Best Bean Dip Ever

That's Loren, one of my dearest and best friends, with her ah-mazing bean dip. She's part of the Auburn crew, and we have many, many happy memories together. I also have several dip recipes thanks to her. Her corn dip is a tailgate staple, and I'm anxiously waiting on her to share the recipe for pumpkin crisp, which will be on my LBDelicious Thanksgiving Blog Special. What's that, you ask? It's the blog I will do to highlight my first attempt at a full-out Thanksgiving dinner - full sized turkey and all - this November. Lindsey is going to Illinois for turkey day this year, so my cooking-partner-in-crime won't be sharing the kitchen with me as she did last year. Unless somebody else wants to come over, it'll be all LBDelicious this Thanksgiving.

Enough about me. Back to Loren and her dip. It was served cold, and was perfect with tortilla chips. Here's the super simple but incredible recipe:

Loren's Bean Dip
1 can black beans
1 cup salsa
chopped green onions
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tablespoon cumin
salt & pepper to taste

Mix together. Chill. Eat with tortilla chips.

I think she made this for Bunco night. I'm glad there were leftovers for her to share with us.

Broccoli Soup

Even though fall weather in Lexington reminds me that a harsh, cold winter isn't far away, I absolutely love the fall weather here. If you're one of my friends from Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, or South Dakota (you know who you are), then go ahead and laugh at the fact that Kentucky winters are nowhere nearly as brutal as anything farther north, and I'll laugh at you when you're suffocating in the "Lexington humidity" this summer.

I digress. Fall's always been one of my favorite seasons, though growing up in Alabama, we didn't so much have "fall" as we did a week of cooler weather in November somewhere between summer and winter. With legitimate fall weather comes many culinary desires - I crave the warmth of pumpkin, nuts, apples, cinnamon and nutmeg, which means I'll be making a pumpkin soup before too long. In the meatime, and since Rose bought a bunch of fresh broccoli this week, I made a delicious and insanely healthy broccoli soup for dinner last night. It's not a cream-based soup, which cuts out tons of fat found in traditional broccoli-cream soups. Anne will have to verify, but I think it may be vegan friendly, if one uses vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. Based on a Rachael Ray recipe, here is:

Fresh Broccoli Soup
lots of fresh broccoli florets with parts of the stems (I think I used about 5 cups? not sure though)
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tablespoon dried thyme
couple splashes of Tabasco sauce
4-5 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock
freshly ground black pepper
good amount of salt

In a stockpot, heat oil over medium heat. Sautee onion and garlic with salt and pepper and thyme and Tabasco. Add broccoli and chicken broth, bring to a boil and cook until broccoli is tender. With an immersion blender (or in a food processor or in a regular blender), puree the hot soup mixture. Be careful and don't burn yourself, as I often do. Return pureed mix to pot, salt again liberally to adjust seasoning, simmer for 15 minutes. Top with cheddar or mozzarella cheese, and a pat of butter if you're feeling so inclined, and serve with:

Mozzarella Cheesy Bread

1 flour tortilla
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Place cheese in the tortilla, fold in half, and heat up in the pan, flipping once, until cheese is melted. Cut into pieces and use to dip in the soup.

I was beyond frustrated last night when I tried to puree the soup mixture in our blender, and all the broccoli-flavored watery goodness started spilling out of the bottom before I even got it on the stand to puree. After saying several curse words and scaring Smokey, I brought out the immersion blender which scared poor Smokes even more (not that I blame him; I, too, am scared of the immersion blender) and it worked just fine. If I was making the soup at Casa Milam, I would most certainly instead used my trusty KitchenAid Food Processor, my favorite countertop kitchen appliance next to the Melitta Mill & Brew. It never spews broth out of its orifices, and it results in the most amazingly textured everything. But. In A-50, we have little counter space, so the KitchenAid lives at Casa Milam. Along with my trusty KitchenAid hand mixer, and LeCreuset stock pot. And my fiance. Sad.

Anyway. Go make broccoli soup. It's low-carb, low-calorie, low-fat, high-fiber, and green. Delicious.

I Love Gabriel's Desserts

As resistant as I am to much of the ritual that surrounds a wedding, I have been looking forward to doing a wedding cake tasting for weeks, or ever since I decided that Gabriel's Desserts in Marietta would be making my cake.

During the 2 hour wedding cake meeting, where I met with the owner, Johnnie Gabriel, about what I wanted, I also learned the secret to old-time cooked fudge and felt like I made a new best friend. I told her that I really didn't care what the thing looked like as long as it was the best tasting cake I could possibly get.

