Veggies and Dips

I'm always wanting veggies in a format that will encourage the eating of them. Tea parties consist moreso of sandwiches and scones and desserts, so I wanted the nutritional addition of veggies. Having dips is the main way I find I'll eat more veggies.

We were crafting all day at my Valentine Tea Party, so I wanted everything to be finger food. Probably every time I passed by, I'd grab some veggies to eat, so that accomplished what I was hoping for.

First off, my dip recipe book, suggests par-boiling some veggies, for ease in digestion, then chilling them. Monte asked me to do this years ago, recognizing his body's needs (Monte is a great "body listener"!) Baby potatoes (or small sized potatoes cut later in wedges) boiled and then chilled are EVERYONE'S favorite veggie to dip! So I put the potatoes in a large pot to boil and put my steamer basket on top. Once the water comes to a boil I'll dump in the baby carrots (I know, I know, baby carrots are not truly baby carrots - did you know that?!). Steam veggies  3 minutes, dump them in a strainer basket and run cold water over them, drain, and bag up and chill. I do this with broccoli and sometimes the cauliflower too. So I had these, and green onions, celery sticks, red pepper slices, and radishes all ready the day before my party to keep refilling my large serving platter.

Since I have a three bowl serving dish, I made three dips the day before.

FRESH HERB RANCH DIP

2 C sour cream (sometimes I'll do this with 1/2 Hellmanns Mayo)
1/2 C buttermilk (sometimes I'll just use buttermilk powder - 3Tb)
3 Tb fresh parsley
2 Tb fresh chopped chives
1 Tb fresh oregano
1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon
2 minced cloves garlic
2 Tb grated lemon zest
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Mix this all up well. Most of the herbs I have fresh in my greenhouse. If you're using dry, you use a lot less - like 1/2 - 1 tsp. Sometimes when I make this dip I like to slow cook thin sliced/chopped onions till caramelized and add.

ROASTED GARLIC, ARTICHOKE, AND PEPPER RICOTTA DIP

This was SO GOOD I'm going to be making it a lot!
- The recipe calls for 4 artichokes to peel and roast their hearts. Since it's not artichoke season yet, I just opened a 15 oz can of plain artichoke hearts (not marinated), drained, and dumped on the foil-lined baking sheet to roast.
- 2 whole garlic heads - cut off tops, pour on some olive oil, salt and pepper, and put the tops back on to roast.
- 1 red pepper - cut off both ends, slit down side and open out flat on the foil with the skin side up, along with both ends.
Roast in a 400 degree oven about 40 minutes. Don't let anything burn, but 'yes' to darkening. Remove the hearts and garlic to cool, and close up the foil around the pepper to sit and cool, so you can peel in a bit.

In a food processor squeeze out all the garlic cloves, add the hearts, and skinned pepper and puree along with
2 C ricotta
1/2 C grated parmasan
2 Tb fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

BLUE CHEESE DIP

2 C sour cream
1/2 C Hellmanns Mayo
2 scallions, including greens
1 1/2 C blue cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
4 shakes of Tabasco
1 Tb Worcestershire Sauce
I didn't have any Worcestershire. I need to look for a recipe substitute since I'm no longer keeping it stocked, as it's got high fructose corn syrup in it. I know it's main ingredients are vinegar and fish sauce (which is made from anchovies - an umami [the fifth taste] you want - it's what makes most salad dressings, etc, yummy). So I put a dollop each of vinegar and fish sauce. You want to puree this mixture as well.

At the end of the day I pulled some turkey broth I froze after Thanksgiving from the freezer, put it in a soup pot with the leftover dip veggies, chopped. Added the rest of the sliced chicken not used in the tea sandwiches. And added a chopped chipotle chili in adobo. Serve with some cut up avacado and a dollop of homemade yogurt. An easy end of the day supper.

