Queso Blanco Dip

When I tell friends that I didn't know what queso blanco dip was until a few months ago, they're completely astounded and disbelieving. Have I been living in a cave? Do I never eat outside my home? These are the kinds of incredulous questions I get when I admit to being a queso newbie.

This newfound love of white cheese and chips is so intense that I could barely tell you anything else on the menu of the nearby restaurant dishing out all that creamy goodness. And, you know what's most amazing? The waitresses keep refilling your bowl and it's all free of charge. I assume they expect you to order a meal to go along with your free appetizer though I've never had the nerve to test what would happen if you walked into the restaurant, scarfed down the dip, and then took off. 

It never occurred to me to try making a homemade version of queso blanco until I was browsing recipes for the Stoops late Christmas celebration and saw the recipe on Pinterest. Say what???? Whip up a batch of that yummy stuff right at home where I could eat all I wanted without even getting out of my pajamas - have I died and gone to heaven?

When you read this recipe and see a caution about how the dip might seem runny until all the cheese gets fully melted, believe it. Even in it's final form, the queso blanco is fairly loose but oh so good. 

Cooking for any Stoops is always a bit of a crapshoot as they have different peculiarities in what they'll eat...assuming they eat at all! Happily, everyone got over their initial, "what, someone dared to make/bring a dish that deviates from the (very small) list of accepted foods?" distrust and seemed to enjoy loading tostito bowl shaped chips with the dip.

Queso Blanco Dip

Queso Blanco Dip (White Cheese Dip)
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Recipe from Pennies On A Platter

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 30 fluid ounces

1 1/4 (1.25) lb block White American Cheese (Land O'Lakes brand preferred), cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup diced green chiles
2 pickled jalapenos, chopped
1 ounce pickled jalapeno juice
2/3 cup whole milk
1/2 cup cold water
pinch of cumin (optional)
Toss all ingredients into a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, stopping to stir after every minute. The mixture might seem watery during the first few stirs, but should come together as a nice runny dip after all the cheese is melted.

Serve immediately as a dip with tortilla chips or as a sauce over your favorite Mexican dish.

*Recipe Note: White American cheese is found at most deli counters in your local grocery store.

*Reheat Instructions: Store any leftover cheese dip in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until creamy and hot.

** Picture note: Can you tell I forgot to take a "posed" photo of the dip as I was making it?

Peppermint Popcorn Cookies

I've been waiting for months to get my hands on the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, after having pre-orderded it way back in the spring. It's now been in my kitchen about a week, begging me to cook all kinds of wonderful Deb approved dishes, if I just had a bit more time! Emily, on the other hand, boasted today that she's already made about 27 of the recipes in the book - is she trying to do a variation of the Julia and Julia script????

I'd been debating about what cookie to bring to our ladies cookie exchange when Emily piped in that I should try one of Deb's recipes. Surprisingly, she doesn't have a ton of cookies in the book but I did find one that interested me, just because it was so different. You know how there are always people who bring chocolate chip, sugar, and snickerdoodle cookies to these events? Well, I love all those types of cookies but...do I want to be one of the crowd, showing up with what people kind of know will be there? Not me! At least not with my daughter waiting to hear of me stepping up my game a bit to come up with a slightly more unique cookie.

Well, you gotta admit; a cookie that includes POPPED popcorn in the batter isn't exactly run-of-the-mill. That's what I chose and that's what I made. I was pleased with the results but something was missing. They tasted great, the consistency was nice, and the finished product looked good, so what was the deal? As silly as it sounds, I realized I wanted something that looked a little more Christmas-y so the only possible solution was to tweak the recipe a bit. SAY WHAT???? ME, PLAYING AROUND WITH A RECIPE?????!!!! That's exactly what I did - throwing in some Andes mint cooking bits with the dough, just to get a red Christmas-y look to the dough. Actually, I experimented with red and green sprinkles for one test cookie, blue snow flakey sprinkles for another and, finally, the red mint chips that looked and tasted best in the finished product.