I knew that the 3 sample tasting cakes she would bake for me would be good, but I had no idea I was about to taste the most amazing cake I'd ever put in my mouth. Our choices were: 1. chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache filling, 2. vanilla, with vanilla buttercream frosting and cooked caramel filling, and 3. lemon pound cake, with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. All three were fantastic. However, one bite of #3 was all it took - we knew we had a winner. The combination of the lemon with raspberry was simply to die for. The frosting is genuine, authentic, perfect buttercream. The whole thing melts in your mouth and is the most perfect flavor combination in the world. I thought I'd like vanilla best of all, and was hesitant about the idea of a pound cake for a wedding cake, but I was wrong. The lemon pound cake with raspberry filling is perfection in 7" round form.

I could go on and on about this cake. I will be dreaming about it until my wedding gets here, after, of course, I finish off the rest of the sample cake that I brought back to Kentucky with me. I'm tempted to eat it all myself, but I'll probably bring most of it, and the chocolate cake, in the office to share with everyone. Best of all, Dave and I decided this morning that we're going to get Gabriel's to make one of those cakes for us every year on our anniversary.

By the way, Johnnie just published a cookbook, that you can order here: on Amazon.com. I'm definitely getting one for my collection. She's Paula Deen's cousin, by the way.

My Favorite Lasagna

I remember the first time I made lasagna. I think I was 17, and I got the idea that homemade lasagna would be amazing for dinner that night. So I went out to Kroger (which was quite a journey from our backwoods house), spent $35 on ingredients (which I felt was an extravagant amount), and went home to prepare the recipe on the back of the box of lasagna noodles. It was the first time I ever cooked anything for my family. I'm not sure if they liked it or even if everyone ate it, but I was so proud of myself for creating a homemade lasagna, it didn't matter.

Ever since, I've tried variations of lasagnas and have come to the point where I no longer follow recipes but instead do my own thing with whatever I have in the fridge. My most recent attempt is my favorite tasting dish so far:

about 8 lasagna noodles (I used 4 whole wheat and 4 regular, because that's what we had)
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, pureed in blender
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 lb ground beef, browned
1 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 15 oz container low-fat ricotta cheese
some mozzarella cheese
about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375. First, prepare the sauce: combine the spaghetti sauce with pureed tomatoes, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning in a saucepan, slowly simmer while you get the other ingredients ready. Cook the lasagna noodles in boiling, salted water only until flexible, about 6 minutes. Remove from water and lay out on an oiled cookie sheet to cool. In the meantime, prepare the ricotta filling: combine ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a bowl, set aside. Assemble the lasagna in an 8X8 ceramic pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray as follows: 1/4 cup sauce, noodles (cut to fit and cover the bottom), 1/3 of the ricotta mix, 1/2 of the spinach, 1/2 of the beef, mozzarella cheese, 3/4 cup sauce, noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta, remaining spinach, remaining beef, some more mozzarella, 3/4 cup of the sauce, remaining ricotta, noodles, and all the sauce that will fit on top without spilling over. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet (so that when it bubbles over it won't get the oven nasty), and bake for 55 minutes. After baking, remove the foil, throw some more mozzarella cheese on top of it (or cheddar if you run out of mozzarella, as I did), and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 15 minutes, and enjoy.

I don't know what it was about the combination, but it worked! I had extra sauce left over for a garnish or further drenching if desired.

Shorts with Words on the Butt

I went to Maggie Moo's today for ice cream after working for 5 hours straight - a record for me! - on the proposal. As I stood there in line debating on what ice cream flavor/mix in combination would be worth the calories, I realized what I hate about those shorts with words plastered straight across the ass.

Right ahead of me in line was a little girl, probably about 5 years old, and her mom (grandmom? not sure). I couldn't help but notice she had on a pair of bright pink, knit shorts that said "surfer girl!" with pretty flowers around it, on the butt. On the shorts of a 5 YEAR OLD. The problem is complicated with wearing any sort of words on one's rear end. On the one hand, you have this little girl, who just wants to fit in, thinks flowers are pretty, and likes the color pink, and wanted to wear shorts because it's insanely hot today. But on the other hand, it would not be cool for a little 5 year old boy to wear shorts that say "surfer boy!" with sharks or other stereotypically-gendered graphics on his butt. That we, as a culture, have accepted the word-butt-shorts for women, is a shame, especially because they make it seem ok for everyone - girls and guys - to stare at a woman's ass. There's a word on there - she must want me to look at it! Puh-lease. I think that if it was ok for men to go around with words on their asses, too, it might make the situation a little better, but would go no further in solving the problem. That there are now little girls out there who are clueless about this kind of stuff, and have parents buying the shorts for them, is even worse.

Seriously. No need for words on the ass, ever, regardless of sex or gender. Especially not in really young girls. The double standard is my big problem with the butt-word-short.

