Sourdough Discard Pretzel Bites & Beer Cheese Dip

Long time readers may know that The Hubs and I played trivia weekly at a bar downtown for about 6 years before Lil' Man was born.  We seek out pub quiz and trivia nights at breweries when we travel.  A few months ago, we started up a new team with some of our HomeBrew Zoo friends for a bi-monthly trivia night at a local brewery that doesn't have onsite food.  One night, we saw another group bring in a cake and some snacks for a party, and it occurred to us...why don't we just bring food and eat here?  And thus, Trivia Potluck was born.  

Crockpot in a Brewery...not the weirdest thing you've ever seen.

Recently, The Hubs was craving cheese dip, so I decided to make some sourdough pretzel bites to go with it, using this discard recipe from Pantry Mama.  I stayed true to recipe so if you're interested in making the pretzel bites, just click on that link.  But if you're interested in our cheese dip recipe, it's below!

Note: I accidentally doubled the amount of salt in the pretzel bites recipe...flavor was fine, but I think it impeded fermentation a bit. I would also recommend using warm water to let the yeast bloom for a little while before adding everything else in.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb brick of lower sodium Velveeta-type melting cheese
• 1 lb spicy italian sausage, browned & drained
• 14 oz can of low sodium Rotel tomato-chiles blend (DO NOT DRAIN)
• 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup homebrew or other beer (we used a pilsner)

DIRECTIONS;

1. Brown sausage, drain, and set aside.
2. Cube up the melting cheese, place in a small crockpot, and add the Rotel & taco seasoning.  Let melt/blend for 2 hours on Low, or 1 hour on High, stirring frequently.
3. Once it starts to melt & come together, add the sausage and beer, and stir.  
4. Serve warm with chips, pretzel bites, whatever else you feel like dunking in delicious cheese...and of course, with lots of friends!

I only put Everything Bagel seasoning on part of them, since I wasn't sure if it would clash with the cheese dip.

Good times with great friends!

Fresh Salsa

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before, I do NOT have a green thumb.  At best, it’s like…mayyyybeee a sickly yellow.  I can’t keep a “real” garden because I don’t go out in our backyard that often, so it’s sorta “out of sight, out of mind”—I just completely forget to tend or water anything that isn’t regularly in my line of sight. 

So this summer, I did a fairly extensive (for me) container garden on our porch—we have a . I planted mint, basil, rosemary, some radishes, squash, turnips, lavender, and three kinds of tomatoes (cherry, yellow pear, & Federle).  The turnips & lavender were no-shows. I got about 4 squash before the vine borers got to my plants and demolished them.  My radishes made tons of greens but never grew bulbs—possibly because it was too hot.  However, my tomato plants ROCKED it, and are actually still producing!

My MIL was also bringing us gems from her garden, so we had plenty produce on hand all summer!

Which means…I actually grew more tomatoes than I could handle.  I love to snack on ‘maters and throw them in salads & on fresh pasta…but even that wasn’t keeping up with the supply.  So…of course…we made fresh salsa!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3-4 lbs. tomatoes
• 1/2 small onion, peeled (red or sweet yellow is best)
• 2  jalapeno peppers (seeds removed if you prefer a more mild salsa)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• large handful of cilantro (to taste—for us, that’s about half a bunch)
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 1/2 t. red wine vinegar
• Juice from 1 lime
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp chipotle powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin

 

DIRECTIONS:

Roughly chop onions, and peppers (tomatoes too if you’re using larger ones—we had a lot of cherry-sized).

Add all ingredients to food processor, and then pulse until the texture is to your liking.  Season to taste. It will keep in the fridge for about a week or two—but I doubt it will last that long!

Eggplant Caponata & Sausage Sandwiches

Aaaaand I’m back.  The Scoop is closed—for good, rather than just the season.  We decided it was all just too much—juggling our full time jobs plus trying to make sure our business ran well & didn’t fall into disrepair.  There are so many things I wish we could have done with it—more recipes, more branding, more promotions, more fundraisers… but there was just never enough time.  And given that we’d like to start a family soon, that would be WAYYYYYY too much to juggle. 

Closing up shop for the last time.