The cookies are yummy, with a softness combined with slight airy crunch of the popcorn. I loved them and I guess the ladies at my church did too, based on the fact that my popped popcorn cookie won two different categories in the judging part of our exchange evening. One was "most unique" and I don't remember what the other one was...."best use of popcorn"? "one most despised by picky husband but liked by church ladies"?


Popcorn Peppermint Cookies
Yield: 24 cookies
adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook



2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup  granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips

Make Popcorn - Pour the oil over the bottom of a large saucepan that has a lid. Add the popcorn kernels, shimmying the pan around so the kernels land in one layer. Cover the pot, heat it over medium-high heat and, once the kernels begin to pop, keep the saucepan moving until all of the kernels have popped, about 5 - 7 minutes total. Toss the table salt and then the melted butter over the popcorn, then transfer it to a bowl so that you can fish out any unpopped kernels. You should have about 4 to 4 1/2 cups popcorn, Let cool.

Mix Dough - Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking soda together. Stir the combined dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture. Fold in the cooled popcorn so that it is evenly distributed through the batter. There will be lots of popcorn and less batter, but it works! Don’t worry if popcorn breaks up a bit. The mixed size pieces are part of the cookie’s charm. Stir in peppermint crunch baking chips.

Bake Cookies - Scoop heaping tablespoon sized mounds 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are light brown. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for a few minutes to firm up before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Potato Corn Chowder

I'm sure I've written about Claire's Corner Copia before on this blog...heaven knows, I tell everyone about my favorite New Haven restaurant. No trip to see Emily is complete without many, many meals eaten at this lovely vegetarian establishment. Let's face it - the restaurant would have to be pretty amazing to make me love and crave vegetarian, organic and downright HEALTHY foods.

Every soup Claire makes is amazing but my favorite is probably her potato corn chowder. One of my recurring "calgon take me away" daydreams involves sitting at my favorite table in the restaurant, looking out on falling snow in New Haven, and eating that soup, along with one of the fresh mini bread loaves that are served with all Claire's soups.

Tonight I decided to make my own potato corn chowder using Claire's recipe. The results are yummy but troubling. Once I finished with my batch, I decided to see how much it looked like Claire's. Now, isn't it a good thing that I'm enough of a nut job to take pictures of all the foods I've eaten in Claire's over the years? Sure, it makes my daughter want to disappear under the tables but, having that visual record of my favorite foods comes in handy once in awhile. The trouble came when I looked up my latest photo of Claire's corn chowder, taken just a few weeks ago during my most recent visit to New Haven. I think ole' Claire is holding out on me cause her picture shows some kind of orange component in the soup...carrots?...that isn't listed in the recipe ingredient list. How can I possibly be expected to duplicate the perfect tastes of Claire's soups if she won't give me the complete ingredient list?

Even without the mystery orange blobs, this soup was pretty darned good, especially on a chilly October evening in San Diego.  Now if I could just look out my windows and see snow falling!

Potato Corn Chowder
Recipe from Claire's Corner Copia

8 tbs butter, cut into pieces
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cups chopped parsley
Corn kernels cut from 6 ears or 2 cups frozen kernels
6 large potatoes, diced
1 quart water
1/4 tsp. dried dill weed
1 quart milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp dried thyme
salt to taste
1 tsp black pepper

Melt the butter over low heat in an uncovered pot. Add the onion, garlic, parsley, corn, and potatoes. Cover and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the water and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Stir in the dill week, milk, cream, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring frequently for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

If it seems like I make a lot of potato side dishes - I do. Virginia's recipe is the most popular but Martin likes anything involving potatoes so I stay on the lookout for variations that will change things up a little.

