First Recipes

Now after all those reviews I wanted to get the other aspect of the club started, recipes. So I thought I would start from the two dips we had today at our meeting. Both are pretty simple and easy to make and all the ingredients can be purchased at Safeway.

So here they are:

Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 pkg. frozen spinach thawed (10-12 oz)
1 jar marinated artichokes, (8 oz) chopped
8 oz. Philadelphia Cream cheese
8 oz. Sour cream
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 stick butter
red pepper flakes to taste
(you can substitute lite cream/fat free cream cheese, cheeses and sour cream to try to keep the calorie count low as we did)

1) Melt the stick of butter in a medium saucepan at medium/high heat
2) Sauté the onion on medium heat until it becomes translucent, keep stirring (about 8 minutes)
3) Put the heat on low and add in the spinach, mixing and blending it well
4) Repeat Step 3 with the cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and artichokes in that order
5) Sprinkle with red pepper to taste and season with salt
6) Before serving transfer to a medium sized pyrex or other baking dish and cover with Monterey Jack cheese
7) Turn oven on 300 degrees Fahrenheit
8) Put pyrex in the oven until top layer of cheese begins to brown (approximately 20 minutes)
9) Remove, let it sit to cool and serve with bread

Brie can be used as a substitute to the parmesan cheese. It makes it more sophisticated and offsets some of the tangy flavor of the artichoke and sour cream.

To the next one:

Gibna Bayda Dip

1 lb (16 oz) of feta cheese
1 large tomato, diced
2 tablespoons of dried mint leaves
olive oil

1) Empty cheese into a bowl and mix in with diced tomatoes, mix well
2) Add a healthy drizzle of olive oil (between 1-3 tsp), and mix well, blending until cheese reaches a smooth/fine granule consistency
3) Crush mint leaves with hands by rubbing them together and add to the bowl

The quantities above are ideal for a large group of people, about 10-15 servings, if you're serving it alone. Adjust the quantities accordingly depending on how many people you are making it for. If you're not sure, it's probably safe to just make half as much. Also, don't be afraid to experiment...add a little more mint, tomatoes or cheese as you see fit!

One last tip before I go. You should all use www.opentable.com to make reservations to restaurants. Its really a great system that lets you make and cancel reservations to a lot of restaurants in DC online pretty much hassle free. Also, you get "dining points" for each reservation that eventually adds up to discounts, and hey who doesn't like to save on food?!