Salmon, or Tuna, or Crab Cakes

Monte made salmon patties for supper. He often cooks fish patties for a quick meal. For years I've made tuna patties (it's in my cookbook) - very simple:

Simple tuna patties (or other canned fish)
6 oz can tuna
1 egg
some grated onion
season with dried parsley or herbs of your choice
Drop by large spoonful into heated oiled skillet
Cook on both sides till browned and done - about 4-6 minutes

Monte likes to add a bit of bread crumbs and mayonnaise to the above, using canned salmon. Here's what Monte did last night -

SALMON (CRAB) CAKES

2 6oz cans wild salmon
4 green onions, chopped fine
2 Tb bread crumbs (I always have these in a ziplock in the freezer from my homemade bread)
About 1 Tb fresh herbs like cilantro, basil, parsley, dill
Since we didn't have any Old Bay Seasoning - use 1 1/2 tsp - I googled the ingredients and sat them all on the counter and Monte took bits of each, grinding in the mortar&pestle: bay leaves, celery seeds, mustard seeds, paprika, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, red pepper flakes, and cardamom, and salt
1 egg
1/4 C mayonnaise
Mix this all together well and form into 4 flat, round, patties about 3" across. This time he lightly covered them with 1/4 C flour and browned them in olive oil in the skillet. This time too, he finished cooking them in the oven rather in the skillet - he was afraid the flour would burn.

Then he made a sauce which he's calling -

MONTE'S MOUNTAIN RANCH DRESSING

1/2 C mayo
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 lime squeezed to taste
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced cilantro
1/2 tsp ground chipotle seeds
1/2 tsp dill

The fresh herbs are in my greenhouse. When I buy fresh herbs from the grocery store I cut a bit off the bottom of the bunch and put them in a glass of water, leaving them on the counter. Like basil often turns brown in the refrigerator - they'll last awhile this way. If not using soon, freeze herbs in ice cubes.

After eating the above sauce, Monte's convinced it's close to a salad dressing he's raved about for years from Texas Red's in Red River, New Mexico - he did geology there right before we got married. So we had his sauce with the fish patties and on our salad.

Onion, Garlic, Buttermilk Dip, and Another Dip too

I was asked to write out this recipe -

1/2 C mayo
1/2 C sour cream
3 Tb buttermilk powder
2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme (more tsps if you use fresh)
1/2 tsp celery seed, ground
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tb chopped onion (if I've the time, I prefer to chop a whole onion and caramelize it by slow sauteing until golden brown - maybe about 1/2 hour. Let cool.)

Mix all these at least a couple hours ahead or up to a couple days. It could be thinned with some yogurt. Chives could be added or even blue cheese...

I like making things from scratch. I almost never buy herbs and spices ground, because they taste so much better ground at the moment of use. I have a wood mortar and pestle, and if a lot of spices, I have an extra coffee grinder.

Since so many young people are around our house, I've found they don't eat many fruits or vegetables. People will always eat more of them if they are prepared for nibbling before meals. And they'll eat more veggies if there's a dip (me too). There's always the typical carrots, celery, peppers, cucumber slices, broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, peas, and cherry tomatoes (always think 'wide variety of color' for a wide variety of phyto-nutrients). I like to parboil green beans too. And then the veggie that is everyone's favorite is to have chilled, but boiled till soft, baby potatoes (or just slice boiled small potatoes).
________________________________

The above is from my old blog. We had a houseful Saturday and I'd gotten some baby fingerling potatoes, so made up a dip again. But I didn't follow the above dip, I created a new one -

Cottage Cheese - was probably around 2 Cups
Chives from the garden, cut up into blender
1 tsp each garlic powder and onion powder
1/2 tsp ceyenne
1/2 tsp lemon peel
1 tsp pepper
Juice from one lime or lemon
maybe some parsley
I pureed this in the blender and needed to add a few Tb cream to help it puree.

Everyone loves the boiled, cooled potatoes the best!

Radish Salsa

I made up a recipe several years ago I called "Salad on my Chip", made with lots of radishes. So often radishes get too big or hot and I thought they'd make a good salsa. Well, I'm needing to use up garden radishes again and Googled "radish salsa" and found lots of recipes. I used from the varying recipes what I had on hand - most from the garden - and it was great!

