Dip

So two of the girls in Amanda's (my sister's) ward threw her a baby shower (thanks, Melissas!), and one of them made the following VERY VERY good dip:

2 cans artichoke hearts in water
Drain, Squeeze, chop up
1 tsp minced garlic (I actually use a little less and just go with the powdered kind)
2 C Parmesan cheese
1 C mayo
8 oz cream cheese

mix together well, bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Look! No "cream-of x's"!

Soup!

We had a cool rainy day yesterday, and, as James loves soup, I gave NBR's tortilla soup a try. Oh wow it's good. You take chicken broth,infuse it with cilantro, onion, and garlic, add shredded chicken, some pepper jack, some sour cream, and some avocado, and some home-made tortilla strips. Good stuff.
Did you know we have an entire crisper drawer dedicated to cheese? I think having a variety of cheeses handy is essential for seriously killer cooking. Kinda like frosting a cake-- you can eat a cake sans frosting, and it's still good, but it's FANTASTIC if you frost it. Our standard stock:
Sharp cheddar
EXTRA sharp cheddar (usually beechers)
Parmesan
Romano
No Woman
A jack of some sort
Havarti
Mozzarella
Cream cheese
Bergenost
Feta

We don't have all these all the time, but they're pretty familiar friends around here.

Crazy About Basil

I came home from our trip and my garden is overflowing, especially my basil plants! So, I've been eating tons of basil on everything and I'm not getting tired of it at all. I finally understand why people are always lauding the virtues of fresh herbs!

For lunch today, I had a bowl of grape tomatoes with whole leaves of basil tossed with a drizzle of olive oil, a couple gratings of parmesan cheese and a dash of salt and pepper. Oh. my. goodness. The girls sat with their nasty PB&Js and I savored the tastes of summer. It was a delectable paradise.

And tonight for dinner we're having pizza. In the sauce I have some freshly picked oregano and thyme, and for toppings we're going plain cheese with mounds of sliced sweet baby onions and then I'll top it with more whole leaves of basil when it comes out of the oven. Oh, this is going to be so good.

I'm growing three different varieties of basil this year--Lime, Genovese and Queen Siam/Thai. I'm not a fan of the lime variety, it's just a little weird...until I find what it goes well with, right? The Genovese is my plain leaf favorite and I've yet to sample the Thai because I want to showcase it in Thai food.

I have definitely got to get cuttings and keep them going over the winter.