Caramelized Onion Horseradish Dip

Posted by: Maggie

I have been wanting to make this dip from Vanilla Sugar's blog for quite a while now, but it kept getting pushed to the back burner for one reason or another.  Now, after devouring almost half the batch of dip I made, I could kick myself for putting it off this long.  I've always dipped my sweet potato fries in ketchup or mayonnaise, but neither of those on their own provided the exact taste I was looking for.  This dip is perfect, and best of all doesn't overpower the delicious taste of the fry itself. 

It was the perfect accompaniment to my lazy Sunday afternoon.  I made this dip in the morning, and after it had time to chill, I popped some Alexia's Spicy Sweet Potato Fries in the oven for 20 minutes,  and hunkered down with my delicious late lunch and the first Harry Potter movie for the next couple hours.

This dip is easily adapted to your own tastes - I made it with the amounts I've indicated below, and ended up adding about a tablespoon more each of mayo, sour cream, and horseradish.  I would have liked to include a larger quantity of the caramelized onions, but due to a burning incident I could only salvage one tablespoon of edible onions.  Feel free to add more!

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1 T horseradish
4 dashes of tabasco sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 T pureed caramelized onions
Cayenne pepper and chili powder to taste (I started with a few shakes of each and worked my way up from there)

Mix everything together and chill for at least 3 hours.  Serve with sweet potato fries, or cut up vegetables.

Adapted from: Vanilla Sugar

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted by: Maggie

I have a confession to make.

I really only developed an interest in cooking and baking when I moved into my own apartment back in March 2008, and had my very own kitchen to use as I saw fit.  Before that, I was all about cookie and brownie mixes, and pasta and jarred sauce for dinner.  Back in early 2007, I was at my first job out of college,  and I decided to bring in a treat for my coworkers one day.

I bought a couple pouches of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix, the kind where you just add an egg or two and vegetable oil, and raked in the compliments the next day at work as my coworkers devoured them.  As it tends to happen when someone bakes, early on that day one of the higher-ups at the office asked if the cookies were homemade.  I lied, "yes", and added "find a homemade recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies" to my mental to-do list.

At that time, my main impetus to find a homemade recipe was in the event that I got asked for the recipe I used - I wanted to be prepared to back up my blatant lie.

Now, it's over three and a half years later, and I've finally actually made these suckers from scratch.

Here's what you will need:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 T milk
2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups oats
2 cups chocolate chunks (or chips)
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.  Beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a large bowl until creamy.  Add in eggs, milk, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Gradually beat in flour mixture until just incorporated.  Stir in oats, chocolate, and nuts.

Chill dough for 30 minutes, and drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes, or until brown around the edges and slightly undercooked in the middle (they will continue to cook once out of the oven).  Let cool on baking sheets for one minute, and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Adapted from: Very Best Baking

Linguine with Shrimp Scampi

Posted by: Maggie

Remember the Beef Enchilada debacle where Jeff and I did not eat dinner until 8:50 p.m. one Friday evening? After that, I realized that I needed to have some more recipes in my arsenal with a quicker prep and cooking time, and save the more time consuming stuff for Saturdays and Sundays. I decided that Barefoot Contessa's Shrimp Scampi perfectly fit the bill, and was quite pleased with the results. 

Two reasons why I chose her recipe:

- Ina Garten's recipes always seem to get fabulous reviews on FoodNetwork.com (rightfully deserved)

- Her recipe didn't have wine in it (A lot of Shrimp Scampi recipes included wine, but Jeff isn't a fan, and I'd personally rather drink it than waste it on food.)

I served this with a big green salad that included red and orange peppers, red onion, cucumber, and croutons.  I love chopping vegetables, so this was way more fun for me than it probably should have been. I've been told it's uncouth to squirt blue cheese dressing directly into my mouth, so this was the perfect vehicle for eating it in a more ladylike fashion.

I also made some easy garlic bread, which I won't bother doing a separate post for.  Just slice up a loaf of Italian bread, and brush melted butter on one side.  Sprinkle with garlic salt, dried herbs of your choice (I think I used basil and oregano), and stick it under the broiler until brown.  There ya go, instant Texas Toast.  I love the frozen packaged kind as much as the next girl, but you can avoid some of the mystery ingredients if you do it yourself.

For dessert I picked up two mini cannoli from Whole Foods - not as good as the ones from Wegman's, but we still enjoyed them!

Here's what you'll need for the shrimp scampi:

Vegetable oil
1 T Salt, plus 1.5 t salt
3/4 lb linguine
3 T unsalted butter
2.5 T Olive Oil
1.5 T minced garlic (I used the jarred stuff, but if you have cloves it's about 4)
16-20 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, rinsed, and dried
1/4 t pepper
1/3 c chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, zest grated
1/4 c freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/8 t hot red pepper flakes
Extra olive oil
Parmesan cheese

In a large pot of boiling water, drizzle a small amount of vegetable oil, then add 1 T salt and the linguine.  Cook according to package directions.

Meanwhile in a large deep skillet, melt the butter and olive oil on medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add the shrimp, 1.5 teaspoons salt, and pepper, and saute for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently until shrimp are pink and opaque.  Remove from the heat and add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes.  Toss to combine.

When pasta is done, drain the linguine and put it back in the pot.  Ina Garten's recipe didn't call for it, but I added about 1/3 cup of olive oil at this point because I didn't think the lemon butter sauce the shrimp cooked in would adequately coat the pasta.  You'll want to eyeball it to see if you need it - I prefer a more heavily sauced pasta. Add the shrimp and sauce and toss to combine. 

This was so good that Jeff and I ate almost all of it last night, but the original recipe says it serves 3.

Adapted from: FoodNetwork