Rather than do Taste Test Thursday this week and feature just one food bloggers recipe, we thought it would be fun to do a recipe round up of all the delicious appetizers from across the blog-o-sphere.

So without further ado, let the munching begin. Have a fun Super Bowl Sunday!

Zucchini Fries from The Keenan Cookbook

Queso Dip from Two Peas & Their Pod

Victory Ale Pretzel Bites from Miss In The Kitchen

Roasted Garlic, Caramelized Leek & Bacon Bites from I Was Born To Cook

BBQ Chicken Bites from Eat Yourself Skinny

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs from The Meltaways

Avocado and Tomato Dip from The Keenan Cookbook

Pizza Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers from Budget Gourmet Mom

Baked Hot Wings from Make Dinner Easy

Submarine Hero Hoagie Dip from The Keenan Cookbook

Guacamole Bruschetta from Two Peas & Their Pod

Edamame (Soy Bean) Dip with Smoked Paprika & Garlic from Cookin’ Canuck

Smokey Chicken Dip from Smoked N Grilled

Soft Pretzel Bites from Baked By Rachel

Spinach and Cheese Dip from The Keenan Cookbook

Cheese and Giardiniera Beer Bread from Cookistry

Buffalo Chicken Wontons from Baked By Rachel

Baked Jalapeno Poppers from RecipeGirl

Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms from Lauren’s Latest

Crostini with Balsamic Caramelized Onions, Melted Cheese & Sage from Cookin’ Canuck

Spinach Pizza Bite from Not Rachael Ray

Chicken, Salsa, & Cheese Flautas with Avocado Cream Sauce from Fearless Homemaker

Buffalo Chicken Dip from The Keenan Cookbook

Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Hummus With Sweet Potato from The Lean Green Bean

Hot and Cheesy Black-Eyed Pea Dip from Aggie’s Kitchen

Chili’s Salsa from Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts

Black Bean Dip from Cooking For My Kids

Coffee-Smoked Southwestern Chicken from Teeny Tiny Kitchen

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Go Giants!

The Super Bowl is just a few days away.

It’s kind of a big deal around here since the NY Giants are playing . I should clarify what I mean by “a big deal around here” – I mean in NJ, not my house. I like the Super Bowl for the clever advertising (guess that’s why I’m a marketer) but could care less about the actual game. It just never did it for me.

But you know what does do it for me? The party food. This spinach and cheese dip.

This spinach and cheese dip recipe comes from the archives of the actual Keenan Cookbook. It’s labeled as “Mike’s Favorite Dip” – “Mike” being my Dad.

I don’t know where it originates from, but our family has been making it for years as a special party treat, including for the Super Bowl.

The recipe itself is fairly straight forward. I actually modified it from the original to use light cream cheese and skim milk instead of regular cream cheese and heavy cream. Granted, there is not much you can do to lighten up cheese dip, but every little bit helps right? And it completely passed the taste test as my Dad dug in and raved at how great it was.

Enjoy this dip on crackers, potato chips, pita chips (our favorite) or even chicken (as per Dad).

Oh, and because no Super Bowl party can rely on just one dip or snack, be sure to check back on Thursday when I’ll be doing an appetizer recipe round up. I’ll be featuring mouth watering recipes from fellow food bloggers in an effort to break any “healthy eating” New Years Resolutions you may still be futilely clinging to.

Food bloggers – please email me or leave a comment with your recipe for inclussion in the recipe round up!

Triple. Chocolate. Muffins.

For breakfast.

In any other form you might call it dessert, but muffins? Totally breakfast. And totally chocolatey. I love it. And you know you love it too.

Over the weekend it snowed. It was too cold out so Rachel, Baby Boy, and I stayed holed up in our warm little kitchen cooking, baking, and playing all day. I made a delicious wild rice soup for lunch, but before that I baked these muffins for dessert breakfast.

Occasionally I’ll pick up double chocolate muffins from Costco or our local grocery story. Since I didn’t want to run out in the snow, I decided to Google for a chocolate muffin recipe that struck my fancy. I came across a new food blogger, Michelle from Brown Eyed Baker (which I initially read as Browny Eyed Baker – bonus points for that), who had these unbelievable looking muffins.

