Black Bean Raspberry Dip

I grew up close to Manhattan, Kansas (The Little Apple!). Tucked away in Aggieville is this unassuming restaurant called So Long Saloon and they make this killer black bean dip. It has a layer of spicy raspberry preserves and a layer of savory cream cheese. I've been thinking about this dip for many years (I haven't lived there since 2007, to give you an idea). A few months ago, I figured I'd search online to see if anyone else had experienced this magic appetizer and, to my surprise, one of my favorite food bloggers has, and wrote a recipe up for it. My recipe below is an adaption of hers (the main difference is that I've written out how I create the raspberry layer, because I couldn't find the store-bought version she uses). I also apparently didn't take any photos of my process (which is very unlike me), so I guess I have an excuse to make this again (& then update this post). I hope you enjoy this dip as much as I have!

Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole

The key to a good Thanksgiving dish is to take a healthy food and cover it in cheese/butter/gravy (I am only half-kidding). This year, I took steamed cauliflower and doused it in cheese. This recipe makes one large casserole dish (which is enough for your entire party to get an initial and a second serving), and has been adapted from Real Housemoms.

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

Enchiladas are great for entertaining a few folks or for making on a Sunday and wrapping up a few for your lunch over the week. The best thing about this recipe is that you can toss in any extra vegetables or proteins that you have lying around. This recipe makes at least 12 enchiladas.

Thanksgiving Quiche

Need something to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers other than sandwiches or Thanksgiving pizza? Grab some of those veggies, potatoes, and stuffing to make a delicious and filling Thanksgiving quiche. This recipe makes one quiche.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
One (1) 9" frozen pie crust -- you can also use homemade pie crust, especially if you have some left over from the holiday.
Four (4) large eggs, scrambled
One & a half (1 1/2) cups of chopped veggies -- I used mushroom, potato slices, onion, and green beans. I'm thinking corn, peas, or any other veggies you might have left over would be a great addition.
One (1) cup of cheese , shredded-- I used sharp cheddar cheese. You can use as many types of cheese as you'd like.
1/2 cup of stuffing
Small handful of Craisins
Two (2) cloves of minced garlic
One (1) tablespoon of butter
Salt & pepper to season 

Directions
Preheat your oven to 425F degrees.
Saute your veggies in butter and garlic until mostly soft.

Place these veggies at the bottom of the pie crust and cover with cheese.
Pour scrambled eggs on top of veggies, until it almost reaches the top of the pie crust, but not quite.

Cover eggs with stuffing and top with Craisins.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until completely cooked through (this may vary based on oven).

Remove from oven and enjoy while it is still warm.

Baked Brie Topped with Raspberry, Almond & Honey

Baked Brie is such a delicious appetizer with little prep time and a big pay-out. I love that Brie tastes just as good if you make it sweet or savory. This recipe is a great appetizer if you are serving anywhere from 5-10 people. Be sure to serve it with a baguette or crackers. Enjoy!

Pizza Quiche

This is definitely one of the weirdest recipes I've put together. In fact, I didn't even know if it would work or would taste good at all until it came out of the oven. This weekend, my friend had a pizza party/competition at his house and I brought a cauliflower crust pizza and this concoction. Surprisingly - or at least to me - the pizza quiche tasted good and even won runner-up in the vegetarian category! So, if you're feeling daring or just dying to make a weird pizza, check it out and enjoy.

One-Pot Chili Mac

This comfort food is especially comforting when you're just tossing things together from your pantry. I have a few different chili recipes up on this blog already, so feel free to make this with one of them or with your own special chili recipe. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes

It's Thanksgiving time again, which means wanting to make all the food, but really not having enough time to do so. If you remember, last year I made cheddar and cranberry cream cheese biscuits and a leftover Thanksgiving pizza. This year, I'll be making my (in)famous hash brown casserole, a holiday couscous salad, homemade stuffing, and these incredibly decadent slow cooker scalloped potatoes. I adapted this recipe from An Oregon Cottage and it makes an entire 4-quart crockpot full of cheesy potatoey goodness. Enjoy!

Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna

Lasagna is a huge comfort food for me. This was a great way for me to get rid of some extra produce in my fridge while at the same time filling my belly with delicious pasta. This recipe is based off one from smitten kitchen (whom I love!) and will make one 9x13" pan.

Cucumber Sandwiches

I recently made these cucumber finger sandwiches for a friend's baby shower (hence the duck-shaped bread). This recipe is so simple that I'm not sure I even need to write it out, but they were such a hit that I wanted to share the love. These sandwiches are a great meatless addition to a party spread or even as an everyday lunch. This recipe makes about 12-20 sandwiches, depending on how you slice them.

Apple & Honey Grilled Cheese

L'Shana Tova! It is officially Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and it is traditional to eat apples and honey in celebration, so your new year is sweet. I decided to do something a bit different this year and made mini apple & honey grilled cheese sandwiches. This recipe makes four mini sandwiches (serves two people).

Baked Spaghetti Squash

I've made a couple spaghetti squash recipes before and, when I was given a fresh garden squash from a good friend this week, I almost made one of the ol' faithful recipes. I'm glad I decided to go rogue and try something new. This recipe was delicious, portioned, and easy to make. Oh, and spaghetti squash is much healthier to eat than spaghetti noodles! I got the idea for this recipe from a food blog called Cooking with my Kid; the only differences are that my recipe is meatless and I cooked it on my own (no kids here!). My recipe makes two servings.

Me vs Myself: A Mac & Cheese Competition

My awesome friend hosted a get-together at her house this weekend, where she hosted a rib competition and a mac & cheese competition. It was going to be my partner & me competing against each other for the mac & cheese competition, but I ended up making both of our recipes for the competition, so it was literally a win-win for me. I made two delectable recipes: a truffle cheddar mac and a beer & gruyere mac (yes, I did choose the ingredients based on the fact that they rhymed). The beer & gruyere won the competition, but I'll let you choose what you think is the tastiest! I hope you enjoy.