I'd cooked and shredded a chuck roast in the crockpot using 1 tsp Mexican spice mix called "Alan's Spices" in my Hearth & Home cookbook, about 1-2C beef broth, and 1 16oz jar 505 Organic Green Chili Sauce. It had some spunk, but when mixed with black beans, sauted slivered roasted poblano chilies, sour cream, and the radish salsa on top ... yummmm! ... The first meal was with homemade from masa corn tortillas, the next meal was with crisp corn tostadas. And too, we'll put some of all the leftovers on a large lettuce leaf freshly picked from the garden and eat as a lettuce wrap - so lots of options. All yummy!

RADISH SALSA

-1# radishes - amounting to about 2 cups chopped in food processor
-small wedge of cabbage - maybe about 1/4-1/2C chopped
-1/4-1/3C chopped cilantro
-1/2C chopped chives
-1 tomato chopped
-2 minced cloves garlic
-pinch each of salt and pepper
-2 Tb lime or lemon juice (I used both, using up halved pieces sitting on cutting board, which is what Monte always uses on his salads, and in water with ice to drink)

I wanted to put some jalepenos in it but didn't have any fresh or jarred in the fridge. But then, with the poblanos and spunking chuck meat, I didn't need any. Eating alone, it was still great without jalepenos. Also in the past I'd added a bit of cider vinegar, but prefer the limon juice better.

The kitchen garden is looking beautiful! Along the picket fence you see the tomatoes in walls-of-water. At my altitude I can get tomatoes if they have the benefit of extra warmth, so I leave them on the entire growing season, whereas most people just use them for early spring, and remove them. I'm trying exposed tomatoes in-between this year. So far, those in the walls are growing bigger. We'll see how those out of the walls-of-water produce ... like will I pick the first tomatoes just before our first frost?!

I plant all sorts of lettuce varieties and greens. I love a bit of spunk in my salad that a few mustard greens provide. We use a lot of spinach and kale. Lots of phytonutrients! Kale has more vitamin C than citrus. And eating fresh spinach and greens is the best defense against disease and heart attacks. All our food choices should be as fresh as possible and THINK COLOR! - lot's of variety of color.

Now to sit on the deck, under the umbrella, read a bit drinking tea, and eating my second breakfast of yogurt and fruit and sprouted dried flax seeds and a bit of granola, and enjoying all the flowers and birds. Then back to my textile art work (fun!).

Cowboy Caviar

I've been a MOPS Mentor Mom for almost 10 years now. Last week I went with some of the gals on an outing. For lunch, one of the moms brought Cowboy Caviar. I knew once I saw the ingredients, helping with the chopping, and then tasting ... yummmm ... that this would be something I would make for our family's 4th of July get-together. But of course, typical me, I altered her recipe some. I just now Googled it to see the variances. So what did I do?

COWBOY CAVIAR

1 can black beans
1 can black-eyed peas
1 can corn
(I grilled, in the husks, 3 ears of corn till the husks blackened, then cut off the grilled flavored corn)
2-3 chopped tomatoes
2-3 chopped avacados (we love avacados)
several green onions, including the greens, chopped (I love green onion tops!)
a whole bunch of cilantro chopped
probably about 1/2+ cup of salsa
1-2 Tb balsamic vinegar
2 Tb red wine vinegar

I had also made a buttermilk half sour cream and mayo dip. So I'd brought tortilla chips and potato chips and lots of veggies for the dips.

Looking at some of Google's recipes and back at the original given to me, I didn't use a hot sauce, but the salsa instead. I'd add lots of garlic next time and some lime juice. I was supposed to add some oil too, but forgot. For proportions, around 2/3C grn onions as well as the cilantro is given in one and 2 Tb vinegar and 1 1/2 tsp oil. Another used canned diced tomato and added chopped bell pepper. Monte wants me to add jalepenos next time and one recipe adds 1/2C chopped pickled jalepenos (which I often use when I don't have fresh). Another adds Italian salad dressing for the vinegar and oil, and frozen corn. And I used more avacado than suggested. So you see, there's lots of possibilities with this recipe.

Travis's first bite comment was "Complex". Everyone liked it. So here's the recipe everyone who asked for it!