Roasted Eggplant Spread

It's time for another Eating the Alphabet Challenge.  I missed last month as March is the craziest month in my family.  Three birthdays and an anniversary all within two weeks is a lot to do.

This month, the letters for the alphabet challenge were 'E' or 'F'.  I honestly wanted to try something with figs.  I found some great goat cheese and fig recipes, but then I found out that they aren't really in season yet.  Nonetheless, when they do come into season, I found some great recipes.

When I ruled figs out, I kept thinking about eggplants.  I am one of the few people that I know personally that LOVES them.  If I was still single, I think I'd eat several of them a week, but my husband isn't a fan.  One of my favorite flavors for eggplants is roasting them, so I found this new recipe for a spread that I knew would be simple yet delicious.

Roasted Eggplant Spread
slightly adapted from FoodNetwork
Ingredients

1 medium eggplant

1 red bell peppers, seeded  

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons good olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

 

Directions

1)  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2)  Cut the eggplant and bell pepper into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking. Cool the vegetable mixture slightly.

3) Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

 

 I like this spread as an appetizer idea because it seems like a lot of appetizers are either really heavy with cheese or meat based.  This is really simple, but the roasted flavor of both vegetables really comes through.  Depending if you like roasted red peppers or the roasted eggplant more, you could go heavier on the vegetable that you like.  I served these with pita chips and it was amazing.  Definitely a great appetizer.

Please check out all the other letter 'E' and 'F' submissions below.  Thanks Brenda for hosting this challenge!



 

Mexican Layer Dip

I absolutely love dips.  I have an addiction to salty things, and dips are amazing with chips, so I love dips.  I was super excited when I got Mexican Layer Dip from the Jaida at Sweet Beginnings.  I had to make some changes because I am allergic to taco seasonings, but this turned out fantastic.  I definitely can't wait to make this again at a party.

Mexican Layer Dip 
slightly adapted from Sweet Beginnings

Ingredients

1 15 ounce can Refried Beans

1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil

2 Tablespoons Cumin

1 Tablespoon Cilantro

1/2 container Sour Cream

3 Tablespoons Salsa

1 package of Guacamole

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder, divided

1 cup shredded Cheddar

1 cup diced tomatoes

Directions

1) In a medium saucepan, combine beans, oil, cumin, cilantro, and 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder. Heat over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, stirring to combine until warm. Taste and add more cumin and/or garlic powder as desired. Remove from heat and set aside.

2) In two separate bowls place or guacamole and sour cream. To the guacamole, add lemon juice, garlic powder, salt & pepper, a little at a time until you reach your desired taste. To the sour cream, add the salsa and stir until fully combined.

3) In your desired container (casserole dish, or individual serving containers) layer the beans, then the sour cream mixture, avocado, topped with cheese and then the diced tomatoes. (Try not to make the bean mixture too thick, so it's not overwhelming!)

 

 

BBQ Ranch Deviled Eggs

My mom makes deviled eggs all the time, and makes them seem super easy.  So, when Thanksgiving rolled around, it seemed like in order for it to be a traditional Thanksgiving, I had to make deviled eggs.  My husband was so excited because he loves them.  I started making regular deviled eggs on Thanksgiving morning, and it turned into a disaster: the eggs wouldn't peel without ripping huge chunks of egg flesh with them, the wet yolk mixture got everywhere and didn't really even taste that good, and they just looked horrible.  I vowed never to make them after that day again, telling my husband that he'd have to wait until we visited my parents to get them.

Here we are months later and I ran across this recipe for BBQ Ranch Deviled Eggs.  I thought they looked perfect for our Super Bowl party, so I told my husband that I would try them again.  He was ecstatic to say the least.  This batch was a hundred times better than the dreaded Thanksgiving set, and the best thing was is that people actually ate them this time around.

BBQ Ranch Deviled Eggs
adapted from Foodnetwork
Ingredients
8 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons ranch dressing
3 tablespoons prepared BBQ sauce
2 green onions, finely chopped

Directions

1) Slice the eggs in half lengthwise, putting the yolks in a medium bowl and the whites on a platter. 

2) Use a fork to mash the yolks and mix in the mustard and ranch dressing. 

3) Place the yolk mixture into a sturdy resealable plastic bag, push into one corner, and cut off the tip to make a pastry bag. Pipe the yolk mixture into the whites. 

4) Drizzle the BBQ sauce over the eggs using a squeeze bottle. Sprinkle with the green onions and serve.

To me, you couldn't taste the ranch in these eggs, so I revised the recipe and took out the mayonnaise and let the ranch be the creamy element in the yolk mixture.  I set this platter out, and by the end of the first quarter they were gone.  People kept asking if I had more, and I didn't.  The BBQ sauce really is the star player in this recipe.  It changes the whole flavor profile of the deviled egg.  I think this recipe will be a staple for many football parties to come. 

Pretzel Bites and Beer Cheese Dip

I'm still trying to like football.  I can make it through about half a game before my mind wanders to other things that I could be doing instead of watching football.  

I do like making food for football games though.  Pulled pork sandwiches, potato skins, nachos have all been part of my menu before, but I've never baked anything for a football party.  Since Thursday was the start of football and the Packers (my husband's favorite team) were playing, I decided to start the season off with these fun little pretzels and beer cheese dip.

I found them on the Sunny Side Up in San Diego Blog, which I seem to have an obsession with lately.  I followed a combination of her recipe and the allrecipes.com recipe though because I only dipped them in the water and the baking soda.

Soft Pretzel Bites

Adapted from Allrecipes.com and Sunny Side Up in San Diego 
Ingredients
4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water

Directions
1) In a bowl dissolve the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Set aside. (Mixture should become foamy, if it doesn't your yeast may be bad or your water too hot)

2)In the bowl of a standing mixture fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour, sugars, and salt on low speed. Turn off the mixer and pour the yeast mixture and melted butter into the bowl. Turn the mixer on and knead for 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth. If the dough is too dry, add extra water, a tablespoon at a time.

3) Lightly oil a large bowl. Remove the dough from the mixer and shape into a ball. Place the dough ball in the bowl, cover with a clean towel, and allow to rise for one hour (*or until double in size).

4) Towards the end of rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper and cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the hot water and baking soda.

5) After the dough has risen, punch down the dough and then knead with hands for one minute. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough into 12 even portions. Roll each portion into a snake then cut the snake into bite size pieces, about 1 1/2 inches in width.

6) Dip the pieces in the baking soda water and place on the baking sheet (dab the pretzels with a paper towel if they seem too wet) then sprinkle with kosher salt.

7)Bake for 7-8 minutes, until browned.


Beer Cheese Dip Directions
Sunny Side Up in San Diego 
Ingredients 

6 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup good quality beer
1 Tbsp horseradish
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2-3/4 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Directions
1) Microwave cream cheese for 30-45 seconds until very soft. Stir in the beer, horseradish, and garlic powder. Microwave again for 30-45 seconds. Add the grated cheese and stir until smooth, microwaving again if necessary.



While they were cooking, I thought this was going to be a massive fail.  The bites looked and smelled like little biscuits which I thought meant that they weren't going to taste preztel-like.  When I pulled them out of the oven, I grabbed one off the pan and popped it into my mouth and thought they were amazing.  I don't usually like pretzels.  But these were great. 

We used Easy Street beer, a great wheat beer made close to us.  The beer was very prominent in the cheese, and I thought it tasted amazing.  It was too bad that these finished after dinner, so they were more dessert.  We were too full to eat all of them.  Any normal game they would have disappeared.