Leftovers Club: Gouda, Parsley & Sun-Dried Tomato Muffins

I was a bad blogger this month because I didn't post my Leftovers Club post in time. I did still make a delicious recipe and will still send it to my Leftovers partner (remember Ruthy from Omeletta? We were paired again!). These muffins are super-savory and best when they are warm with some butter. I got this recipe from Taste for Adventure, and it makes 12 muffins.

Spinach, Mushroom & Cheese Crepes

I can't believe that I have been writing this blog for a year-and-a-half and have never blogged about crepes. First off, I LOVE CREPES. Like, I probably have an unnatural obsession with them. There was a time when I first moved into my own apartment that I ate Nutella crepes every morning. Coincidentally, I gained a lot of weight then, too. But that brings me to my second point: I've been making crepes long before I really knew how to cook much else. I guess it's because it's a pretty easy recipe and most (if not all) of the ingredients are things that people just happen to have in their cupboard at any given time. It's important to note that I am not a "fancy" crepe maker. I don't own a griddle or one of those crepe-smoother-outter things (which are apparently called 'batter trowels'), but don't worry -- they will turn out tasty with or without the extra equipment. This recipe makes one thicker crepe (which is what I made for myself) or two thin crepes.

Spinach, Scapes & 'Shroom Pizza on a Cauliflower Crust

The past two weeks I've received the following items in my CSA share: zucchini, cucumbers, spinach, arugula, garlic scapes, cauliflower, and radishes. I feel like I've been making pizza a lot lately, but they are a great way to showcase all of the new produce I've been getting! This pizza incorporates three of this week's items, pretty well, if I do say so myself. The pizza's base is a cauliflower crust (the first time I blogged about it was for a Kale & Pistachio Pizza). I hope you enjoy! This recipe makes a pizza the size of a 9" x 13" pan.

Garlic Scapes, Shiitake Mushroom & Goat Cheese Pizza

I have so many exciting things to share with you! First & foremost, I am now a shiitake mushroom farmer. My partner & I bought a mushroom-growing kit and last week, we harvested our first batch (about thirty mushrooms!). Keep an eye out because I am going to dedicate an entire post to this exciting venture. Second, my CSA with One Straw Farm began last weekend! Each Saturday, we meet them at one of the farmers' markets and pick our four produce items for the week. Not only that, but we have resolved to make a new recipe each week with something that we picked up. This week, we got strawberries, broccoli, radishes, and garlic scapes. In case you weren't already aware, GARLIC SCAPES ARE MAGIC. The pizza below incorporates the incredible garlic scape and our homemade mushrooms. I can't take any credit for this recipe; my partner whipped up this entire pizza. Trust me -- if you can get your hands on some scapes, be sure to make this!

Guest Post: Old Bay Cheese Crackers

This weekend, I want to welcome a good friend, Martine, as my guest blogger. She's an amazing (!) cook & is always trying something new in her kitchen. In fact, be sure to go check out her awesome vegetarian food blog. I am thrilled that she offered to guest blog for me (and keep an eye out because I'll be guest blogging something for her this month too!).
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Despite being born and raised in Maryland, I've never eaten crab. What can I say? I was a bit of a picky kid, and then I became a vegetarian fairly early in life. And you know, when I hear people gushing about crab season, I think I'm probably better off not knowing what I'm missing. As a way to cope, I've convinced myself that what everyone's actually excited about is just using the crabs as a vessel to consume hypertension-inducing quantities of Old Bay.

Like any Marylander, I'll pour Old Bay over my french fries and popcorn. I'll put it on anything involving eggs. I'll dump it in a bloody mary, and I even used it to infuse vodka for holiday gifts last year. I brought a can with me when I studied abroad in college because I couldn't bear the thought of five months without it.

And yet, non-Marylanders just don't seem to have the same fervor for my spice blend of choice. My main squeeze Andrew, who is from Ohio, claims that his mother has had the same dusty can in her kitchen cabinet for "probably like twenty years." How does that happen?

Old Bay and sharp cheddar is one of my favorite combinations, so it only made sense to add it to a zippy cheese cracker. I like to use the 30% less sodium version, but the regular will work -- you just will want to start at 1/2 a teaspoon and give your dough a taste test before adding more, because the cheese is very salty as well. This recipe is adapted from smitten kitchen's cheese straws.

Baked Mozzarella Sticks

This recipe for baked mozzarella sticks is the best because baking is less messy than frying & makes eating cheese sticks (a little) more healthy. This recipe came from Skinny Taste and honestly, I was worried because there are lots of fail photos from people trying to recreate this recipe (the key is to make sure that they are frozen when you cook them). So, just follow the directions below & you'll be enjoying delicious mozzarella sticks in no time!

Food Bloggers Against Hunger: Cheesy Avocado Grits

There are millions of Americans that can only afford $3-4 per day to eat, and 1 in 4 kids in America don't know where their next meal will come from. For those of us with sufficient food on the table (and sometimes too much), this can be startling. Because of these financial restrictions, the food that is eaten is usually not enough, or is nutritionally barren. In response to the hunger epidemic in America and the new documentary, A Place at the Table, The Giving Table began a movement called Food Bloggers Against Hunger.

In doing what I can as a food blogger, I am helping to bring visibility to this issue of hunger and malnutrition in America, as well as provide a recipe that only costs $3-4 per serving (in this case for two servings). I have decided to make one of my personal favorites, Cheesy Avocado Grits topped with an egg. This recipe makes two servings and is great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.