Hot Spinach Dip

Yummy yummy yummy...

3 packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp garlic powder
Cayenne pepper, a little or a lot!
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper (optional)
2 to 4 green onions, finely chopped
1 package frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

• Beat cream cheese with a mixer (before adding sour cream to prevent lumps).
• Add sour cream, garlic powder and cayenne pepper and continue beating until smooth.
• Add Parmesan cheese, red pepper, green onions, spinach and 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese.
• Spread into a greased oven-proof dish and sprinkle 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese over top.
• Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 20 to 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly, turning a little brown around the edges.

Notes: 
You can use fresh spinach if you throw the bag in the freezer. Squeeze the frozen spinach before opening the bag and you've just created frozen chopped spinach!

You can freeze this before baking. Just remember if you use plastic wrap underneath aluminum foil, remove it before baking. True story...

Lemon Squares

2 cups flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup margarine
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

• Mix together flour and icing sugar. Cut in margarine.
• Press into a 9"x16" pan lined with parchment paper. Don't skip this. I promise you will have regrets.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
• Mix together remaining ingredients and pour over crust. Continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the top is starting to turn a light golden brown.
• Cool before slicing to prevent the filling from running everywhere you don't want it to go.
• Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. If you do this too far in advance, the icing sugar may just melt and disappear altogether.

Banana Bread

The most important ingredient in banana bread is bananas. If they're not turning black, don't use 'em!

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 very large or 4 medium sized bananas, mashed
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips (optional)

• Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs.
• Stir in mashed bananas.
• Add dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed. Don't over-mix! Expect the batter to be lumpy. If you over-mix any batter that uses baking powder, i.e. pancakes, muffins, loaves you end up with a finished product that is tough, dry and not worth the calories.
• Spread into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour, 15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Brownies

Not to be confused with blond brownies, which is a ridiculous concept. "Hey, did you see my friend's new hair colour? It's called blond brunette." Therefore, let it be known that brownies, in my world, are brown, the colour of chocolate. For the record, white chocolate contains no chocolate. In case you were wondering. So without further ado, I bring the recipe that has been changed over the years several times. (Apparently our taste buds change as we age.) It has met the approval of friends in three countries. (Not that I'm bragging.)

1 1/2 cups margarine

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cocoa

4 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups white flour

1. Melt margarine and sugar in a microwave or on the stove. Remove from heat source. Did you know that the shiny tops on the brownies come from having the sugar completely melted? If you don't melt the sugar granules, the tops of your brownies will be dull. Then it's just soggy cake.
2. Stir in cocoa. If it's not cooperating, use a whisk. Lumps of cocoa are not fun to eat.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. If the mixture is too hot, you will have to let it cool for a bit or you'll cook some the egg white. Chunks of cooked egg whites are not our friends.
4. Stir in the flour until just mixed. 
5. Pour into a 9"x13" pan that has been lined with parchment paper. (You'll thank me later.)
6. Bake at 350° until it's done, anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes. If the contents of the pan jiggles, it's not done. If a toothpick comes out clean, you've gone too far. There will be some batter on a toothpick but the toothpick will not be completely coated. Hope that helps. Overcooking is the easiest way to mess up a great brownie recipe.
7. If you can, let the brownies cool before cutting them. I guess if you're eating them all yourself in the privacy of your own home, it won't matter what they look like. If you are letting other people see them, let them cool completely. Just trying to save you some embarrassment.

Stuffed Mushrooms

8 oz (250g) cream cheese
4 thin slices prosciutto (sub shrimp or bacon or omit for meatless)
1/2 cup green onion or chives, chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1-2 tsp Creole seasoning (no added salt)
48 button mushroom caps
Garlic butter (margarine)

1. Whip cream cheese.
2. Stir in prosciutto, green onion, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Creole seasoning.
3. Stuff mushroom caps.
4. Drizzle garlic butter over the top.
5. Broil until golden brown.

Yogurt

Warning: Once you make your own yogurt you will never be able to go back to commercially prepared yogurt. Contrary to popular belief, homemade yogurt is simple. If you can boil milk, you can make yogurt. This recipe makes 2 litres of yogurt. Yogurt will keep for at least 3 weeks. You can make half the recipe.





Preliminary Yogurt-Making Tutorial 

• You can use any kind of fresh milk from skim to 3%. (I use 1%)
• Gelatin? Are you kidding me? It is optional, but the yogurt will be runny with lots of whey sitting on the top. Worse ingredients go into store-bought yogurt, trust me! Besides, gelatin is good for your hair and nails.
• Never, never, NEVER add the yogurt starter to hot milk. You will kill all the bacteria in the starter and the end product will be a large batch of warm milk. (I speak from experience on this one.)
• Yogurt starter - you can buy this at a health food store but I just found it at Superstore in the refrigerated organic food section. Alternatively you can use a small container of store-bought plain yogurt. I've used both. I like the powdered starter better. The results are more consistent as you have no control over how the commercial yogurt has been stored previously to purchasing, hence no guarantee of how many bacteria are still living. You can also save about a 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt to use for a starter on the next batch. If you choose this route, eventually you'll have to stop. It's like making a copy of a copy - it won't last forever.
• Growing the yogurt - you need a warm environment. There are several ways you can accomplish this. If your oven door seals properly, you can pour the yogurt in a glass baking dish (or two) with lids and let it sit in the oven for 8 hours with the oven light on. I purchased a yogurt maker. I'm very happy with it. It makes yogurt in 4 to 4 1/2 hours. I have a friend who wraps her yogurt in an electric blanket. Interesting.

Ingredients

2 L milk
1 1/2 cups skim milk powder
1 package unflavoured gelatin
2 packages yogurt starter


Instructions

1. Pour milk into a pot. Whisk in skim milk powder.
2. Dissolve gelatin in a little bit of milk and add it to the pot.
3. Heat the milk until it just starts to boil. You will have to stir it constantly or it will burn on the bottom. If you have a low quality pot, it might burn despite the constant stirring. You can avoid this by using a double boiler or visiting my mom. She has a good pot and a gas stove top. My milk doesn't burn at her place!
4. Place the pot of boiled milk in a sink of cold water to cool it to 42-44 degrees. This will take about 10 minutes.
5. Dissolve yogurt starter in about 1/2 cup of the cooled milk and then stir it back into the rest of the milk.
6. Pour it into the yogurt maker, glass dishes or ...the electric blanket. I'm assuming it goes into a dish before going into the blanket. Let it incubate as described above.
7. To serve, it can be sweetened with Splenda, honey or flavoured syrup. Regular sugar won't dissolve properly. You can add vanilla, fresh or frozen berries, jam, granola, etc. Be creative. You can use it unsweetened in recipes that call for sour cream or plain yogurt.

Yogurt starter - available at health food stores and some grocery stores in the refrigerated organic food section 

This is my yogurt maker. I purchased it from greenhealthcanada.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe has oatmeal and whole wheat flour. Healthy stuff. I promise!

Ingredients
1 cup margarine or butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups large flake oatmeal (not 'instant' or 'quick oats')
1 cup chocolate chips (feel free to be liberal - I never measure)
1 cup pecans (optional but very yummy, coming from someone who doesn't like nuts in baking)

1. Cream margarine and sugars. You can cut back on the sugar if you want to. I never pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup. Keep it loose!
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Add remaining ingredients.
4. Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should look underdone. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about a minute or they'll fall apart when you lift them off the pan. They should stay chewy when cooled. If not, you baked them too long.