It’s a little bittersweet… I mean, yes, it definitely ran us ragged and most people just went all “O_o” when we told them we had full time jobs in addition to running the Scoop, but at the same time…it was our baby.  We have a lot of pride in our ability to have even attempted owning a business while still holding on to our “day jobs”, and the fact that it was also SUCCESSFUL (in a town with 899 other restaurants, and the home of Andy’s frozen custard) feels good too.  And we had some truly awesome employees who we won’t get to see every day anymore, and I’ll miss chatting with our regular customers…not to mention the look on every kids’ face when you hand them a giant ice cream cone, so they can cram their face-hole full of sugar & sprinkles… that little twinkle that says, “no nap for me today!  MUahahahahAHAHAHahahah!!!!”

This load of cuteness brought to you by my sis-in-law’s womb. Yes…we stuff them full of ice cream, AND buy them 100-piece toys for Christmas.  She’ll get us back one day.

So, now that I theoretically have some “free time” again, it’s time to get caught up on some posts!  Because I haven’t stopped cooking!

First up, this tasty sandwich.  Our local farmers market had these gorgeous white eggplants on sale & I couldn’t resist.

I’m usually not too versatile with eggplant, typically making baba ganoush or eggplant parm, but I wanted to mix it up a bit.  These sandwiches on Pinterest looked awfully inviting, so I ran with it & was very pleased with the results!

This also makes a really delicious dip to have with crostini; or you can toss it with a bit of pasta!  It makes a good sized batch, so you can be versatile with it—make a few sandwiches one night, have the dip the next night, etc.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 8-10 sandwiches)

1/3 cup olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into small cubes, about 4 cups total
4 chicken sausages (I think these were sundried tomato & mozzarella)
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 ounces white mushrooms, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced (NOTE: if you have a hubby like mine who doesn’t care for olives, you can alternately just add about 1/4 cup of the brine from the jar to get the saltiness & a hint of the flavor, without it tasting too much like olives for them)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
French Bread
Provolone, Swiss or mozzarella
Fresh basil leaves

DIRECTIONS:

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat,  then add the eggplant, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper (lightly—you can always add more later, but it’s going to cook down quite a bit so you don’t want it to get too salty). Cook for about 10 minutes, until vegetables are soft.

Add the olives (or olive brine), tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, and oregano, and stir well so that the tomato paste coats everything. Season again with salt and pepper. Lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Stir a few times during cooking, and add a tablespoon or two of water if the mixture is too thick and sticking to the bottom of the pan.

While that’s going, cook your sausages according to their package directions.  Once they’re done, allow to cool for a bit & then slice at an angle to make about 1/2 inch slices.

Allow caponata to cool slightly, but serve warm.  Spoon onto your bread, add the basil, sausage, & cheese.  I didn’t let my cheese get melty enough before taking pics, but if you like, you can place the sandwich open-face beneath the broiler before serving to make sure it’s good & melty.  If you have some fresh mozzarella, that would also go nicely with this sandwich.

Daniel Fast Day 16: Avocado Pesto, & Baba Ganoush!

Today’s Devotion: “Don’t Forget Who You Are-- James 1:23-25 ‘For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

You have come too far to get off course now. You have seen the hand of God (His power) & you have seen the face of God (His presence). You can’t allow yourself to forget who you are. How can you do that? By not continuing to look into the law of liberty. Freedom comes when we realize what Jesus has done for us. When we know what the word says about something we have something to stand on. Kenneth Hagin said years ago, “Faith begins where the will of God is known”, we have to know who we are in the Lord for faith to be established in our hearts & that knowledge comes from the word. It declares, you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, you’re the head & not the tail, above & not beneath, the righteousness of God in Christ, this is how our faith comes forth so forget anything else you have heard that is contrary to what the word says. The word is the truth, nothing else matters.”

This morning I faced a few challenges—we’ve officially run out of “breakfast proteins”.  By which I of course mean peanut butter. (Okay, so this is an exaggeration—we still have oatmeal.)  In fact, we’re running low on many of the items we bought specifically for the Fast:  AllFruit jam, PB, hummus, flatbread, to name a few.  With only 4 days left we don’t necessarily want to “stock up” on things, but all the same…we have to be able to make it through the next four days!  We may have to get creative.

