Author: teacher-chef

Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes

No, I have not stopped cooking – I have just not made “beautiful” dishes too often since school has started (and we have yet to be home a weekend – maybe the “relaxing fall weekends” will start in October and then go away once ski 

Pizza, and I didn’t even have to make it!

Pizza, and I didn’t even have to make it!

As I was searching other blogs I came across this one & it had to make me laugh. I keep telling Rich he should start a blog of all the good stuff I cook for him (and his photos would just be of empty plates 

Dip or Spread – that is the question

Dip or Spread – that is the question

I love dips! I love dips that are healthy even more! Last week we were invited to a Turkish (Muslim) retreat for Ramadan (the retreat is in the area & as part of Ramadan they are to open their hearts & homes to neighbors – it was a very interesting, educational, & tasty evening. Check out this news report about the evening (see me getting my food there too).

Before heading over to the dinner my parents came over to hang out & help us try to take a good photo with the dogs (coming soon). I decided to do some appetizer and wanted to make a really healthy spinach dip. After some searching I decided to invent the following “dip”

To make the dip:

Spinach "dip"
  • 1 package frozen/defrosted spinach
  • 1 can great northern (or chick pea or whatever) beans
  • 1/4 cup (no idea, I didn’t measure) sour cream
  • 2 – 3 cloves garlic (depending on your taste)
  • fresh basil, sat/pepper to taste
  • few drizzles olive oil

I just dumped all ingredients in the blender & blended until smooth.

We served this in a bread bowl (Rich makes a pretty good bread – and this was the other half of the dough from his amazing home-made pizza the night before, more on that another time!) with some fresh veggies for dipping. I served about 1/2 of it that night and the rest I had with lunch and some cut veggies at school and it didn’t last long! This makes a super healthy dip for veggies of spread on a sandwich. I also cannot wait to try this with fresh spinach & also as it gets cooler to try mixing some cheese in & broiling it to serve with bagel chips.

Healthy, Tasty, Hearty – good food combo!

Slow Cooker for busy teacher

Slow Cooker for busy teacher

School has officially started! I have now seen my students for 2 days and am glad to be back (even with all the start of the school year stresses). Last week we had 3 fun-filled days of school preparations and I knew that I was 

Waking up to Muffins

Waking up to Muffins

Having two dogs is much like having two kids sometimes! Early weekend mornings I am reminded of this more and more. When you normally get up for work during the week between 5 or 5:30 or 6 or so, the dogs (or kids) think that 

Tomatoes to Salsa

Tomatoes to Salsa

crazy-ugly-huge tomato

Salsa…. one of my FAVORITE foods – always has been & always will be (if I had to name my top 2 foods it would be salsa & chocolate, hands down… just not together – although I do have a gourmet chili-chocolate bar that I love, so maybe I could make a chocolate salsa!). When we got fresh tomatoes from our gardens (some from our garden, some from Rich’s current landlord’s garden – he has lots of heirloom tomatoes which have a fantastic taste, maybe next summer here) I just had to make salsa.

Garden fresh Veggies

Before I did anything, I just had to snap this photo of the bounty – it was too pretty to ignore. All I did for this salsa was chop up tomatoes, different heats (and amounts) of hot peppers since my mom likes it mild, I like it medium hot, dad likes it hot, & Rich likes it burn your face off… so I made two bowls to try to make everyone happy. To the tomatoes and peppers I added chopped onions (scallions), lime juice, cilantro, and some salt & pepper. I do have to say that it actually is not my favorite salsa that I have made, but the freshness of the flavors was absolutely amazing  and there were no complaints.

Bowls of Salsa