Michelle’s website has tons of recipes (just take a look at her extensive recipe archive!) – word of caution, don’t browse on an empty stomach because the site is chock full of mouth watering photos. In fact, it’s those photos that sealed the deal on me making these chocolate muffins. When I saw them I knew I had to make them. So I did.

Michelle’s already amazing muffins are double chocolate, calling for dutch cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate. But I wanted semisweet chocolate as well, like what I find in the ones I buy from the store, so I added some; behold, triple chocolate!

Ok. So maybe these triple chocolate chip muffins are borderline dessert. But I won’t say anything if you won’t.

Recipe slightly adapted from: Brown Eyed Baker

We received our first snowfall of 2012 here in NJ over the weekend. It was just a couple inches, nothing too bad. Of course my standards are different this year after last years freak January when it snowed every.single.week.

So with it snowing and chilly outside, it seemed like a perfect weekend to crack open our cookbooks and make something to warm our kitchen and our bellies. Rachel and I both agreed this Wild Rice Soup was a great dish to start with.

We’ve kind of neglected our physical cookbooks, favoring instead online recipes. Personally, I blame fellow food bloggers for posting so many delicious recipes I can’t help but make them – you know who you are!

Anyway, this recipe came out of rice themed cookbook Rachel gave me a few years ago. It has tons of delicious recipes, but since it got pushed to the back of the shelf it kind of went unnoticed- until this weekend when we dusted it off. Needless to say after this delicious soup recipe we got from it, the cookbook is now at the front of the shelf.

This wild rice soup is perfect for the snowy, wintry weather. First, it’s super simple to make. So if you have to shovel out from under the snow, are playing with the kids or pup in the yard, or just aren’t interested in working too hard in the kitchen, this recipe is for you. But don’t let its ease dissuade you, this soup is savory, creamy, and satisfying.

We made a few minor alterations to help lighten it up (like not adding oil to the cooking bacon – seriously?) and using a wild rice/long grain rice mix (because it was much cheaper than straight up wild rice – hey, I’m unemployed remember?).

The result is a filling soup “perfect for company” or for a chilly winter day.

So what did Baby Boy think of the first snowfall he got to go out and frolic in? (his first was they day he was born, but he was in no condition to play in it)

Well, he was unsure. He must have thought, “What is this stuff? It’s too bright out here. It’s cold. I can’t walk around. I can’t eat or lick it. Why the heck did you people bring me out here anyway?” So while he was content to hang out in my arms for a few minutes, looking around at the white stuff puzzled, he didn’t want anything to do with the snow itself.

That’s ok. He’s only 10 months old after all (Happy Birthday by the way!). Maybe next time right?

P.S. – We’ll be dropping Wednesday publication, posting just Tuesday and Thursday, for a while until unemployment, new job *crosses fingers*, and everything else settles down. Thanks for understanding

Recipe adapted from: The Essential Rice Cookbook

What did you cook this weekend?

It was bitter cold in NJ this past weekend, to the point your breath would literally be taken away when you stepped outside. So we didn’t. We stayed inside, holed up in our little house, cooking and playing with Baby Boy – his new thing, besides wanting to walk everywhere holding your hands, is giving “kisses”. His version of kisses are the big, open mouth, slobber on your cheek type (I think he learned that from the dog).

Not having much in the fridge, but not feeling like going to the grocery store, I took inventory of our supplies. I had eggs, plenty of cheese, and a couple of vegetables. I guess I could have made omelets, but I wasn’t feeling them, I wanted to try something different. So I hit up my foodie friends’ blogs in search of inspiration, and quickly settled on these tasty Crustless Quiches from Melissa’s blog, I Was Born To Cook.

On Saturday I made mini bacon egg and cheese quiches with tomato and spinach for lunch (pictured in this post). They were so good I made them again Sunday, adding some red and green peppers to mine, and mushrooms to Rachel’s.

Whether your holed up inside like us, trying to escape the cold, or are just looking for a tasty breakfast idea, give this quiche recipe a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Now I’m going to go off on an aside for a moment to my fellow food bloggers. See, Melissa lives in NJ too. Though a fellow food blogger and located not too far from us, we haven’t yet met in person. There are a bunch of other food bloggers in the tristate (NY/NJ/CT) area too. But outside of the occasional busy blog conference that not everyone can attend, I don’t think there are many chances for us to meet, network, discuss our blogs, and most importantly, eat!

