Vegetable Cream Cheese

I had a bunch of leftover cream cheese after the baby shower... I decided to jazz it up a little bit for Sunday bagel brunch. Loosely based on this Ina Garten recipe, I beat the following veggies into 2 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese:

• about 1/4 cup of finely shredded carrot
• 4 tablespoons minced chives
• 1 large or 2 regular green onions, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced dill
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• a sprinkle of black pepper

So good... Amy said it tastes like it came from a NYC deli. I think that's a pretty good compliment!

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken and Spinach Salad with Strawberry Balsamic

I saw this recipe for pretzel-crusted chicken in the Washington Post's "All We Can Eat" blog this week and had to make it... it was so good! Super crunchy, slightly salty crust. Mmm. I made the sauce a little bit differently from the recipe, mostly because I was preoccupied while cooking, but it was still good- mayo, minced dill, a hint of honey and a hint of lemon juice.
Very loosely based on this recipe, we turned a little more of our abundant strawberry harvest into some sweet (but not overly so) strawberry salad dressing. Pureed strawberries with minced shallots, a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper... healthy and delicious on a salad with some tangy cheese (goat cheese or feta worked for us).

Horovatz in Mer Nation's Capital

As I said last week, Tim hosted a mini Peace Corps Armenia reunion this weekend in mer nation's capital (i.e. DC)... having practiced some Armenian-style cooking last week, we were pretty well prepared to host the metz kev (big party) for a horovatz (BBQ).

Still using "Simply Armenian" by Barbara Ghazarian as the basis for our meal, we repeated the beet salad and minted cucumber and yogurt soup, improved upon the lamehjun by cooking it on a pre-heated baking stone at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes so it crisped up evenly all around, and made a couple new dishes to make sure everybody got enough to eat: grilled lamb skewers and pilaf. Recipes after the jump!

Greek Style Meatballs, Homemade Pita, Lemon Dill Hummus, and Cucumber Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Since Chuck moved out, we've been doing alternating Sunday "family dinners" (a la The Jersey Shore). So far we've avoided chicken parm and sausage n' peppers, focusing on more interesting, yet equally comforting culinary endeavors. We also avoid Ron Ron Juice, leopard print, and fist pumping, mostly. Mostly.

A couple weeks ago, Tony made a great slow-cooker chicken curry. This week, I tackled a Greek/Middle Eastern meal: feta and dill meatballs, lemon dill hummus, homemade pita bread, and a cucumber yogurt sauce. All parts of the meal came out really awesome...Here's how I did it:

I used this feta meatball recipe from The Other Martha, but made it my own by substituting the oregano with a generous handful of fresh dill, some minced parsley and a sprinkling of lemon zest. Plus, since ground pork was conspicuously absent from 2 of my local grocery haunts, I ended up using half ground chuck (not to be confused with Chuck) and half ground turkey. Despite my liberal mutilation of the recipe, they came out pretty awesome. Dipped them in the sauce recommended by The Other Martha, to which I also threw in some fresh dill.

The hummus was basically my usual recipe, care of Ina Garten, with extra lemon juice and zest, as well as, you guessed it, more fresh dill.

I made the pita by thinly rolling out the extra dough from my whey bread, using this technique from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Soooo easy and soooo good. I loved watching the little pitas poof in the oven. Delicious!

Potato Salad and Burgers

A couple weeks ago, Chuck had a craving for potato salad, and I burgers. An excellent match. We turned to the most reliable of the Food Network chefs for recipes... Alton Brown's Burger of the Gods, which Tim made to rave reviews in the past, and Ina Garten's New Potato Salad. Delicious. Both were hits...

Potato salad can be tricky- it can go very, very wrong. Ina's recipe was very, very right, though. It had some tang from the buttermilk, good crunch from the celery and onion, a little class from the whole grain mustard and fresh dill.

Spanakopita and Greek Salad

I love me some spinach pie. And yet, until today, I'd never made it. This recipe from Closet Cooking (whose recipes I always end up clicking on on Tastespotting and Foodgawker), was simple, easy and delicious. Plus it used up many of the veggies I bought from Star Hollow Farm last week: spinach, dill, green onion, parsley.If you wanted to make some self-contained empanada-sized spanakopita, or even little appetizer sized spanakopita, I think you could easily modify the recipe- just cut the phyllo into long strips and roll tablespoons of filling up.

Served with a Greek salad with this easy red wine vinaigrette.

To Die For: Beef Stroganoff

Omg. This beef stroganoff recipe is to die for... buttery, mushroomy, meaty.

The recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of sirloin, which is pretty pricey, but totally worth it. Be sure not to overcook the beef!! The only change Chuck made to the recipe was to substitute sour cream for the creme fraiche or whipping cream the recipe called for.

Deja Vu: Risotto with Shrimp, Asparagus, Feta and Dill

So... remember last year when I raved about this risotto dish with asparagus, shrimp, feta and dill? Yeah, well, I'm raving again. It's still good. I still suggest you run to your local farmers market, pick up some asparagus, and make this dish.

Greek Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

A coworker sent me a link to this recipe from Cooking Light... she picked a winner!

I know I've made a plethora of asparagus recipes recently, at least one a week for the last month, but I think about it like this: I eat asparagus once a week for approximately one month out of the year when it's in season, but then I don't get to eat it again for a year! So I am enjoying it and trying to keep it interesting by trying new recipes each time. Randy from Star Hollow Farm has already warned me that this coming Saturday is the last time I'm getting asparagus in my CSA box this year.

I had the dill left over from Amy and Tim's Peace Corps reunion "horovatz" (BBQ).

So, back to the recipe: I halved the recipe since Chuck and Tim were eating elsewhere (and because I only had half of the 1 pound bag of shrimp in the freezer), but the halving wasn't exact. I messed with the ratios a little bit.

I did half the rice, stock, water, onion, garlic and shrimp, but added approximately the full amount of asparagus, dill, lemon juice and cheese. Good idea. The extra asparagus was a bonus as far as texture and color goes, the extra flavor from the dill and lemon was key and the additional cheese added to the creaminess, as it basically melted when I stirred it in the rice.

As Jennifer is known to say: "It was really yummy!"

Tomato Parsnip Soup

Googled the ingredients and came up with this "wicked" recipe. Made with canned tomatoes, parsnips from the CSA and sprinkled with dill from the Aerogarden!

Served with tuna melts and green salads.

Salmon Eggs Benedict with Blender Hollandaise Sauce

A "cleanin' out the overcrowded fridge" breakfast made with smoked salmon leftover from a birthday party Jennifer went to last weekend, english muffins we always have hanging around, eggs, dill from the Aerogarden and an easy hollandaise sauce made in the blender.

The blender hollandaise is from a recipe I found in the Washington Post food section several years ago. As far as hollandaise goes, it's very lemony, but pretty easy, relatively speaking- less stirring and watching to make sure it doesn't break. The lemon flavor went especially well with the salmon and dill.

Blender Hollandaise Sauce

Makes 1 cup

Make sure the egg yolks, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce are at room temperature; otherwise, the sauce could turn out too thin. If it is too thick, add warm water by droplets with the blender on low.
Adapted from "The Blender Cookbook" by Ann Seranne (Doubleday, 1961).

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 egg yolks, room temp
2 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the butter for about 2 minutes, until it is bubbling (do not let the butter brown).

Place the remaining ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed to mix well.

With machine running, pour the hot melted butter into the yolk mixture in a slow, steady stream through the hole in the blender lid.

When all the butter has been incorporated, the sauce is done. It should have the consistency of a creamy salad dressing. Serve immediately.