Easy Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has been one of my favorite food writers for some time now, and I finally got around to making one of his recipes for a family dinner.  One of my family members is not very adventurous when it comes to new food but she ate half of the garlic knots.  I'd consider it a success.

I can't even tell you how many hours I've spent reading Food Lab articles.  Let's just say it was worth it for this recipe.

Easy Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 4 ounces pepperoni, cut into 1/4-inch squares
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 6 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives (optional)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling
• Flour for dusting
• 1 pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough (see note above)
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• Homemade or store-bought pizza sauce for serving

Procedures

1. 1
   
   
   Heat butter and oil in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until butter melts and foaming subsides. Add pepperoni and cook, stirring, until pepperoni begins to crisp, about 2 minutes. Add pepper flakes and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add parsley and chives and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in Parmesan cheese. Do not wipe out skillet.
2. 2
   
   
   On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into two even pieces. Working one piece at a time, roll or stretch into an oblong about 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. With a bench scraper or knife, cut crosswise into 12 strips. Repeat with other half of dough.
3. 3
   
   
   Tie each strip into a knot and transfer to bowl with pepperoni/garlic mixture. Toss and fold with your hands until every knot is thoroughly coated in mixture. Transfer the knots to the skillet in a single layer. Drizzle with more olive oil, cover tightly with plastic, and set aside until doubled in size, about 4 hours. Alternatively, refrigerate until doubled in size, 12 to 16 hours.
4. 4
   
   
   When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425°F and adjust oven rack to center position. Unwrap garlic knots. Sprinkle with Romano cheese. Transfer to oven and bake until golden brown and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes.
5. 5
   
   
   Remove from oven and immediately brush with more extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle lightly with more Parmesan. Serve right away with warmed sauce on the side.

Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad

The challenge:

1. Food for a bridal shower
2. Not too heavy (she was watching her weight for the wedding)
3. Elegant/interesting enough for a wine-tasting themed party

The answer: Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad, thanks to the powers of Pinterest and DJ, RN.

Yummy, summery, and moderately healthy?  We served it with tortilla chips but you could probably just eat it with a fork.

Thanks to Gina of SkinnyTaste!

Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad

• 1 lb jumbo cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined, chopped*
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1 hass avocado, diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds removed, diced fine
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 limes, juice of
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• salt and fresh pepper to taste

In a small bowl combine red onion, lime juice, olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper. Let them marinate at least 5 minutes to mellow the flavor of the onion.

In a large bowl combine chopped shrimp, avocado, tomato, jalapeño. Combine all the ingredients together, add cilantro and gently toss. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This dip is famous at work so I made it for Guy's Night at our house.   It was really addictive and went well with Tostitos Scoops or carrot and celery sticks.

Thanks, Claire Robinson and LT, the nurse who brings it in for the nurses.  Perfect Game Day food!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup hot sauce (recommended: Frank's)
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
Crackers, bread or carrot sticks, for serving
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, melt the cream cheese until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the celery, hot sauce and chicken and mix well. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch pie plate and sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Serve with crackers, bread or carrot sticks.

What Makes This Recipe Really Sing: This has all the great flavors of Buffalo chicken wings without all the fat of the chicken skin and oil. Want to make it lighter? Feel free to use light cream cheese.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I was trying to think of a good snack to eat during a football game and the Eng brothers' Spinach Artichoke Dip came to mind.  This isn't a healthy dish (you'll see when you read it) but at least it has spinach and artichokes!  Warning though: if you happen to reheat it, it's gonna be oily.  I would just make sure that you have enough people to eat it all on the first pass.  Between 4 of us (including two preggos) we got through 3/4 of it.  

I made it in an 8x8 glass pan so we had to increase the baking time by 5-10 minutes for it to heat properly.  Thanks to Scott for writing down the recipe and making notes on variations.  

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts
1 8 oz package frozen chopped cooked spinach, defrosted
1 8 oz jar real mayonaise (no Miracle Whip!)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 2-cup package shredded jack cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Drain artichokes. Cut off all remaining leaves, to get ONLY the heart meat of the artichokes. Finely chop artichoke hearts. Drain spinach.
3. Mix artichoke hearts, spinach, mayonaise, parmesan, and 1 1/2 cup jack cheese in bowl. Spread mixture in tin pie pan. Cover top with remaining jack cheese.
4. Cover with foil and bake 15-18 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 3-5 minutes. Serve hot with unsalted corn tortilla chips.