Today I also had to do some field work for the first time in a few months, so I was a little concerned about the challenges that would present—mainly, if we didn’t finish up in time, what was I going to eat for lunch?  Typically when I have field work, I grab food from whatever restaurant or fast food place is close to my site, or bring a sandwich with me.  But sandwiches aren’t really easy on the Fast…especially when you ate your last piece of bread for breakfast, and don’t have a protein (hummus) to spread on them.  I threw together some pasta last night and just prayed that we would finish up in time for me to eat back at the office.  Thankfully, everything went smoothly and I was back in the office by 2pm, nommin’ down on a late lunch.

Breakfast:  ½ piece whole wheat flatbread, 1oz bag of peanuts, 1 cup pineapple, and a few grapes

Lunch: Cilantro-avocado pesto pasta w/sautéed mushrooms & onions

INGREDIENTS: (makes two servings)

Sauce:

• 1 avocado
• ½ bunch cilantro
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Salt & pepper to taste

 

• 2 servings whole wheat pasta, boiled
• 4 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced
• ¼ onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp basil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Puree the avocado, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, & onion powder in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms, onions, seasonings, garlic & olive oil together in a large skillet until tender.  When the pasta is cooked and mushrooms are tender, combine, toss, and serve!

Dinner:  I bought an eggplant last week, so I decided to try to make baba ganoush for the first time.  Such a fun word.  Always makes me think of Wedding Crashers.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 eggplant
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp smoked salt (if you have it)
• 1/8 cup tahini (if you have it—you can omit if you don’t)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• dash of chili powder (I used chipotle for the smokiness)
• 1/3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley or cilantro, or about 1/4-1/2 cup of fresh

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Char the skin of the eggplant over your gas burner, or under the broiler if you don’t have a gas stove (about 5 minutes per side if you’re using the broiler).  Then roast the eggplant on a cookie sheet for about 20-30 minutes or until tender (easily pierced with a paring knife.

Remove the skin and place the flesh into a food processor along with the remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth.  Drizzle with additional olive oil and garnish with lemon or olives.  Serve with pita (if you’re not on the fast), tortilla chips or crackers (if you are).  

Since we already had the chips out, we also finished off the last of the veggie chili…like cheeseless nachos! 

 

Boudin Balls: Baked or Fried, with Homemade New Orleans-Style Remoulade

Wal-Mart never ceases to surprise me.  And not in the “OMG People of Wal-Mart” kind of way (at least, not ALWAYS).  But it does regularly amaze me the things I can find in Wally World.  Last week, it was nori wraps for sushi at $2.50/pack (regularly $5 at the local specialty store).  This week, it was boudin.
Or, boudAIN, as the package calls it.

Sorta like Anthony Bourdain…but tastier & less cannibalistic.

At only $2.27, I had to try it.  Typically I’m skeptical of “Cajun” labeled products that aren’t from Louisiana…but Zummo’s is made in Beaumont, Texas, which is in “Cajun Texan country”, near the TEX-LA state border.  In the early 19th century, many Louisiana Cajuns began migrating across the Sabine (the river that serves as the TEX-LA border) to work the rice fields in southeastern Texas and for the promise of jobs with the new Southern Pacific railroads in this area.  This is yet just another reason that Texas is awesome: depending on where you are, you can get delicious authentic Mexican, Tex-Mex, or Cajun food.

What IS Boudin, you ask?  Ummm…well, it’s kinda all there in the picture.  It’s heavily seasoned cooked rice, ground pork, and pork liver, combined and then stuffed into a sausage casing.  I know, I know…pork liver’s gross.  Organs are gross.  But boudin is DELICIOUS.  So just act like it isn’t there.  You won’t notice it, I promise.

What to make with boudin?  Well, it can be oven roasted (like my blog-friend Genet did here) or it can be smoked, boiled, and then sliced up as a nice finger food.

OR…you can roll it in breadcrumbs & fry it.  Because we. like. fried. everything.  Boudin balls are common commodity in the average Louisiana gas station.  Greasy & delicious, like most fried foods they make you super happy while you’re eating them, and then instantly regret it afterward.

