garlic cloves and chuck them all in a pot together.  Cover that with water and boil until the cauliflower is tender, probably another 12 minutes.

Drain that and then huck the cauliflower into a food processor.  Add another 1/2 cup milk and another 3 tablespoons butter to that sucker and give it a whaz until it’s chunky yet totally puréed.

Mix together your potatoes and your cauliflower in a large bowl.

Season with salt and pepper.

Butter a large casserole baking dish and dump your vegetable mooshiness on in there.

Take 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese and sprinkle that over top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 425°F for about 20-30 minutes, until the top is bubbling and brown.  Enjoy!

Creamy Pasta with Roasted Squash and Sauteed Mushrooms

I think this dish will make your Friday night, especially if it’s one of those nippy nights that is a portent of cold evenings to come.  This will serve a family of six happily.  Here’s how I did it, but feel free to add your own flair.

To begin with, roast 2 heads garlic and half an orange kabocha squash with olive oil and salt and pepper at 450°F for about 40 minutes.

While that’s on the go, dice up 2 small onions, and slice up a whole package of white mushrooms.

And grate a 150g package of asiago cheese.

When the squash is roasted, chop it up into little cubes after peeling off the skin.

I popped the roasted garlic cloves out of the head and sliced them up as best I could.

Here I defrosted about 2/3 cup of the frozen pesto we have on hand (if you grow a lot of basil, you make a lot of pesto).

Now, this is not a sauce you want to make well in advance.  I suggest making it right before you serve it and your pasta water is already on the boil.

In a skillet, melt a knob of butter with a dollop of olive oil over medium high heat.

Add in your mushrooms and sautée them until they’re browned.

Chuck those mushrooms in a bowl for now.

Add your diced onions to the skillet and cook until softened.  Then you can chuck the mushrooms back in, together with your garlic and roasted squash.

Give that a stir.  Already it smells amazing.

Then chuck in your pesto, as well as 4oz (half a 250g package) plain cream cheese.  Stir that until it’s all melted and lovely.

Pour in about 3/4 cup whipping cream, as well as 1 cup milk (or any combination of dairy you wish — that was just the amount of cream I had to get rid of).

Add the cheese and stir until melted and incorporated.

Toss with your cooked pasta and serve immediately.

You can garnish it with whatever you wish! Even nothing!

Wingin’ It Wednesday: Butternut Squash Soup

I had a craving for a roasted vegetable soup, and my parents picked up a variety of squashes from the local farmer’s market, so I grabbed the nearest butternut and I got started.  I love any excuse to roast vegetables, so preheat your oven to 450°F and get some pans ready.

I sliced up a butternut squash and set it on a baking sheet.  Actually, it took two baking sheets (butternut squashes have a lot on them).  I also cut the tops off 4 heads garlic and chucked them on a sheet as well.

I had about 4 or 5 parsnips that I scrubbed and cut up as well to be roasted. They’ll add sweetness to the mix. This is gonna be a sweet soup.

Drizzle all yo’ roasty goodness with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast everything for about 45 minutes, or until they’re nice and crusty on the outside and you can jab a fork in them easily.

The parsnips should be squishy in their innards as well.

Told you there was a lot to a butternut squash.

You’re going to want to wait until the garlic has cooled before you pop the sticky cloves out with your fingers.

While that’s roasting or cooling or whatever, chop up about 2 large onions and plop them in a frying pan with some butter and some olive oil and cook them on medium low until they start to caramelize.  This will make them lovely and sweet.

Peel the roasted squash (or use a big metal spoon to scoop it out of the skin, like I did) and plop it in a big mother of a pot, together with your caramelized onions, your roasted parsnips, and your roasted garlic.

Top the pot up with some stock.  I ended up using 3 cartons (at 900mL each) of chicken stock.

Bring that to a simmer, stirring to break up the squash a bit.  Season with salt and pepper while you’re waiting for it to bubble.

Once it starts to bubble, leave it for a few minutes, then remove it from the heat and have a go at it with the immersion blender.  BRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZHT! Season with a bit of nutmeg to taste.

Serve with more sprinkled nutmeg, a dash of plain yogurt or sour cream, some chives, or just plain Jane like this!

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, and some Thanksgiving

Happy birthday to both H.G. and Kº!

