artichoke stuffing

Man can not live on bread alone...

But this girl sure could live on stuffing alone.

I apologize for my lack of Thanksgiving themed recipes this year. Time has flown by and if it weren't for the Christmas decorations in every store, I'd just as soon think it was still March. But there is one thing that I can't let slip by and that's the chance to make some really rocking stuffing/dressing. I LOVE STUFFING.

Last years Turkey & Stuffing Casserole is probably the best stuffing I've ever had, but this artichoke version comes in a very, VERY close second... and that's probably only because it doesn't have the luxury of turkey drippings cooked into it.

This is a bare bones stuffing with a lot of possibilities for add-ins. You could add mushrooms, sweet italian sausage, walnuts, golden raisins, or bacon. Of course, those ingredients will significantly add to the cost per serving, so keep that in mind. But guess what? Bare bones still tastes really, REALLY good.

So, enjoy and have a very awesome Thanksgiving Day!

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southwest salad with taco ranch dressing

It's crisp, it's crunchy, it has an amazing, tangy, homemade dressing, and it goes perfectly along side your lentil tacos ;D

Honestly, this recipe started out with me craving a crunchy salad, but it ended up being nothing more than a vehicle for this delicious dressing. I didn't expect the dressing to be so amazing, but I love it... And it took only about five minutes to whip together! Normally I would use a buttermilk substitute rather buying a whole quart when I only need a little, but with this dressing you really need that authentic buttermilk flavor. What will I do with the rest? Make buttermilk biscuits, of course.

Actually, the whole salad will probably take less than 30 minutes to make; dressing, tortilla crisps, and all. Which means that you *can* have a delicious salad on a week night when you're exhausted from work. I did, anyway.

If you want to make a whole meal out of this, just grill up some chicken and toss it in!

Oh, and yes, I know iceberg is nutritionally void and all of that great stuff. I eat a ton of vegetables so I'm not worried about using iceberg once in a while. I needed a REALLY crisp green for this salad and iceberg kind of takes the cake. Romaine is also really crunchy and has more green, if you want it.


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sesame ginger dressing

Okay, okay, okay... so this isn't exactly the most inexpensive dressing in the world, but it sure does taste like the most expensive one! This stuff is hella good and it's all fresh so I know that it's worth the few extra pennies to many of you. Plus, I over paid for my ginger (and half ended up being rotten inside - grrr!).

This makes about 1.25 cups and I figured you'd want about 1/4 cup per serving. That means there are about five servings per batch, which is probably a good thing because you don't want to keep this dressing fore more than about a week in your refrigerator. It's got fresh ingredients, remember? But I'd be surprised if it lasts you that long. It's so good that I kept slurping it off a spoon. I was... uh... taste testing it. Yeah.

Instead of adding actual sesame seeds to this, I used tahini, which is pureed sesame seeds. Tahini not only gives a great sesame flavor but it acts as an emulsifier and helps keep the dressing from separating. I found that it separated a little after a long while but all it needed was a quick swirl to remix everything.

The small amount of toasted sesame oil also provided a lot of flavor. If you don't have this magical ingredient, I highly suggest it. You only needs a touch to amp up the flavor a lot. You can buy toasted sesame oil in most grocery stores in the Asian section. It might not always say "toasted" but you can tell it is because of the dark brown color.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a great salad recipe to use the dressing on!

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creamy avocado dressing

I wanted to make some green goddess dressing but couldn't find the herbs that I needed... so I ended up with this instead. I couldn't be more happy with the result.

This delightfully creamy dressing packs a huge "fresh" flavor punch thanks to the avocado, parsley and lemon. I threw a little garlic in there just to give it some ground and it was absolutely perfect. I realized later that I had bought some green onions with the intention of adding them to the dressing but had forgotten all about them (I'm losing my mind). So, if you have some, try adding a few to the dressing. I bet it would be amazing.

If you have trouble getting yourself to eat vegetables, this will definitely solve the problem. I couldn't get enough crunchy vegetables dipped in this cool creamy dressing. It's fairly health too. The buttermilk is made from 2% milk so the fat content isn't super high. I used light sour cream and mayo and all of the fats in the avocado are very healthy. I gave myself free reign with this dressing and you should too.


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budget panzanella salad

Ahhh, panzanella salad. It's so good with all of its vinaigrette soaked chunks of bread, olives and cheese. But we all know that good olives and cheese are not cheap. So, I switched a few things up for this recipe to make it a little more budget friendly.

First, I used half a loaf of homemade focaccia instead of a store bought crusty atisan loaf. If you haven't already tried this super easy and delicious focaccia, you MUST. Second, I went light on the expensive ingredients, like olives and cheese. Sometimes just a little is enough to give the flavor that you need. Third, I substituted half of the olive oil in the vinaigrette for vegetable oil and lastly, I bulked up the salad with a bunch of shredded romaine lettuce.

Unfortunately, I did not capture just how "saucy" the salad is in the photos. As you eat and stir all of the juices begin to culminate on the bottom of the bowl where the crusty bread soaks up all of that glorious flavor... it's just fantastic.

You can keep this salad fresh and delicious all week by keeping the ingredients separate and combining them just before eating. More details below.


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basic balsamic vinaigrette

I usually don't make my own salad dressings because a) I'm kinda lazy and b) it's really hard to compete with a 16 oz. bottle of decent tasting dressing that retails for under $2.

The key to what makes that rationale so so very wrong is the phrase "decent tasting." Why was I trying to compare homemade dressing to the cheapest of the cheap? My homemade dressing may cost over $2 for 3/4 cup but it tastes so good that I literally had to stop myself from drinking it. Yes, I wanted to drink it. It would be more accurate to compare this dressing to that fancy schmancy stuff that they sell refrigerated in the produce aisle for $6-8 per bottle. There are no bulking agents, no super duper cheap oils, it's all REAL baby!

Plus, I really wanted to post this because making a vinaigrette is one of those basic skills that you need to learn on your journey to becoming a kitchen pro. Lesson numero uno: it's "vinaigrette" not "vinegar-ette." Okay, now we can move on.


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