So I’ve decided to spearhead a little Foodie gathering. If you’re a Food Blogger in Tri-State area, please hop over to our Tri-State Food Blogger Picnic page for details. We’d love to meet you!

PS – Melissa, we’ll see you at the picnic

Recipe adapted from: I Was Born To Cook

I’ve been meaning to share this recipe for a couple months now. I’m pleased to finally be able to do so.

It’s not for lack of trying. Honestly. It’s just that… Well, we were hungry!

Every time I made sourdough pizza with the intention of getting it photographed, we caved in and said “Oh we’ll just photograph it next time” as we sliced the pie up and dug in. Of course, the next time we would say the same thing.

But hey, here we are, and not only are we finally sharing the recipe but a fun giveaway too! First, let’s talk about this long overdue pizza.

I’ve been baking pizza for years and years. It was always a special treat when Mom would break out the pizza dough and let us kids add the toppings ourselves. Being a parent now I can understand why we didn’t do this all the time- what a mess we must have made! Heck, I’m an adult now and I still make a mess making pizza. But I love it. It’s so fun – and tasty. I’m really looking forward to making pizza with Baby Boy.

Living in Northern NJ, of course we have amazing pizzerias here. I think NYC is the only place with better pizza than NJ (sorry Chicago). And I’m not saying I’m some kind of pizza guru, but I will say this – we eat pizza often, but we order it rarely. Homemade is just that good that once you get the hang of it. You don’t want to order out.

Let me just say this – I like making pizza so much I figured out how to do it when I lived in Japan. I didn’t have a real oven, just a toaster oven. Stores didn’t sell yeast or olive oil (at least nothing comparable). Tomato sauce? Let’s just say theirs was the equivalent of ketchup water. Oh, and forget about mozzarella cheese. It wasn’t happening. Thank God for Costco being in Japan (well worth the 2 hour trip).

So let’s talk about this specific Sourdough Pizza recipe. Prior to owning a sourdough starter, I would alternate between Tyler Florence’s pizza dough and Alton Brown’s pizza dough. Tyler’s is great for a thin, crunchy crust and is better for cooking on short notice. Alton’s recipe is a bit chewier, tastes even more amazing if you let it rest in the fridge over night, and is still my go to dough for stromboli making.

But after getting a sourdough starter, we now exclusively make sourdough pizza. The flavor and texture of the crust just can’t compare – and that’s saying a lot holding up to Alton and Tyler.

If you have a sourdough starter, this recipe is especially great because it uses up your cup of unfed sourdough starter you need to discard before feeding and baking with your dough. So rather than let that starter go to waste, make yourself a tasty sourdough pizza.

If you don’t have sourdough starter (but you really should! ) I’d recommend you try out Tyler Florence’s pizza dough or Alton Brown’s pizza dough.

Giveaway: Shenzhen 6″ Ceramic Chef’s Knife

Muffins!

I don’t care what you say, muffins are absolutely an acceptable breakfast. And these banana crumb muffins? Oh boy… What a great way to start the day. Brew up a hot cup of tea, give me one of these muffins, and I’m a happy camper – unless it’s Monday. In which case I’ll need two cups of tea.

I get inspired to do my baking on weekend mornings. We’re up pretty early with Baby Boy, so while I feed him his breakfast I start to think about what I want to bake. Sometimes that inspiration comes from surprising places, like his baby food (really), other times it’s a matter of what we have on hand that I need to use up, like a few brown bananas.

I whipped these banana crumb muffins up during Baby Boy’s Saturday nap, and they were out and photographed before he was awake – I love easy recipes like that.

Don’t listen to Rachel the naysayers. Muffins can be, and indeed are, an acceptable form of breakfast. So the next time you have a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning coming up, grab yourself some overripe bananas, make these muffins, and enjoy with a big steaming cup of tea and your newspaper.

Recipe from: All Recipes

What inspires you to bake?

I try not to be a snacker.

I eat my three meals a day, with a granola bar mid-morning and a cup of tea with one small piece of chocolate in the afternoon; I usually don’t even eat dessert after dinner*.

