Category Archives: Cooking

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White Bean Garlic Dip

I recently discovered a love for cannellini beans. They created an ‘aha!’ moment in my brain: you don’t necessarily need heavy whipping cream to make things creamy. “Thank you!!” cried my bottom. “Thank you,” cried my thighs. “Thank you!” cried my left ventricle. Seriously–puree some of these babies, and you could fool your own grandma with this creamy asparagus soup or this cilantro lime bean soup.

Anyway, when I saw this simple dip recipe that uses cannellini beans as its main ingredient, I grinned and put it on the menu. Me and those beans, we got an understandin,’ see. It’s a winner, and the fact that my old friend ‘garlic’ was also a main feature only strengthened my resolve to make it.

By the way, if you’re into the whole food blogging scene you should really take a few minutes to browse through Tracy’s blog, Sugarcrafter. She’s got great stuff on there, from this winning dip to Margarita Bars to Jambalaya to everything you could think of making with Nutella, her recent obsession.

Nutella . . . yes, it was also my obsession in Paris 7 years ago, and it led to some really, really embarassing pictures that I absolutely can’t share.

Okay, fine. I’ll share.

Phew–am I ever glad to be out of my late teens/early twenties! They taught me the meaning of ‘bacne,’ a horrible word which I shall never ever again repeat crossmyhearthopetodie, pokeyourmotherintheeye. I also realized in very recent years that plastering my hair against my head in a shrinkwrapped version of the bun was not an extremely attractive way to fix my hair. One day I’ll share a picture-based history of my hairdos and by the end you’ll be scratching your scalp and pulling our your eyebrows–it’s bad. And it will cause you physical and emotional pain to walk through it with me.

Alright, enough about my misspent hair-youth, and on to the main feature!

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 15 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cups olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Drain and rinse the can of beans to get rid of that nasty thick viscous liquid . . .

Aah, much better. Though please ignore the dirty dishes in the background. I don’t know who they belong to . . . but they’re definitely not mine. Nope. I don’t recognize a single one of those perps.

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Those of you without a food processor (present company included) toss it all in a blender.

Yeah, I didn’t bother to mince the garlic. And I used 6 cloves instead of 2–you would do well to do the same. I regularly triple the garlic in recipes–it’s Who I Am.

Blend or process until combined.

I liked the fact that my blender left some chunks–I like a dip with texture.

Serve it with crostini (or any kind of tiny toast), pita chips, flatbread, crackers, or just scoop it out with your finger. I know I did.

This dip is seriously delicious. Garlicky, lemony, not too spicy but definitely with heaps of flavor. And did anyone see how easy that was to make? Tracy, you’re a genius.

I loved encountering random unprocessed beans, such as this little guy:

I should also point out that I had garlic breath all night long . . . and I woke up with more garlic breath. I breathed it all over my husband when I gave him a morning kiss, and then I recklessly breathed it all over the morning commuters on the El. So don’t make this for your own wedding or anything–unless you have a garlic-loving groom.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Click here for printer-friendly version: White Bean Garlic Dip

Culinary goals for the summer months

*Picture above: completely random. Relevance of that image to this post: zero. But aren’t my Dad and sister looking especially adorable?

During the summer I tend to fall off the cooking wagon. A combination of travel plans, weird summer schedule type things, and the anti-stove sentiments that one experiences on a hot day all merge together, and somehow when September rolls around I realize in amazement that I don’t remember having cooked a single dang thing. This is already starting to happen, as the only meal I’ve cooked in the past ten days has been that Beef Stroganoff I shared with y’all yesterday.

This summer, things shall be different. So I have set some culinary goals for myself that are designed to:

a) Make me stay on track

b) Make you make me stay on track

c) Provide clear guidelines for the guilt trip I will engage in when, in fact, I achieve none of the stated objectives

d) Provide clear guidelines for the invectives/reprimands/diatribes you will heap upon me when, in fact, I achieve none of the stated objectives

So help me help you help me, folks. Here we go:

1. Make a birthday cake for my husband. Yes, his birthday was back in March, but somehow this delusional man is under the impression that I owe him two Barefoot Contessa glazed lemon cakes. I was pretty sure I had done something awesome that reduced my debt to only one of these cakes, so we need to hash that out amongst the two of us. But I’ve really got to hunker down and get a cake plan going, because if not, the age of 105 will find us side by side on a couch masticating our dentures and arguing at the top of our feeble old lungs: “But you owe me twooooo cakes! Twooooo cakes I tell ya!” *swat* “But diddn’ I do sumthin’ and now I just owe ya ooooone? I think it’s just oooooone!” *spank* “Whaaaaat? Whadja say old woman?” *spank*

2. Get around to making Biltong. It’s not that hard, children, I tell myself. And then I go sit on the couch instead.

3. Months ago, I created a page that divides my recipes into categories. Two of those categories have remained conspicuously empty: Pizza and Sandwiches. I find this very ironic, since my husband’s favorite food is pizza. And his favorite ‘on the go’ food is Potbelly’s Classic Italian sandwich. However, since I rule the stove, I gravitate towards my favorites–Asian food. Stir fries. Things with mushrooms. Mine, mine, mine! I can’t help associating sandwiches with the oh-so-boring lunch my paternal grandparents had every single day. They were wonderful people–but perhaps lacked a certain culinary inclination? I need to overcome my sandwich hangups, because there really are some great creations out there I could replicate, to the ooohs and aaahs of the man in my life. Sigh.

Thus endeth the list–and now, please participate in a campaign of constant nagging until I get this stuff done.

Love,

The Hopefully Soon-to-be Birthday Cake-Making Machine