Typically, when making boudin balls, you would make the boudin fresh, roll it into a ball, then batter & fry it.  But alas…I don’t have the time (or stomach) to make fresh boudin.  So…we’ll be rolling with the premade stuff. 

Oh…and we’re oven-frying.  To save ourselves from that “After I just ate fried food” feeling.

Trust me…it’s a totally acceptable alternative.

But, since we’re slacking off a bit on making our own boudin, I figured I should probably step it up and make our own dipping sauce, right?  That’s why I’ll also be sharing my NOLA remoulade recipe with you.  Remoulade is AMAZING.  HUGE flavor with not a ton of calories when made right (49 calories in 2 tbsp).  Run out of boudin to serve it with?  Put it on your next sandwich and have a Hallelujah moment.  For realz.  It is also AMAZING with cocktail shrimp.  Or fried shrimp. Dip your french fries in it.  Drizzle over grilled fish.  The sky is the limit!!!

Ingredients:

• For remoulade: [will make (8) 2 tbsp servings]
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
• 3 tbsp cocktail sauce
• 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1/2 tbsp Creole mustard (if you can’t find Creole mustard, you can double up on the yellow, but the Creole gives it a much more rounded flavor)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 green onion, diced
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• (For the best flavor, make this sauce the night before so the flavors can fully combine.)

(Note:  if you'd prefer to buy remoulade, I like Louisiana Fish Fry's version.)

For boudin balls: [will make (6) 3 piece servings]

• 1 package (14oz) boudin (boudain) links, casing removed and cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup Louisiana fish fry (or, 1/3 cup cornmeal + 1 tsp Cajun seasoning)
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 egg, beaten + 1/2 tsp paprika

Directions:
To make your remoulade:  Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl & whisk thoroughly.  Let set for 3 hrs or overnight for maximum flavorosity potential.

For the boudin balls:
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Mix the bread crumbs & fish fry together (FYI—if you use the Louisiana fish fry, it’s already seasoned, so don’t add any extra salt.)
Roll the boudin pieces in the paprika egg wash until coated.  Then drop (one at a time) into the bread crumb mixture & toss to coat thoroughly.

Place all the boudin pieces on a lightly spritzed cookie sheet, then lightly spritz the boudin balls with oil (using a Misto or Pam).  This will help them get a nice golden brown.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn them over, spritz again with oil, and bake for another 8 minutes.  Then turn your broiler on for 2-3 minutes to finish.  Remove when nicely golden.

FRIED OPTION: Since my husband had never had regular boudin balls, I decided to make these two ways.  I oven-fried the majority, but I also pan-fried four of them in oil, so he could have a comparison.  If you decide to pan-fry some, cover the bottom of a small pan with olive oil & heat over medium until the oil starts to smoke.  Then carefully place 1-2 balls in the pan & watch for them to brown, and turn every 10-seconds or so until browned on all sides.  Let rest on a paper towel, and then place in the oven for 10 minutes at 425 to ensure that they’re cooked through.  The results will look like this (darker than the oven-friend versions:

Serve 3 balls with 2 tbsp of the remoulade & garnish with green onions.

(Okay, okay, I admit they look a little like toasted coconut marshmallows, but I promise—they’re DIVINE.

Suggested accompaniment: salad and a good beer (we went with Baraboo Woodpecker Wheat)

NutriFacts:
Calories 265 for boudin balls/ 49 for remoulade
  Total Fat 12.0 g / 3.8 g 
  Saturated Fat 2.6 g / 0.5 g 
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4 g / 1.4 g 
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.5 g / 1.8 g
  Cholesterol 79.3 mg / 2.5 g 
  Sodium 863.8 mg / 170 mg 
  Potassium 30.3 mg / 16 mg 
  Total Carbohydrate 36.5 g / 3.5 g 
  Dietary Fiber 2.0 g /0.2 g
  Sugars 2.1 g / 2.0 g
  Protein 11.7 g /0.3 g

Peanut Butter Dip.

 

This post might as well be titled “Pinterest Strikes Again”.  I saw this & it was just too good to resist.  It makes a great high-protein, low-cal spread for apples, toast, biscuits, crackers… but mainly apples, because they’re lower-calorie.  Ya dig?

