Chef John's Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

I yearn to be a great cook. I like to think that I try my best, but I'm just not that great at it. But this dip? I can make this flawlessly and people actually eat it with a smile - so this will be one of my great go-to things to make for the rest of my days. I know I've mentioned it once quickly before in another post, but I wanted to put up the video for it as well. Also, do you know how much I love this man - Chef John? A lot. (I've mentioned my love for him in the past.) He's just the best and his recipes are almost always amazing. Anyway, you can watch the video for the recipe or go on over here for a print out. Tasty as hell. 

Juice of the Day - Perfect Pineapple

This is a juice I just made. I got the recipe from The Big Book of Juices. It consists of one half of a full, hugeass pineapple and three kiwis. How the hell do you cut a kiwi so that the insides stay put but that brown skin fucks off? NO IDEA. What I got left over after attempting to de-skin that kiwi was almost laughably tiny. Nevertheless. THIS DRINK IS DELICIOUS. And when you taste it for the first time, you think, "Ohhhhhh. THIS is what pineapple is supposed to taste like," in a really positive way. Most pineapple juices have ludicrous amounts of sugar and all kinds of garbage in it to preserve it, so this was refreshing as ever. DRINK. (Also, the recipe from the book tells you to put eight tablespoons of pineapple juice in it as well - and that sounded dumb to me, so I omitted it.)

If you're looking for more juice recipes, I have only obtained one other great one so far, but give me some time. You'll get more.  

Juice of the Day - Creamy Pear

Why is this glass half empty? 'CAUSE I DRANK HALF OF IT IN IMPATIENCE before I found my camera.  

I just tried this juice for the first time today and you need to make it yourself. It's fucking unreal and delicious.  

Creamy Pear Recipe

• 3 pears
• 4 watermelon slices
• Handful of mint (if you want mint for free, I will mail you some. It's growing all up on the garden in my yard. Makes the air smell minty as fuck. Too minty.)

I got the recipe from The Big Book of Juices - and it's an especially good juice book 'cause the recipes usually have 1 - 4 ingredients per recipe (not like other, lesser books that have a million ingredients per recipe and contain such ingredients that are usually a billion dollars at the grocery store). They also have photos alongside most of the juices, which, of course, I enjoy. I did add more watermelon to this recipe since, well, using more watermelon gives you hella juice and I was thirsty. 

This is also the first pear juice I've tried and if you've somehow got no Peardrax around your house - then, pal, this is the juice for you.  

(Sidenote: Almost every single time I'm juicing, for at least a moment, I think of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer gets really buff by eating Powersauce bars. With every apple that goes into my juicer I think about "unleashing the awesome power of apples." Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything. Go juice.)

Phenomenal, Low-Fat Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 7 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 2-1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour, though)
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 oz (3/4 cup) chopped walnuts
• baking spray

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 8x5 inch loaf pans with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

Add flour mixture and walnuts, then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.

Pour batter into loaf pans and bake on the center rack for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes, bread should be room temperature before slicing.

Recipe taken from Skinny Taste. 

I just made this for the first time and good God... it's a great one. Definitely will be my go-to one from now on. It also calls for an electric mixer, but I didn't have one so I used a vigorous motion with my hands. I did one loaf with 1/3 cup of walnuts and the other with 1/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Just delicious. 

Side Dish of Corn

You might think this is a dumb post, but I just ate this stuff and I'll never cook corn the same way from now on.  

I love corn. My mom would always boil it, strain it and then put some butter on it and voila. Beautiful. But I just ate/made some corn that blows that old corn out of the water (haha!). 

What should you do? 

Okay. You need some organic corn-on-the-cob, garlic cloves, olive oil, kosher salt and ground black pepper. If you use one ear of corn, then chop one clove of garlic and pour 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. (If you use two ears of corn then use two cloves and 3 tablespoons of olive oil - you get the picture.) 

Stand the corn-on-the-cob upright in the frying pan and use a sharp knife to cut the kernels from the cob (it's easy to do this right in the pan 'cause if you do it on a cutting board the kernels go flying everywhere. I mean everywhere.) into the pan. Add the chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook it up. Takes maybe three-four minutes. And you will have the best tasting corn of your damn life. I could eat buckets of this stuff. And the beautiful part? Doesn't need any butter! I know! But butter's great! However you truly don't need a smidgen of it here.  

Singular Cupcakes

Do you ever crave just one cupcake? Of course you do, you maniac! And this site can give you the ingredients for 1-2 servings. My personal favourite is for the carrot cake one found here. 

I can't tell you the amount of times I'll just make a batch of 12 or 24 only because I want one or two. And what do I do with the rest? Force feed them to loved ones. But who needs that? Everyone resents you later. Anyhow, just an idea. God speed. 

Father's Day Dessert

My dad's birthday and Father's Day are one week apart, so coming up with gifts for him all in one little span of time can prove to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. Thankfully he isn't fussy and will gladly accept almost anything - but he especially favours anything food-related "that won't take up space around the house."

These Guinness Sundaes are what I'll be making for dessert on Sunday. Why these? Oh, I don't know, 'cause they're delicious? Also, if there's ever an opportunity for me to make some fancy new sauce, I will leap at that chance. 

Recipe - Banana Nut Pancakes

As far as breakfast foods go, I'm not the biggest fan of pancakes. I really just don't understand them. They've always seemed like bland little pieces of nothingness that are trying so hard to be cake, and failing miserably. But that's just my opinion.

However, the act of making pancakes? One of the most fun things to do in the kitchen. I did it for the first time yesterday and it made me feel... fantastic. Why the hell did I feel that way? I don't know. Maybe it was the flipping that made it fun. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't burn them on my first try. Maybe the banana smell helped? No idea. But I could've stayed there and made them for hours, so fun.

And chances are - you know someone who enjoys these guys. Those people are everywhere. And they love talking about how much they adore them. And this recipe was a really good one, I was told. (I did eat some, and thought, "Yep. Banana pancakes. I guess these are something.") But keep in mind, no pancake will ever impress me. Ain't possible. Not even with chocolate in it. 

I'll for sure make these again since the reaction to them was good - and also, since it's a lighter version of the really-bad-for-you kind of pancakes. Go try. Or better yet, go try and make any kind of pancakes! The act of making them is way more fun than the outcome. Maybe eat a piece of real cake for yourself afterward so it feels more fulfilling. 

Tip - Make Whipped Feta

How To Make Whipped Feta (link)

​​I came across this from the blog How Sweet It Is (after stumbling upon it and spending about an hour looking and bookmarking too, too many ideas) - and if you’ve ever eaten any piece of cheese and savored that moment? Well, you gotta whip some feta and try this. Just ridiculous tasting. 

(What other stuff did I bookmark to eventually try?

• Spinach, Bacon & Artichoke Stuffed Portobellos
• Blue Cheese Mac & Cheese
• Coconut Cream Goat Cheese Cheesecake
• Banana Cream Cheesecakes
• Bean Burgers with Avocado Basil Cream

Gonna. Try. It all.)

Salmon Baked in Foil

Before last Monday, I had never baked any type of fish in my life. Seemed too hard to do. Like, how to to know when something’s cooked or not is the main reason I tend not to venture into uncharted cooking territory.

However, I’m a growing woman and I need to do things outside my comfort level once in awhile. Also, ya know… eating right and all that garbage helps, too. 

I made this baked salmon and it tasted outrageously good. And keep in mind that the only fish I ever really eat/enjoy is the beautiful, hella deep-fried kind like the halibut at a Canadian fish and chips place (I have to specify and say Canadian since Americans do not know what amazing fish and chips taste like. I just… I refuse to ever get on board with cod as a substitute for halibut. Cod is just inferior. Go home, cod.)

It’s really easy to make (- I made it) and it tastes like something you’d pay someone to make for you. Plus, it’s a great meal to cook if you’re looking to impress someone since it looks fancy as hell.