That’s right you heard me: garlic goat cheese dip. This goat cheese dip will knock you off your socks — good for dipping veggies, crackers, or if you’re feeling wild, melon.

Start with 2/3 cup sour cream. You can see why this was delicious.

Take about five ounces or so of goat cheese. I doubled the recipe, so I used this whole log. I didn’t regret it.

Use an immersion blender to blend your sour cream and goat cheese.

Cut up three or four cloves of garlic.

Add that in with the immersion blender.

My mom was nice enough to pick these from the garden for me: fresh chives and basil!

Cut up this many (ish) chives, or however many your heart desires.

Take your basil (after rinsing and patting dry) and roll the leaves length wise (like a cigar) to chiffonade!

Sprinkle the top with basil after immersion blending in your chives. Serve chilled.

What is your favorite dip? Is it cheese based, bean based, avocado based?

 


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I was in Chicago this past weekend visiting my parents, siblings, cousin, and grandma. My mom and dad have a garden in the back, and my mom was telling us about her plethora of eggplant. We briefing discussed frying them up before realizing it was too hot, too much work, too little time. So we thought, why not grill them? What followed was easy to make, easy to eat, easy to clean up, and a crowd-pleaser.

Start with eggplant, preferably from your garden or a farmer’s market!

Slice your eggplants up length wise (think garlic bread, here.)

Add olive oil, a smidge of vinegar, garlic, and salt.

Then, take your eggplant wrapped in a tinfoil tent, and stick ’em on the grill. Ours were out there for about 15 minutes, or until fork-tender.

Serve as a side dish to steak, or over a bed of couscous with arugula and feta, or with lamb and pepper kabobs, or…you get the idea.

Recipe:

eggplant
olive oil
vinegar
garlic
salt

What’s your favorite way to eat eggplant?


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So if you’ve ever come home after a night of wine, or too much sun, or simply being out just too late you know what it feels like to really, really need some water. In the summer, I feel like these days are plentiful, and I think that a lovely solution is to switch up how you hydrate. Insert vitamin water! Sometimes I see these at the store, but I personally don’t like fake sweeteners, and I don’t like to drink my sugar, either. So I decided to make some of my own vitamin water that would give me flavored water without the unneeded calories and taste.

You’ll need:

mint (or an herb of your choice)
blueberries (or a berry of your choice)
lemon (or a citrus of your choice)
cucumber (or a melon of your choice)

I started with mint…I crushed it a bit in my mortar to release the flavor.

Next, cut up a lemon (or orange, or lime, or grapefruit, or…)

Then maybe a handful of blueberries.

Stick ’em in a quart of water (or so.)

Add your mint and lemon…

And of course, some cucumber.

You can let this marry flavors overnight, or drink it immediately, or some combo of both. Mix and match for a delightful summer beverage!

 

 


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My mom recently sent me a care package stuffed with goodies. I have to say the girl scout cookies were what instantly captured my attention, but since that craving has now been satisfied, I have delved into the cookbook Mom made for me, Mama Lear’s Collection of Tried and True Recipes! Look for it in a bookstore someday, but until then, you will have to wait for me to cook and blog its contents! This recipe is one I have fond memories of. Broccoli has always been my favorite veggie, and it is prominently featured in this dish, aptly named broccoli salad. I added cucumber, beans, and dill in this variation, so feel free to try out some different vegetables along with the broccoli.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
2 heads fresh broccoli, uncooked, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 ½ cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
½ large red onion, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 can white kidney beans
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup sugar
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
juice of ½ a lemon
sunflower seeds
dill

Directions:
Chop your veggies (thanks to Megan for helping!)

In a large bowl, mix together cheese, broccoli, onion, cucumber, and beans.

In a separate bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, mayo, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Pour dressing over veggies. Mix well! Top with sunflower seeds and dill.

This dish can be refrigerated overnight before serving, unless you just can’t wait, then dive right in!


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My friend Cate told me I should try chia seeds. (And yes, chia seeds are the seeds that make chia pets. Mind = blown.) I researched, found out that they are the new flax seeds, that they originated in South America, that they’ll give me a nutritional boost, and best of all curb hunger!

As I have been trying to be healthier, eat less, exercise more, and so I was hooked! I headed to Erewhon and picked myself up a bag.

Now, I wasn’t up for a cooking challenge this afternoon, so instead I opted for the back-of-the-chia-seed recipe: chia water/iced tea.

So I took some iced tea, and I of course added some water because I don’t like things too sweet.

Here are my chia seeds…

Add to my iced tea/water. Now…I had to wait.

I had to wait for fifteen minutes.

This is what it looked like after ten. Basically the same…but…

…at the bottom, you have some of the seeds getting…well…turning to gel.

I drank this with a small snack, and I must say it was good, but the chia seeds were a little goopy. I think they’d be good in oatmeal or cereal, but haven’t had a chance, yet.

As far as the hunger, I don’t think that it did exactly what it said it would (read I was hungry thirty minutes later) but I think that maybe in a meal it might help hungry stave off a bit longer. TBD.

Have you ever eaten chia seeds? Do you like them?

 

 


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