What am I most thankful for this year?  Well that’s easy.  This week I crashed through the 5000-follower mark here at Ali Does It.  And that’s just WordPress followers, mind you: that statistic doesn’t include those of you who have bookmarked the page or signed up for email or RSS updates.  Five thousand plus, then.  And I’m thankful for each and every one of you.  My goal in starting Ali Does It was to show people that doing things like baking a layer cake or fixing a toilet are not too hard to do by yourself (or with some help!), and that everyone makes mistakes.  It’s all a learning process.  So. Thanks for being there with me while I do this learning thing.

Here’s a nice warm and cozy side dish we cooked up for an early potluck Thanksgiving with the Pie’s extended family.  It’s a perfect accompaniment to a less-formal celebration, and a welcome addition to any potluck occasion.  Shall we get started?

Preheat your oven to 375°F and spray a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (we doubled our recipe and used two oval casseroles instead, but the principle is the same).

Let’s do the vegetable prep first, okay?  Start with 4 large yellow potatoes (like Yukon Gold), and give them a scrub.  Leave the skins on, and slice them up really thin.  We find that the mandolin actually makes the potatoes a little too thin, so we prefer to slice them by hand.  And my genius of a husband showed me a cool trick to cutting round objects in thin slices.  It’s much easier to slice them when you can hold them by the large middle part, so start on one side and cut towards the centre, like so:

Then turn the potato around and start again from the other end.  This way you’re not left fumbling with the tiny end bits and a very sharp knife.  Brilliant.

Give the potato slices a good soak for about ten minutes while you do other stuff, just to get rid of all the excess starch.

While you’re waiting, grab a hefty handful of chives and chop them up, too.

Like, a LOT of chives.

And dice up an onion as well.  Set that aside for now.  It’s going to be in your sauce. As is the 2 ¼ cups cheese you’re going to shred.  We used a combination of Monterey jack and orange cheddar.

Drain and rinse your potatoes and then start laying them out in single layers in your baking dish.  Sprinkle salt and pepper and some chives over each layer and keep going until you’ve run out of potatoes.

In a medium-sized pot, melt ¼ cup butter and chuck in your diced onion.  Cook that, stirring, for a few minutes until the onions are soft.

Stir in 2 tablespoons flour, then add 2 cloves minced garlic and 2 cups whole milk.  Keep stirring that over medium heat until it becomes bubbly and starts to thicken.

When the sauce is thick, add in 2 cups cheese (save ¼ cup for sprinkling on top) and keep stirring that around until it’s all melted and incorporated into the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the potatoes.

You will likely need to pour about half the sauce, then stop and shake the pan from side to side and around and around to get the sauce to fill in all the little holes.  You see all these holes?  Then you can use the rest of the sauce.

Sprinkle the rest of your cheese and chives on top.

Chuck that in the oven and bake for 60 minutes, until the top is brown and crusty and everything is bubbling throughout, even in the centre.  Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

This warm bowl of rosy goodness reminds me a bit of my winged red soup from ages ago (which I may try to recreate in the future) and it’s just as easy.  I made a heckuva lot of this, mostly to freeze for Krystopf and Atlas for after the baby comes, so feel free to cut this recipe into thirds for more reasonable servings.

You’re going to need 3 heads garlic;

3 red onions;

24 ripe roma tomatoes;

and about 18 large red peppers.

Preheat your oven to 450°F.  Peel the garlic and cut each clove in half.  Chop up the onions as well and chuck them in a roasting pan (I divided them between three roasting pans).

Chop up the tomatoes and red peppers and put them in the pans as well.

Drizzle with olive oil, dust with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

Roast the vegetables for 25-35 minutes, or until they are soft and starting to char.

Meanwhile, bring a pot with about 2 litres stock (chicken, vegetable, whatever) to a boil.

When the vegetables are ready, chuck them in the broth and give it a good stir.  Add several dashes of Tabasco Sauce and remove it from the heat.

Have a go at it with an immersion blender and then season with salt, pepper, and more Tabasco as desired.  Serve hot (or cold).  The flavour intensifies over a couple of days and it freezes great.

Baked Spinach and Artichoke Dip

I have another recipe for an artichoke dip here, but for Krystopf and Atlas’ baby shower this past weekend, I decided on a lighter version that I got from The Best of Clean Eating 2, and it was such a hit that despite it making more dip than I ever thought possible, it was completely gone after just three hours.  Cait liked it so much that she insisted I push forward all other blog posts so that she could get this recipe as soon as possible.  So here you go.  I made this dip the day before the shower and chucked it in the fridge, saving the last step of baking and sprinkling of cheese for right before the party.