Notes
If you don't want it that cheesy, take out 1/2 cup of jack cheese. Unsalted corn tortilla chips are absolutely the best chips to serve this with. Regular tortilla chips are a far second. Sourdough bread slices are good too. Plain crackers can be used if no suitable substitute can be found. I have tried this with fresh spinach that I steamed. It worked fine, but was more work. I have not tried this with fresh artichokes or low-fat anything. And always try to use real ingredients. That means no processed cheese, or mayonaise substitutes.

Korean Side Dishes- Spinach and Spicy Cucumber Salad

I love eating Korean food, but since there aren't that many Korean restaurants in the Northeast I've had to make it myself.  It's not as good as what we get in Garden Grove, but it's good enough anytime we need a fix.

Two of my favorite sides are seasoned spinach and spicy cucumber salad.  The spinach works well in bibimbap, and the spicy cucumber salad is more like a cucumber kimchi.  One of my friends got me a Progressive grater set to help me slice the cucumbers and I am forever grateful!  If she lived closer I'd make her Korean food anytime she wanted it. 

Thanks to Jenny Kwak, author of Dok Suni, for the recipe!  Many more to come.

Seasoned Spinach

1 pound fresh spinach

1 tsp Coarse salt

sauce:

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sesame salt

1 tsp crushed garlic

½ tsp minced scallion

1 ½ tsps red pepper sauce

1 ½ tsps vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1. Prepare spinach by cutting off the roots and separating the leaves
2. In boiling water, dissolve 1 tsp of salt and blanch the spinach for no more than 1 minute.  Turn the spinach over once in the boiling water and strain immediately.  Rinse thoroughly with water.  Keep aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, stir together all the ingredients for seasoning the spinach.  Then add the spinach and toss with your hands in a massaging motion.

Spicy Cucumber Salad

1 ½ pounds Kirby or Korean Cucumbers

2 tbsps coarse salt

1 ½ tbsps red pepper flakes

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sesame salt

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. Slice cucumber into thin rounds.  Use a food slicer to make it easier.  In a mixing bowl, evenly sprinkle the coarse salt on the cucumber.  Allow it to sit for 20 minutes.  The salt not only helps to season the cucumber but also to absorb the water from the cucumber.
2. Strain the cucumber.  (use a wire strainer, putting a heavy object on the cucumber to press out excessive water.)  After the cucumber has been strained, keep it aside in a mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the red pepper flakes, rice vinegar, sesame salt, garlic, sesame oil, and sugar.  Then combine the dressing with the cucumber and toss, using your hands to mix in the seasonings evenly.  Serive it whenever you like, but keep it chilled.

Spinach Dip

My friend C is a dietitian, and she does her best to make recipes healthier when possible.  Sometimes this results in disaster (which she never serves us) and sometimes it results in major success.  She made spinach dip for us and I couldn't get it out of my head because it was so good.  I called her the other day to get the recipe, so this is a rough copy of her version.

C's Spinach Dip
Ingredients:
1 container fat free sour cream
1 box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
half a red onion, chopped
1 packet of veggie dip

Instructions:
Mix ingredients together, serve with chips (tortilla or pita work best since it's a heartier dip)

I am not a dietician, so I made a fattier version.
Tracie's Spinach Dip
Ingredients:
1 bag of fresh spinach, rinsed
1 16 oz container of sour cream
1 packet onion soup mix
half a red onion, chopped

Instructions:
1. Boil a pot of water.  When it's boiling, toss in the rinsed spinach and blanch for ~1minute.  Immediately drain the spinach in a colander and run it under cold water so all the spinach is cool to touch.  Take the spinach in handfuls and squeeze out the excess water (the spinach is gonna reduce in size significantly). Once you've gotten all the water out of the spinach, roughly chop the spinach.  You can skip all of this by using the frozen chopped spinach that has been thawed and drained.  Just make sure you get all of the water out of it.
2. Combine spinach, onion soup mix, red onion and sour cream.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so the flavors meld.  Serve with tortilla/pita/bagel chips/raw veggies.  We also put this on a baked potato to mix things up.