These are kind of a cross between escalloped and fries. What I really like about the recipe is that no cream of anything soups are involved and you start with a real potato versus frozen hash browns. Also, if you bake these correctly, they have a wonderful crunchy, cheesy taste on the bottom. It's that crusty bottom everyone wants to pick at out of the pan - or am I the only one who likes those bottom and side crunchies as much as the dish itself????

Another plus for this recipe - I get to use my cute potato slicer from the Vermont Country Store. Hundreds of dollars invested in a food processor,  and a state of the art (translation: expensive) mandolin...and yet, my gadget of choice is a ridiculously basic contraption that lets me crank out perfect french fry logs with one hard push on the whole potato.

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

About 5 large potatoes
1 pint whipping cream
salt and pepper
2 tsp. parsley flakes
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1. Cut the potatoes into thin french fry strips and lay the fries in a 9 x 13 pan.
2. Pour all the of the cream over the top of the fries. Salt and pepper them generously.
3. Sprinkle at least 2 cups grated cheddar cheese over the top. Sprinkle parsley flakes on top of the cheese.
4. Cover with foil and poke a fork through the top of the foil, 2 or 3 times to allow a little steam to escape.
5. Cook at 400 degrees for about 1 hour, 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Place your oven rack in the middle of the oven. During the last 15 or 20 minutes of baking lower your rack one more step. This makes the bottom of the potatoes brown and crispy.

Petite Pumpkin Donuts

Maybe I need to start a new blog devoted to all things pumpkin, based on my last entries for this one. Yea, it would definitely seem that the lack of fall weather here in sunny San Diego has made me a bit crazed for whatever manufactured feeling of seasons I can whip up.

Tonight was the first time small group has met in my house since last May when we disbanded for the summer. Actually, I don't believe we qualify for the name "small group" anymore as our numbers seem to have grown to the point of looking more like a small church! There were 17 in attendance this evening and that leaves out one couple and one half of another couple who were unable to attend this week. I've seen first service at church have less people than the amount crammed into my house tonight!

Sherry was the designated snack bringer but I decided I'd use a captive audience of eaters to try out the pumpkin mini-donuts I've been wanting to bake since returning from New Haven. The donuts almost didn't get made when I wound up spending a big chunk of time this afternoon in a line at the local UPS place, only to find out they wanted EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS to mail Emily's featherweight science poster.  Nothing to do but politely take back the unwieldy box, get in the car, and head to the post office where a "mere" 40 bucks was enough to send the poster on it's way to Yale. It's usually not my style to still be taking stuff out of the oven as guests arrive, though that's just about what ended up happening with my contribution to tonight's snack table.

I'm glad I went ahead with making the donuts. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it can be to watch people appreciate foods that veer wildly off the narrow path of accepted Stoops eats. It was downright gratifying to watch people pop a donut in their mouths and immediately want another because they tasted so good.

Other than the one Funston gobbled up as soon as it fell on the floor while I was taking them out of the pan, there was exactly one more left-over after the last guest filed out of my kitchen. With little more manners than Funston, I ate the lone left-over and then wished I'd done as one lady suggested and saved my little savory for morning tea.


Petite Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Makes 24 mini donuts
Recipe Courtesy of Blue Eyed Bakers

For Donuts:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

For Coating:
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1-2 tablespoons cinnamon (more if you're a cinnamon lover)

Preheat oven 350 F.  Butter a mini donut pan and set aside.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to over mix.

Using a pastry bag or a steady hand and a spoon, fill each donut cup with the batter.  The donut cups should be fairly full, but not overflowing. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until donuts spring back when gently pressed (if you're using a larger donut pan, allow them to bake for 12-15 minutes).  Turn donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes.

While the donuts are cooling, melt butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another.  When donuts are still hot (but not too hot to touch), quickly dip each donut in melted butter, then coat in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Serve immediately.

*Note: If you're not going to serve the donuts immediately, you can bake them up to a day in advance and store them in an airtight container.  Do not coat them in the butter/cinnamon-sugar mixture until just before serving or they may get soggy.

