A Special Tea Party

Today we had some friends to our home for a tea party, though the tea was iced. We wanted to thank our friends Bart and Phyllis for being one of my sets of friends who made soup for me when I couldn’t eat.

The menu was planned by my daughter. I made the iced teas. The first tea was decaffeinated organic green tea with rose (the Tazo rest I adore). Two bags of Tazo Rest to three bags of Bigelow organic decaffeinated green. The second pitcher was Archer Farms Earl Grey with berry and chocolate. Good stuff.

I didn’t take many photos, because in the thrill of entertaining I forgot.

My daughter wanted peanut butter crackers and so she selected Market Pantry sandwich crackers, the Ritz style, and a box of Keebler Club multigrain crackers. We saw spinach artichoke dip in Target and got inspired to make our hot spinach dip.

We bought some Market Pantry bagged frozen cut spinach (and it had a lot of big stems with no greens, a bit of a turn off).

We ended up making a platter of sandwich crackers, club crackers and rye crackers with sides of peanut butter, almond butter and cashew butter on the side. We had a big bowl of whole strawberries. A dish of unsalted almonds and cashews.

Then we made spinach dip in the crock pot and scones. Phyllis made heart shaped cupcakes with chocolate icing and my daughter made some cake in her Easy Bake Oven.

TODAY’S SPINACH HERB DIP:

In the crockpot
drizzle some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
add garden fresh herbs. In my case, today, I used about
        2 teaspoons oregano
        5 large stalks of chives, chopped
        2 teaspoons parsley
        3 large leaves French sorrel, shredded
        3 leaves basil, shredded
        1 teaspoon dill
add 1/4 cup minced garlic

Cook about twenty minutes.
Cook spinach until thawed in microwave. Does not have to be hot. Reserve 3/4 cup of the liquid. Add spinach and liquid to crockpot. Cook at least one hour on high. Preferably 1.5 hours (more is fine, though you may have to reduce heat.)

Thirty minutes before serving, add cheese. Today I used about 4-5 ounces mozzarella, 4 ounces sharp cheddar, and 2 ounces pepper jack. It tasted sweet, so I added a tablespoon of garlic powder.

SCONES

We made two kinds of scones, adapted from the Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook. One was honey walnut. One was blueberry.

From memory:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together 4 tablespoons butter and 3.5 cups unbleached white flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons honey, 5 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon (?) salt. Use a pastry blender to make it the consistency of crumbs. Then add one beaten egg and four tablespoons applesauce. Add milk by the tablespoon until the dough becomes soft and dough like. I used one tablespoon vanilla silk, then 4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, then about 3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk and one tablespoon water.

I divided the dough in two, and added blueberries to one half and lots of honey and walnuts to the other. Turn dough out on floured surface and press to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into diamonds. Bake 10-12 minutes. My honey walnuts started to burn on the bottom after 10.

Hot Spinach Dip

I took a multi-grain baguette out of the freezer and starting working on a new batch of my hot spinach dip in the crockpot. This will be dinner.

This week's version started with:

• 5 cloves roasted garlic
• 1 + cup water reserved from cooking the chopped spinach
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley
• 3/4 teaspoon organic four color pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon pizza and pasta seasoning
• 3/4 teaspoon organic ranch mix

Once that cooks on high for a while, I'll add one package of chopped spinach (after smashing the garlic). Then, when that cooks for at least an hour on high, I'll reduce heat and add the last of the roasted garlic cream cheese spread (one tablespoon), some cheddar, some monterey jack, some velveeta, and maybe some parmesan and maybe a 1/4 cup of salsa.

Sandwiches!!!

I am so excited for dinner. I'm feeling a tad under the weather and I'm not sure whether it's allergies or a cold... Since sneezing and running nose seems to be the main issue, could just be allergies.

I mentioned to my husband that I would really like a simple sandwich, as in from the deli counter, and he volunteered to run to Giant. (Must be partially because he was home alone with the little one all day.)

I am so thrilled with tonight's meal plan. We're each having half an asiago bagel with soy mayo, lettuce, honey turkey, deluxe ham, smoked guoda and cheddar and vegetarian bacon. Sides are Dole bagged Italian Salad with garlic croutons and some sort of red wine vinaigrette and Veggie Patch Spinach Cheese bites, which we're trying because we had a coupon.

Plotting the day

It has started out as a good food day. We had French toast from the freezer for breakfast. My husband packed peanut butter and jelly on Ritz-style crackers for lunch, with a side of chopped broccoli and carrots and probably some chips. I haven't given much thought to dinner, so we'll have to see what I whip up after my oral presentation in history and my meeting with my politics professor.

I started hot spinach dip for dinner, which is the last pack of frozen spinach I bought several months ago when Giant had spinach on sale 5/$4. If I'm ambitious, I'll add some carrots to it, but chances are it will be fairly basic.

I also got attacked by the last container of frozen five alarm chili. The container tumbled from the freezer and cracked, so now I'm eating the chili. I swore we eaten all of that batch of chili already.

