Tag Archives: Dip

March 14, 2013 · 12:02 pm

Garlicky Hummus

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Sorry it’s been a while.  A few days ago, I finally pulled it together and wrote a post about this amazing hummus that I made, well, a long time ago, and just as I finished writing it, I clicked save, and WordPress went ahead and ate my post.  I had flashbacks to late nights in college involving lots of coffee and last-minute papers.  I suppose it’s been too long since those days, because I forgot the cardinal rule of writing anything longer than will fit on a post-it note: SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.  So after crafting a nicely worded, polished post… I threw in the towel.  Nothing’s more depressing than trying to re-do something you just finished.  DSC_0035 Continue reading →

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August 4, 2012 · 4:46 pm

Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

I don’t know about where you live, but around Chicago it’s been a pretty freakishly hot summer.  I’ve been effectively using the baby as an excuse not to leave the air-conditioning pretty much since June, and I’m sorry to say that my poor garden has gone completely neglected.  The tomatoes were left cage-less (hmmm… cage-free tomatoes, maybe there’s a marketing spin there…) , there was not a chip of mulch to be found until last week, and everything is looking fairly sad and withered-looking.  Except of course, the mint and parsley, which I’m convinced could grow out of the cracks in our sidewalk.  As sad as I am about the lack of beautiful homegrown tomatoes, which I’ve been looking forward to since we finished the last of the tomatoes last year, there is a bright side.  And the bright side is this quinoa tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh is a middle-eastern herb salad typically made with bulgur.  I’ve always really liked tabbouleh, ever since my mom would buy it at the fancy-pants grocery store, Treasure Island, when I was a kid.  This was back in the early nineties, and things like tabbouleh weren’t exactly available in the usual chain grocery stores, so it was a treat.  And I kind of felt pretty grown up eating it.  Something about the fresh herb flavor with a hint of garlic and lots of big lemony tang still brings back memories of the stuff mom used to buy at Treasure Island.  However, I’m sure this is so much better than that stuff ever was. Continue reading →

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June 23, 2012 · 4:39 pm

Homemade Ricotta

For those of you who are thinking that you would never make homemade ricotta, and that I’m just going overboard in the other direction after giving you this tube-dough abomination…. you may be right.  About the going in the other direction thing, not that you can’t make homemade ricotta.  The first time I made this, it was as kind of a fun experiment.  Then I realized how easy it was, and how unbelievably delicious the resulting ricotta was, and it became serious business.  Why does nobody talk about how easy it is to make your own cheese?!  I feel like I’ve been cheated, like I’ve wasted some of the best cheese-making years of my life! I’m practically a cheese-making spinster, if you will. Continue reading →

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June 7, 2011 · 7:13 pm

Bombay Cheese Dip

Usually when I do one of these posts, I think of a cute little story to tell you, or an amusing tale of how I came upon the recipe, blah, blah, blah.  But, this dip needs so such story.  Because I could fill pages and pages telling you about how, why, and in what sense this is one of the best, most unexpected things I’ve ever had.  Apart from that, I’ve been promising you a recipe to use some of that homemade chutney from the other day, and now I’m delivering. 

Ok, Ok, so quick background.  This recipe came to me, as so many do, from my mom.  Aren’t moms great?  I mean, my mom is great for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggies is that she is fearless in the kitchen and is always willing to try recipes that a lot of people wouldn’t.  This recipe, for example.  I would never in a million years have given this a second look.  Because, well… it looks weird.  But my mom, kitchen wonder that she is, gave it a chance.  And thank goodness she did.  Because now I can share it with all of you, and we can all enjoy the amazingness that is this dip.  Continue reading →

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May 22, 2011 · 10:50 am

Green Herb Dip

Summer is almost here. I can officially wear flip-flops without my toes turning to ice, and I barely need a jacket to sit outside in the evening. The trees and flowers are green and gorgeous and hopeful, and I swear the smell of cut grass through my car window almost brought tears of joy to my eyes yesterday. Summer. It’s not just the weather that gets me excited about summer every year, but the change in the pace of life that comes with it. Whereas in the winter, when the sun goes down around 4, I can barely stay up until 9 pm, in the summer, I never want to go to sleep- I just want to sit outside and soak in all of the warm breezes and late-evening neighborhood sounds. We’re not quite there yet; it’s still raining pretty much every other day around here, and there has been some sad back-sliding in the sunshine department… but we’re so close. Continue reading →

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