(UH-MAZE-ING.  150 calories of sweet, cinnamony, fruity, peanut-buttery HEAVEN.)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 tsp honey

1 tsp cinnamon

 

Directions:

Super quick, super simple.  Combine all the ingredients in a sealable container.

Then mix, mix, mix senora, mix it all the time…

(Jump in de line, rock your body in time… OK, I believe you!)

…until you have THIS!

Makes four servings.

NutriFacts:

Calories 43.3 (with a medium apple & 3 strawberries, a total of 150 calories)

  Total Fat 2.1 g

  Saturated Fat 0.4 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.6 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.0 g

  Cholesterol 0.0 mg

  Sodium 28.9 mg

  Potassium 68.8 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 3.5 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.6 g

  Sugars 2.3 g

Protein 3.5 g

Calcium 4.2 %

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesdays & Crazy for Crust.

Cranberry Jalapeno Dip–Perfect for Holidays!

Happy Boxing Day, or, as we usually call it, Recovery & Cleanup Day.  I have spent about 90% of my time today on the couch.  It. Feels. Fantastic. :D

But for the past two days, we hosted Christmas festivities for our family here at the FeauxHouse.  Lots of preparations and cleaning and cooking---ohh the cooking.  Ham, my mom’s chicken & noodles, spiced walnuts & almonds:

…relish trays (that got lost in the back of the fridge, so I’ve been snacking on them today), and a few good helpers to make the rest of the dinner go smoothly:

(for the record, because of an unfortunate incident I’ll refer to as the “FeauxPantry Potato Famine of 2011”, we had to do half instant, half freshly boiled potatoes for our mashed potatoes, but they turned out delicious, as always, because we are Professional Kitchen Improv-ers here.)

 

And to mix things up a bit, of course a new recipe was in order!  I was supposed to make pepper poppers for a work potluck earlier in the week, but had to miss the potluck due to a family funeral.  So I still had all the makings on hand.  I stumbled across this recipe and HAD to try it.

(LOOK at these colors!  Does this not scream “Merry Christmas”???)

 

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh cranberries

3 green onions, chopped (or a tablespoon of dried chives)

1/8 cup fresh chopped cilantro

1 small jalapeno, seeded & finely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp cumin

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt

1 – 8oz package of low-fat Neufchatel (essentially light cream cheese)

crackers for serving

 

Directions:

Using a food processor, chop the cranberries.

(You could feasibly do this by hand, but the processor makes this recipe a snap.  I was done in less than 10 minutes.)

 

Add the green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, sugar, cumin, lemon juice and salt and pulse until the ingredients are well combined and very finely chopped. Then wrap your processor bowl in saran wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours (or overnight) so the flavors can develop and the cranberries lose just a bit of their tartness.  (This also gives the jalapeno a chance to mellow out as well.)

(I can’t get over how gorgeous this is.  I LOVE those colors!)

Now, a quick note: If you are going to be serving this to people who aren’t keen on spicy foods, no worries—by the time everything had had a chance to rest and we served it, there was hardly any heat left from the jalapenoes, just a nice hint of flavor.  However, if you’re serving this for friends who don’t mind some spice in their food, don’t hesitate to double the amount of jalapeno.  The cream cheese will balance out the capsaicin in the pepper.

 

About an hour before you’re ready to serve, whip your cream cheese so it gets smooth & a little fluffier.  Then spoon the cream cheese into a bowl (I used two bowls, because I’d be serving it for two different dinners) & then spoon the cranberry mixture on top.

We had 7 people eating the first night & pretty well finished it off, and 6 adults the second night & they ate about half.  So that should give you an idea on servings.

 

Anyway…you can serve as is, and leave that gorgeous red on top, or you can mix it up a bit so the guests are sure to get enough cream cheese with their cranberry.  (That’s what we did.)

 

Really loved this, and WILL make it again.  The flavor combination seemed unusual at first but it really worked well.  The sweet from the sugar, tart from the cranberry, a little heat from jalapeno, hint of smoke from the cumin, and of course the cilantro…then you add a buttery cracker and it’s just heaven.

So, happy holidays everyone!  Hope you get a little rest & relaxation in before the New Year!

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday