Spicy spinach dip

Happy Halloween!!
  We were invited to a get together yesterday,prior to our annual trip around the Haunted Corn Maize....super scary and I always come away from it with a sore throat due to my excessive screaming.....which makes the ghouls  even more prone to follow and spook me!! I was asked to bring an appetizer to share....this always seems so American to me, the Brit who is used to a bag of peanuts and maybe some pork scratchings ( you don't want to know what those are...) if we are feeling flush!! We just don't do appetizer's like the Americans do....so this is always really exciting for me to experience and cook these new finds !
    Spicy spinach dip,served warm..... that sounded like a good bet, serves 8 and is SO easy to make its almost embarrassing to post this on a cooking blog,as really there is no cooking involved.  However,to me ,the English girl,this signifies something completely foreign and exotic ..something I would  never have though of preparing if I hadn't moved to the US. I bet you are all laughing at me  !!

10 oz frozen chopped spinach- thawed and drained
8 oz cream cheese,softened
16 oz hot salsa
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 cups shredded pepperjack cheese
1 can chopped black olives
Salt and pepper to taste

Squeeze excess water out of the spinach- if its too wet the dip will be watery.  In a mixing bowl,combine spinach and cream cheese. Stir in the salsa and vinegar,add cheese and olives,and season to taste.
  Transfer to a mixing bowl and bake at 400 F until bubbly ( I stirred it after about 10 minutes to make sure it was melting evenly) . Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Here it is.....and everyone chomped away at it,so I guess I'm a convert....no more peanuts and salt and vinegar crisps for me....appetizer's here we come!

something spicy for a friday night??

Friday is finally here...time to relax ,unwind,and cook something spicy!! Traveling man has "man flu" so this may even help him clear those passages.....
    Zanzibar chicken is on the menu...Zanzibar....sounds so exotic- I know I want to go there already....sounds like blue skies,sandy beaches,exotic cuisine....OK wake up Caroline,you're in Oregon and its damp and dark outside....dream on....I found this in one of my UK magazine subscriptions I still have - Delicious Magazine -I love their recipe's..this one in particular caught my eye,as it has influences from India, Persia ,Arabia..all spicy themes which I love.  

 2 tbsp Olive oil
 4 chicken breasts
 2 finely chopped onions
 4 garlic cloves,crushed.
Large piece chopped ginger
 3 Green chills ,finely chopped
 5 finely chopped tomatoes
2 tsp each ground coriander and cumin
5 cardamon pods cracked open and seeds removed ( pods discarded)
 2 x tins coconut milk
 1 bunch fresh basil leaves chopped
 juice of 2 limes


Heat the oil in your large frying pan and fry off the chicken until brown...transfer to keep warm.  Add the onion and soften for 10 mins, stirring until coloured.,then add the chopped chili,cook 2 mins,then tomatoes and allow to cook down for a minute or two. Add the spice to the onion mix,and heat for a minute ...pour over the coconut milk and chicken breasts and cook until the chicken is cooked through.  To finish, add the  basil and lime juice,season, and transport yourself to Zanzibar.. I served mine with stir fried noodles with green beans and sugar snap peas.   Quite delicious..and spicy ,and yeas those tubes were cleared for a few minutes . Result.

 The finished result picture looks a bit too much like the chicken dish yesterday for my liking (Traveling Man and the Teenager says I need a food stylist...not sure how to take this ....) but TOTALLY different taste I can assure you.....Go Zanzibar Chicken!!

 The plates I'm using in the photos by the way,I've had since I started my nurse training...26 years ago...how that for a good buy!!

Chicken Marsala

Knowing that Traveling Man was going to be home today, I was wanting to cook something with a slight hint of specialness,  but didn't take too long to cook. Chicken Marsala -hadn't cooked this before but I wish I had as it fitted the bill perfectly.   First I had to find the Marsala...In my mind, I could more or less  go the right area in Tescos to find it immediately - Tescos being the supermarket of choice back in the UK - where you can get everything from an apple to a bank account to ...yes Marsala wine! Not so much here...supermarket or liquor store?? Turns out it was the market,but the recipe called for "sweet Marsala " ...not easy to find. Ended up buying a bottle which stated it was "not too dry and not too sweet" -what does that mean??
  Enough of my rantings, here's the recipe -I urge you to give this a go.....



1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 chicken breasts
3 tbsp extra virgin Olive oil
3 oz diced bacon
4 cloves of crushed garlic.
1 small shallot chopped fine
1 3/4 cup SWEET Marsala
1 teasp tomato paste
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp parsley

Preheat oven to 200

Pound the chicken out in between some greaseproof paper so its nice and thin and will cook evenly-the teenager likes to do this,I think he thinks he is a cave man...Dry the chicken and dredge with the flour and  a touch of salt and pepper ( I like the TV chef trick of putting the chicken and seasoned flour all in a ziploc bag and throwing it around a bit to get the dredging done with out distributing flour all over the kitchen floor ....) Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a saute pan -or similar- and fry the chicken until its starting to turn a golden color on both side-approx 5 mins each side.  Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm in the oven whilst you complete the sauce.
Cook the chopped bacon the same pan until its crisp,then add the shallot and garlic and cook for a further 3- 4 mins.  Add the Marsala and then let the sauce reduce for 10 minutes,by which time the sauce will be syrupy and about half of the quantity you started off with .  Add the chopped parsley( I used the flat leaf sort) and the lemon juice-check seasoning and add the chicken with any accumulated chicken juices back into it. Serve and enjoy!!

I  asked Traveling man what he thought of my "creation" and he said..."it made me forget about my cold for 10 minutes...." is this a positive comment?? Maybe  you could help me out on that one... the teenager emitted his usual grunts and hand  gestures which we have come to realise means "great Mum thanks". I thought it tasted fab and easy enough for a week night( easily on the table in 45 mins) but also fancy enough to entertain with .

A wickedly delicious dessert.....

So..... flushed with  the success ( what I really mean is the fact that I actually created one blog and had some positive comments) of my day yesterday, I decided to keep up the momentum and try another post. It seems I even have a "follower" now (the teenager thinks it doesn"t count because she's my friend!) ...now I have an obligation to keep....oh and I think the term "follower" sounds a little sinister,so I think I use the word... supporter...!
   I think the teenager is in for a big treat this evening....apple pancakes with caramel sauce. I just have to say the words caramel sauce and you have me interested.

  For the pancakes.
  -2 large eggs
 -1/2 cup milk
 -2 apples of any variety,I used Pink Ladies
 -1 teasp vanilla extract
 -1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
 -pinch salt
 -1/2 teasp baking powder
 -4 tbsp butter ,for frying.

For the caramel sauce (drool)
 -1/2 cup butter
 -1 cup brown sugar
 -1/4 cup heavy cream
 -1/2 teasp vanilla extract

Begin by peeling ,coring and grating the apples. I used the trusty food processor for that job,gotta love those things.Stir  the milk,eggs and vanilla into the apple -don't drain the apple liquid that comes after you grate. Add all the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Drop batter about 1/4 cups in size into the melted butter in the frying pan...once the edges are browned,flip and do the other side. Keep those warm and regrease the pan if necessary.

 To make the caramel sauce...melt the butter and sugar together,stirring occasionally,and let it cook for 3-4 mins until it's thick and foamy. Add the milk and vanilla,and try not to dive right in now,like I did.

Here's the finished product. Yummmm.

What shall we have for dinner today??

So its cold and rainy here in Oregon today...and snowing up on Mt Hood-yay!! Its just the teenager and I in for dinner today..and since it so Autumnal (or cold and damp to put it another way) we need comfort food. we can eat in front of the TV- I know thats bad.
  So after a quick dig around the fridge and pantry,I came up with the idea of a sausage pie with some added veg to make me  feel better about it.

So I chopped an onion,red pepper and a zucchini and sauteed them in a tbsp olive oil.Next I added a clove of chopped garlic to the pan and continued to cook until that great garlic smell started to hit. A 1lb block of bulk pork sausage went in next,and that need to be browned off until the sausage was no longer pink.  The tinned tomatoes ,a generous couple of tbsps of tomato paste,seasoning(I'm a pepper freak and like to add lots) were all I finished it up with ,and had the pan bubble over a low heat for 20 mins or so to reduce everything down a bit. . After the crucial tasting I added some gorgeous Herbes De Province -fresh from France this week as a gift to me from a French colleague of my husbands who is in town this week...about a tbsp....et voila!!

I cheated big time today and bought some ready made pastry -how shameful Caroline I can hear my mother saying-and rolled that into my pie dish.

In went the sausage concoction and  all I need to add then was 11/2 cups grated cheese.Baked 30 - 40 mins at 350 F,let stand for 10 mins ,and then cut into wedges.

  Pretty simple comfort food  that we could eat again tomorrow!!
  Was going to show a picture of the pie sliced into ...but that would reveal how much we ate of it and that wouldn't do at all.