Best Artichoke Cheese Dip + a Video

Guess what? I made another video for you guys!  I know it's just what you wanted. A couple of years back I posted about the BEST Artichoke Dip you will ever eat. I made it a few weeks ago, and decided to video it...So here ya go...I know this makes you hungry, so make it this weekend, you won't be sorry.

I need to figure out how to change the thumbnail when creating videos. Oops oh well. It's super good, try it! Always a crowd pleaser and the first thing to go when I bring it to parties.


Linking up with Treasure Tromp and Wake Up Wednesday

Honey Lime Shrimp

For Whatever Wednesdays  Alissa and Shay, okay more Alissa then Shay...wanted us to post a recipe. (Alissa if you want more of my recipes click on my recipes tab, created just for you today, seriously.)

For our picnic in the park, I decided to make my quinoa salad and then I thought that some shrimp would be a really good picnic food. So I set off to find a recipe. I came across this recipe on what other then Pinterest. It has only 8 ingredients, and 6 of them I already had in my pantry, win for me. So here it is.

Stole this picture from The Dough Will Rise Again

We were supposed to meet friends at 6pm at the park, I started this at 4, should have started sooner, but I was napping, which felt great and I woke up refreshed and ready to tackle a concert in the park.

What you'll need:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (although I used 1 pound with the same amount of marinade and it worked great)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
Juice of one small lime, or half a large lime (2-3 T)
Zest of one small lime, or half a large lime
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Step 1:

It says to use a Ziploc bag, I figured I would put the ziploc in a small bowl so that I wasn't messing with trying to keep the bag open while pouring in ingredients.

Step 2:

Add Olive Oil

Lime Zest

Lime Juice

If you don't have one of these bad boys, you must go get one right now! Life saver and you get all of the juice out!

2 Tablespoons of Honey

2 garlic cloves - recipe says smashed, but I went the easy route and just used my garlic press

1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and 1/4 tsp black pepper. I just winged this, close enough, and I didn't want to make it too spicy in case one of the kids wanted one. Also my measuring spoons were currently in the dishwasher.

Step 3:

Mix ingredients

Step 4:

I used the frozen shrimp from Costco (2 pounds costs $20), I used half the bag, apparently I can't read and I thought the recipe called for a pound of shrimp, guess I was wrong, but it worked out in the end.

Step 5:

Put shrimp in bag and put in fridge to marinate. I've read on the comments that people do this anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. I did mine for just 40 minutes because that's all the time I had.

Step 6:

Cook shrimp in skillet, no need to add any more oil, it already has enough.

I did it in batches and had two skillets going. It only took about 10 minutes to cook all of the shrimp. We were out the door with it still hot and got to the park just as our friends were arriving. Perfect timing!

In the haste to get out the door, I forgot to take a picture of all of the cooked shrimp, just look at the 1st picture and think, with tails on. Mine pretty much looked the same.

Spiced Nuts

I'm back! Sorry for the little break without notice, I was just feeling lazy and wanted to enjoy some time off with the baby. Next week I'll be back full swing...I hope. I have another week off of work, so we'll see.

I don't normally post on Sunday, but I thought this would be a quick easy thing to make for all of you who are going to be celebrating New Years  with a bang! Or perhaps doing something more exciting then staying at home and watching tv.

So here is it, the easiest best spiced nut recipe and you can thank Aubry at Beauty and Truth for this gem

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
2 tbs water
5 cups raw whole almonds
4 tbs white sugar
6 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs ground cinnamon
1 tbs ground nutmeg (I bought this at Sprouts - they have a herb and spices section where you take as much or as little as you want of the spices that you want, so I bought exactly what I needed, much cheaper route to go. Don't be fooled, they are no located with the other bulk items, looks to one of the outside walls, ours is near the juice)
1 tbs ground cloves
1 tsp salt
What to Do:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250 degrees, and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a small bowl, lightly beat egg whites and water until frothy bubbles appear

Step 3: In another small bowl, mix dry ingredients, minus the almonds

Step 4: In a large bowl place the raw almonds

Step 5: Combine almonds and egg mixture in a large bowl, ensure that all almonds have been covered

Step 6: Add the spice mixture to the almonds and eggs. Makes sure the spice distribute (this seems like such an enginnering word to use) evenly.

Step 7: Spread almonds evenly onto your cookie sheet from step 1. I used two cookie sheets.

Step 8: Bake almonds for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so to keep from burning, even roasting is the ultimate goal. I think mine ended up taking more like an hour and 20 minutes. Once done let them cool for about 15 minutes. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I ended up doing about a recipe and a half, so this is what it looked like with both cookie sheets combined to one.

Note: Don't eat hot, they don't taste as good as they have not had time to harden and make that crunchy aspect that makes spiced nuts so yummy. ( I cannot eat almonds, but was told this by Mr.)

Now go out and find your local Sprouts, buy what you need, and go at it! I found this recipe and make it the next day, so you can too, it's definitely a crowd pleaser and everyone enjoyed it.

See you tomorrow!

Artichoke Cheese Dip aka Heart Attack in a Dish

So here's that recipe that I was going to give you yesterday. It's definitely a crowd pleaser. We've taken it to several parties and it's always the first thing to go.

What You'll Need

Extra arteries...okay I kid...sort-of. Seriously though, this is what you need:

• 1 large jar or 2 small jars (I prefer two small) of artichoke hearts, I like to use the marinade kind, but if you don't have that on hand the regular artichoke hearts is what the recipe actually calls for.
• 1 package of cream cheese - softened (I take it out an hour or so before I want to make, so I don't have to wait for it to soften)
• 1/2 cup of mayo
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of Romano Cheese
• Garlic salt/Dill weed to taste - I was out of garlic salt so I used just powdered garlic and table salt
• Bread, we like to use the long baguette types, but anything will work really...heated up is preferred but not necessary 

*I made a double batch, because I wasn't sure how many people were coming to the party.


Step 1: Set oven to 350°F
Step 2: If you're using the marinaded kind, drain and dump onto chopping board

Step 3: Cut up into small pieces (this is a picture of just two jars, so double this look if you're going for the double batch). Set aside

Step 4: When the cream cheese has softened a bit, add the sour cream, mayo and cheese to the cream cheese

Step 5: Add the artichokes in (the directions say to do this last, but how can you season to taste with the dill and the garlic salt if you don't have the artichokes in there?)

Step 6: Cut up dill, add that and garlic salt to taste. I usually hate when people say to taste, since you have no idea what it's supposed to taste like. So...for the double batch, I used almost all of the dill except maybe 1 or 2 small sprigs from that package. Garlic salt...I did maybe 5-6 shakes to start off (remember double batch).

Step 7: Spread into 9x13 dish, or 2 9x9 dishes. Put in oven until golden on top, about 25-30 minutes...maybe longer depending on your oven.

Step 8: Enjoy! Sorry people were enjoying it too much and I forgot to take a picture of it on bread...trust me it's good!

 

 

And that is how you make Artichoke Cheese Dip that everyone will ask you for the recipe and you'll feel like Rachel Ray for 2 seconds.  Now go make it this weekend, you know you want to!