Disclaimer – I don’t eat dessert that late because I don’t keep any in the house after I make it. Otherwise I will eat it!

But on weekends, I tend to fall off the no snack wagon. I guess it’s because we are hanging out more at home, and thus in the kitchen, or visiting family and friends who put out snacks.

Our preferred snack is something salty crunchy, usually it’s something like homemade guacamole with Tostitos. Yum!

The other weekend we were looking to satisfy our salty crunchy fix, but we wanted to try something different, something a bit healthier to munch on. We looked through our foodie friend Lindsay’s blog, The Lean Green Bean. She has a bunch of healthy and light recipes which look tasty (you should check them out!), but we decided to try these Roasted Chick Peas.

Verdict? Oh man…

Salty? Check.

Crunchy? Check.

Healthy? Yes!

Let the guilt free munching ensue!

The recipe is very straight forward. In fact, you can change the recipe itself to reflect whatever spices and flavors you like. The key is to roast your chick peas long enough so that they have that satisfying crunch when you chomp down on them.

If you are looking to satisfy your salty crunchy craving, you really can’t go wrong with some roasted chick peas. They are loaded with protein and fiber, and have minimal fat and calories.

Recipe from: The Lean Green Bean

Pasta is a great go-to meal but, for me, it quickly gets boring when you are just serving it with marinara sauce. So to keep pasta night exciting we like to change things up now and then with this tasty, and simple, Tomato Cream* Sauce.

I say Cream* because while the original recipe called for heavy cream, we found using skim milk and thickening with some flour to result in a lighter, but just as “creamy”, sauce. We also use plain old sun dried tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes packed in oil. My philosophy is, cut calories where you can (without sacrificing flavor) so you can pack them on with dessert!

I’m sure with a philosophy like that I’ll make it far!

On a side note…

This side note is here because I am in love with these pictures Rachel took and I don’t want to eliminate one just so I don’t have to type more. So this side note is a complete break from the structure and flow of the previous two paragraphs, but I hope you don’t mind the stream of consciousness now coming.

Being unemployed is a lot of work. I’m beat. Besides dealing with all that paperwork the state has you fill out and job hunting, I’ve been ramping up my freelance work, feeling out if I can make it a full fledged business. I sat in my chair in front of the computer for the better part of the day.

But I’m not complaining. Both because I feel fortunate I can feel so busy and optimistic being unemployed, as I know many are not. I’m also not complaining because I am loving my time with Baby Boy (Rachel too!).

Baby Boy was feeling a little under the weather today, runny nose and all that. When he saw me after his midday nap he just wanted to be held by me and snuggle in the crook of my neck. I couldn’t resist him. I just held him and slowly walked around the house while he chilled, resting his head on my shoulder. Love.

I think going back to work is going to be very hard after all this family time.

Recipe adapted from: William Sonoma Pasta Cookbook

Occasionally I’m asked what inspires me to cook or to bake.

Usually, it’s just because I’m hungry.

Occasionally, it’s because I’m feeling creative or experimental.

And other times, it’s because I want to eat my son’s baby food.

…

Wait, what?

A weekend or two ago I was feeding Baby Boy his breakfast. Cinnamon Raisin Granola. Man, I thought, as I scooped another spoonful from the jar and fed it to my eager Boy, this stuff smells good!

He finished up his breakfast, and when I got to my cereal – or waffle or whatever it was – it just didn’t satisfy. I wanted something with cinnamon and raisin. I wanted cinnamon raisin bread. And so once again I put on my bread baking hat and got to it; and behold the results!

Cinnamon raisin bread is actually pretty easy to make. It’s a somewhat time consuming process simply because of the two risings you have to allow, so don’t expect to be making and eating this for breakfast same day – which I did.

But don’t let the time scare you. The actual hands-on work is really pretty simple and straightforward. Honestly, the hardest part of this recipe is not drooling while the delicious cinnamon sugar bread aroma wafts through your kitchen and into the rest of your house.

This cinnamon raisin bread is great hot out of the oven, or a day or two later toasted with some butter. If you’re into french toast (we aren’t really) I bet this would be great to use.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

*We recommend doubling raisins. We didn’t at first because someone doesn’t completely like raisins, but afterwards someone said it would have been better to double. Love you someone