Now the four-year-old and I are enjoying Wasabi bar mix from Forks mediterranean deli, which despite the fact that it's spicy, my daughter is eating heartily (and drinking lots of water).

Finally, this allows the perfect avenue to mention that despite my attention to what my family eats, I horribly abuse myself. Thus far today I have had two cups of coffee with non-dairy creamer, one Nature Valley almond granola bar and two glasses of water. And it's 2 p.m. Off to eat that chili.

Poor Man's Calzone

I emerged from class this afternoon starving... and I also had an acute awareness that several dairy products in my fridge were approaching their expiration date. Among them was a $4 container of large curd cottage cheese. I don't have any riccotta, and we're low on cheese in general, so I thought maybe I could somehow make the cottage cheese more riccotta-like and make some homemade pizza dough and build funky calzones.

I mixed the

 cottage cheese, shredded mozzerrella, italian seasoning, fresh garlic, grated parmesan and drained c

an spinach (someone gave the spinach to me, 

I usually buy fresh and frozen). 

I also mixed in the last of the commercial spinach dip.

I can't help but think it won't be gross as Mimi used to always use cottage cheese for such things. I don't know if she didn't know about riccotta or what but...

I made my usual pizza dough and made five little calzones to serve with sauce. Hopefully they are edible because I have a freezer bag of stuffing for another batch.

The verdict is in. The family loved

 them. It made so much we have enough for lunch AND one to freeze. For dessert, we're having Lindor Truffles from Valentine's Day.

Contemplations of Meals to Come

As soon as my daughter woke this morning, she ate a nice big banana. Now after her bath, I am ready for my breakfast. She normally eats breakfast #1, often a small meal, around 7 a.m. with a more significant meal around 9:30 or 10 a.m. when I get around to eating. But today she says to me: "That granola we made. It must be getting stale."

To which I reply, "No. Not even remotely."

And she says, "Well, maybe we should eat some to make sure it doesn't get stale."

So, she ends up with a small serving of granola, about 1/3 cup max, and a few ounces of milk. I dole out the milk in small portions to prevent spills and waste. I always add, "Drink this and you can have more."

That left me. Eternal mother's dilemma. Why cook a meal just for me? So I slice a piece of my homemade bread, which with my lack of cutting skills this morning becomes about the size of half a traditional store-bought sandwich slice. Although I want Nutella, I opt for the peanut butter since it has more nutritional value. And I'm trying to talk myself into a banana and a glass of water. But it's too bloody cold to drink cold water. Maybe tea...

And lunch. We will be heading to the library as soon as I see if I can get those tickets for my father-in-law, then lunch, then work. Another ice cream party. I was almost thinking leftover spinach dip and bread (or pasta) but it was so spicy for my daughter... Maybe I should reserve that for my husband and I for a packed lunch tomorrow.

Another option, as we're low on vegetables again, is to whip up one of my typical winter salads of red leaf lettuce, raisins, carrot peels and berry vinaigrette dressing... And have some sort of entree to accompany it...

After my daughter finished the granola and milk, someone was still hungry. This didn't surprise me as she hadn't had any significant protein source yet. So I offered another of my famous snacks: peanut butter and raisins on pretzels. Of course, she does all the dipping and arranging.

Mommy's famous hot spinach dip

When Mimi indulged my request for a crock pot two years ago, I never would have imagined that it's primary use would be for hot spinach dip. Mimi found the recipe in a crock pot cookbook she bought for me to accompany the new crock pot, but she fell in love with it and never gave it to me.

My daughter loves it. She will spoon it into her mouth by the tablespoon full. I like it because its spinach. If there's a list of miracle foods, spinach would be on it. With blueberries. Another favorite in this house. But we all love spinach dip: with crackers, homemade bread, even carrots. On the day after spinach dip, we spoon it onto bread and make sandwiches out of it to take to work. If enough remains, we reheat it and  add some milk to make it into pasta sauce. It's also a great party food. Which is why I'm making it today. Gayle is coming to force me to trim the tree (I hate Christmas). So, instead of dinner, we'll have an afternoon of spinach dip, homemade bread, raspberry jam, carrot sticks, and the remaining fresh pineapple.

 

Mommy's Hot Spinach Dip

(Seriously adapted from a crockpot cookbook)

In the bottom of the crockpot, combine:

A tablespoon butter and seasoning of your choice (not all of the following) such as up to two cups onion, a clove of minced garlic, salt, bacon bits, pepper, salt, sundried tomatoes, dill, basil, ranch dressing... 

add 1- 10 oz package chopped frozen spinach, thawed with liquid reserved.

Cook for about an hour and a half on high. Then, add about 10 oz cheese (cubed). The original recipe called for a Velveeta style cheese with jalapenos. I usually mix cheddar and other cheeses I have laying around. Today I'll probably use about five ounces of pepper jack, five ounces of cheddar, and maybe a few spoonfuls of blue cheese dressing. Cook about 30 minutes until the cheese melts.