You can also adapt this recipe for mini muffins.  Just bake muffins for 10-12 minutes then follow the same procedure for coating.

Pumpkin Poppers

I was clearly in a pumpkin mood yesterday. After uploading a bunch of recipes to Paprika I set out to buy ingredients for all kinds of pumpkiny autumn themed foods - some are still waiting to be cooked up but a few are already done. The pumpkin cake was a hit at last night's Small Group reconnection event as were these little bites of goodness.

Once the poppers are rolled in cinnamon sugar, they kind of look like sloppy donut holes more than mini-muffins. They taste great with a cup of coffee on a cloudy morning that belies the coming of another day of heat. Uggghhhhhh....

Pumpkin Poppers

recipe from Domestically Speaking

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

For Coating

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking soda,salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combine.

In another bowl, mix oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk. Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fill mini muffin tins until almost full and bake 10-12 minutes.

Melt butter in small bowl. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl. After popper cool for a few minutes, dip them in the butter and roll them in the sugar mixture.

Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

Last week I was in New Haven visiting Emily and reveling in the cooling weather of fall, which sure made coming back to some of the hottest weather I have EVER experienced in San Diego not fun at all. I went from eating pumpkin muffins and watching rain fall on the Yale campus to sweating it out in temperatures that have hit as high as 109 degrees!

Tonight I decided to pretend like fall weather is here and make my own pumpkin dessert for a church supper. A part of me felt guilty at baking something I knew my own husband would never eat but with all the church folk instructed to bring a dessert, I figured there'd be plenty of the cakes, cookies, and brownies Martin loves. Sure enough, he had plenty to choose from, with a huge Edelweiss bakery cake and lots of plastic containers piled with those icky store-bought cookies I hate but Martin loves.

When we sat down to eat I noticed numerous people at our table had a piece of my cake on their plates. This is always an interesting situation - should I mention right off that I made the pumpkin-y creation all these friends were about to eat? What if one of them took a bite and declared my cake horrible tasting? How would we both recover from the embarrassment of such a statement and who would wind up having to leave the church, in order to restore civility and brotherly (sisterly) love?????

Obviously, I wouldn't be writing about this if the news were bad - Lynn L. ate her piece and began raving about the warm tastyness of the cake. (Not bad since she and her husband own Edelweiss Bakery.) Carol F. chimed in that it was the best thing she'd eaten in a long time, adding, with a certain tone of awe, that her piece was still warm. (Yea, I guess it was since I'd barely taken the cake out of the oven when Martin started shooing me out the door!)

The cake is gooey and good. If I can't have any evidence of the changing season, biting into a big piece of pumpkin-y cake will have to do for conjuring up autumn.

Pumpkin Cake With Brown Sugar Glaze

⅓ cups Water

1 can Pureed Pumpkin (15 Oz)

2 whole Eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 box Yellow Cake Mix (18 Ounce Box)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 cup Brown Sugar, Divided

½ cups Flour

4 Tablespoons Butter, Melted

¼ cups Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Preparation Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl mix together the water, pumpkin, eggs, 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined. Add the cake mix and baking soda and mix until just combined.

Grease a 9×13 pan with butter and pour batter into pan.

In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour and melted butter. Use your fingers to sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the glaze, combine the other 1/2 cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved.

When cake is finished baking, poke holes in the top with a toothpick. Pour glaze over the cake, making sure to cover all surfaces. (Apparently, a toothpick is fine for this job. In a moment of lunacy, I decided that those tiny holes wouldn't be big enough so I dug out a wooden skewer and used the sharp end to poke the surface of the cake. My glaze dribbled nicely but I had to patch up the very visible holes left behind so it wouldn't look like small rodents had been burrowing over the surface of my creation. Sometimes it's a GOOD thing to just follow a recipe as it is written!)

Serve cake warm or at room temperature.