I walked out of there with a vanilla and chocolate chip cookie dough waffle cone shaking my head.

Drop Cookies

Of all the happy food feelings I have from my childhood, nothing makes me more nostalgic than the drop cookie. It was the very first recipe I ever memorized, and the first recipe that firmly established my place in the kitchen among the women of my family.

My mom's friend/cousin Lisa hand wrote the recipe for these drop cookies on a piece of notebook paper, and gave it to her probably when she first married. The cookies were so prized in our house, that the recipe lived in the very first slot of my mom's recipe binder, which was in actuality an old, clingy, photo album that resided in the drawer to the right of the stove in our kitchen. It was the recipe drawer, where all cut-outs, a binder, a "Calling All Cooks," and a few random twist ties lived. I remember these details because I looked at that recipe every time I opened the recipe book, which was a lot, and I cooked these a lot growing up.

My mom says that I have been baking since I could pull up the stool in the kitchen and stand up to stir things. Luckily, she let me help in the kitchen quite a bit, and encouraged my food habit. She made these cookies all the time, as they use ingredients we always, always had on hand. Before I took over the primary responsibility for making them in our house, I would stand in the kitchen and watch her make them, taking a spoon and scooping up the warm, gooey, unhardened cookies and devour at least 4 of them. They were best washed down with a Sun-Drop. (My today self says, "how unhealthy, and no wonder I had self esteem issues, I was probably a bit large for my bone structure.") They can cure any bad mood, and make any day better.

I first made them for my high school scholars' bowl team around 9th grade after we'd won a big competition. They were devoured in seconds, expected of me from then on out, and became my signature recipe in high school. My aunts used to have difficulty making them, because they never hardened up properly for them. And when my grandmother would make them, they tasted funny. Mom's version was the best, and I think my technique is foolproof. Mine taste just like hers did, so you won't be disappointed in the taste.

Drop Cookies
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons coco powder
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional, I usually leave them out)

First, lay out a sheet of wax paper or aluminum foil sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Then, measure out your 2 1/2 cups of oats and 1/2 cup of peanut butter. You will be glad you took the time to do these steps later, as the cookies move fast toward the end. In a large, heavy, nonstick stock pot, add butter, sugar, milk, and coco. Then, turn on the heat to medium-high. Constantly stirring, bring the mix to a boil. As soon as it comes to a full, rolling boil, continue to stir vigorously, and count to 90. Then, turn off the heat, quickly add in the oats and peanut butter (and pecans if you are adding them), stir to combine, and drop by spoonful on the wax paper. Eat warm with a spoon (or with your fingers, not that I'm speaking from experience) or allow to harden and enjoy.

These cookies remind me of my mom, more than anything else. Happy home memories, from me to you!

Anne's Smoothie

I know that Veganne already has her own smoothie recipe. But, when I made this today, I thought of her, for two reasons: 1. soy milk and 2. cinnamon.

I have been loving the 8th Continent Light Vanilla Soy Milk that I purchased in honor of her visit back during the Charleston weekend. You might even say that I crave it occasionally. It has magical powers - I transformed plain ol' wheat Chex to something that tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, using soy milk and a good sprinkle of cinnamon on top (seriously, it was amazing, and much healthier than the real kid's cereal). Anne's a big proponent of cinnamon, too, as apparently it as a ton of health benefits, all of which she can tell you about but I can't remember off the top of my head. Suffice it to say that we need to be adding cinnamon to everything possible. I even have an idea for a cinnamon campaign slogan: "Cinnamon: When Broccoli Just Won't Do."

I have a whole bunch of leftover fruit from our Rock Band party on Saturday. I intend to transform the apples into some sort of caramel apple tart, have been tossing grapes in my yogurt, smearing Nutella on my bananas, and have been nibbling on the fresh pineapple, but I worry it's going to spoil before I can eat it all. Dave actually goes to work every day (novel thought) and isn't here to help me snack on it, so it's all up to me. In an effort to use up some of it, I created a smoothie, and I think Anne would approve of this recipe.

Anne's Smoothie
1 small container Yoplait light strawberry yogurt
about 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (see above for brand)
1 banana
handful of pineapple chunks
cinnamon and honey, for garnish

Combine yogurt, milk, banana, and pineapple in a blender until well incorporated. Pour into a glass, top with cinnamon and honey. Enjoy!

This will give me energy to finish a section of my proposal as well as go to the gym later this afternoon. It is a tasty summer treat, and would probably benefit from the addition of a few ice cubs to make it even colder and refreshing. It's not an overly sweet smoothie; I'd venture to call it a savory smoothie, so if you like a whole lot of sweetness, maybe add in some honey before you blend it all together. There's a good deal of fiber in the drink, and it makes a large portion, so it's very filling and satisfying.