Start by defrosting a 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach.

Drain it well (you can see my handprint from pressing on it) and set it aside.

Chop up 4 or 5 green onions and set those aside for now as well.

Chop up about 1 1/2 cups cauliflower (this is the low-calorie filler in this dip) and pop that in a pot.  You could use frozen cauliflower as well, if you’d prefer.  Cook it until it’s tender and drain it.

Huck the cauliflower into the bowl of a food processor and add 1 250g/8oz package cream cheese, as well as 3 tablespoons milk.  Purée that sucker to a fine liquid, then transfer it to a bowl for now.

Chop up a large white onion and several cloves of garlic.  Don’t worry about getting them too fine.  Whip those into a large frying pan with a few drops of olive oil.  Sauté those for about 8-10 minutes, until the onion is all soft and see-through.  Chuck those in the food processor you were using before.

Crack open and drain a 14oz can artichoke hearts.  Chop those suckers up smallish and throw them in the processor.

Take your spinach and chuck that in as well, together with about 1/4 cup fresh dill sprigs, a few pinches salt, and a half teaspoon ground cayenne pepper.

Give that a go in the processor until it’s a texture you like.

Dump it out into the bowl with the cauliflower/cream cheese mixture and add in the chopped green onions.  Give it a good stirring and add more salt or cayenne as required.

To bake the dip, preheat your oven to 350°F and smooth the dip into a largish-sized casserole dish.

Bake this, covered, for 20 minutes.

Uncover it and sprinkle it with grated cheese (this is a mix of mozzarella and cheddar).

Bake again for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and dip is hot all the way through.  Serve it hot with pita and chips!

Sticky Honey Sesame Chicken

This quick dinner idea comes from the August 2013 issue of Canadian Living.  I doubled it for a dinner party, but the recipe below serves 4 people.

Preheat your oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Skin 2lbs chicken drumsticks (or a combination of drumsticks and thighs, like we did) and set those aside for a second.

In a large bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup liquid honey with 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, and 4 cloves of minced garlic.

Toss your drumsticks in this heavenly mixture until they are all coated and lay them out on the parchment. We sprinkled them with a few extra sesame seeds.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until their juices run clear when you pierce them with a knife.

Garnish with lime wedges and green onions and serve.

Turkey Meatball Rigatoni with Pesto

Happy Canada Day!  Today is a holiday here in the Great White North.  Last Monday was also a holiday for those of us in Newfoundland, and I cooked this recipe up on that particular day.  We are trying to consume the contents of our pantry and freezer before we move (and we’re doing a pretty good job) so this gets rid of a chunk of the stuff in there.

Anyway, my landlord is doing some renovations to her house, which is directly behind ours, and she needs our yard for access.  The first thing I said to the Pie when he got up and joined me in the kitchen last Monday morning was, “Oh good, you’re clothed — there’s a man in our tree.”  And there was.  And there were several in the backyard.

And in the front yard.

And in the side yard.

And everywhere.  All.  Day.  Which made Gren very grumpy.

And all the shops were closed so we had to make do with what was around for our dinner.  So start making up some meatballs, okay?  Preheat your oven to 375°F and grab a baking sheet. Ignore the small highway being created in your backyard.

Finely grate up a medium-sized carrot.  Chuck that in a bowl.

Slice up some green onions.

Then dice ’em.  Chuck those in the bowl with the carrots.

Then add a few spoonfuls minced garlic.

Plop in 2 eggs.

And about 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs.

Give that a thorough stirring.

Add in some ground turkey, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Stir that all together, then use your hands to squish it into golf-ball-sized meatballs.

Plop those onto your baking sheet and let those cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

To test for doneness, cut one open and see that there’s no pink inside.

Grab yourself some pesto, too.  However much you want.  I like lots.  You can buy it or make it yourself, it’s up to you.

And slice up some tomatoes.  I used grape tomatoes here.

Boil up a pot of water and cook up some pasta.  We used rigatoni, because it was something we needed to get rid of.

Drain the pasta.  Dump the tomatoes and the meatballs into the pot with the pasta.

Add the pesto.  Stir like there’s no tomorrow.

Serve it up hot!