Georgiana's Tzatziki Dip

Lee and Athena have two beautiful daughters, Georgiana and
Nassy, who is currently in New Zealand,
so we missed seeing her at dinner.

One of Georgiana's favorite foods are her mother's home made grape leaves. I must confess, I was never a big fan of the grape leaves that I've eaten at restaurants, but the grape leaves that Athena made were unbelievable. They were soft, and filled with a wonderful rice mixture. They melted in your mouth.

Georgiana testing out the grape leaves

Georgiana informed me that to really appreciate the grape leaves, you have to eat them with the tzatziki dip. Georgiana made the dip for her mother's grape leaves before I got there, but she has graciously shared the recipe with the readers of the blog, so here it is:

Georgiana's Tzatziki Dip
Georgiana Avramidis

1 (32 ounce) container of plain yogurt
1 large cucumber, seeded and chopped, or you can shred it if you prefer
1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed in a garlic press, or finely minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped

Note: Georgiana said if you shred the cucumber, squeeze it dry!

Place the yogurt in some cheesecloth and let it drain into a container for 2-3 hours at least, or overnight. Transfer the thickened yogurt into a bowl. Add the chopped or shredded cucumber, crushed garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt and dill. Adjust seasonings to taste. The fresh dill kicks it up a notch. Served chilled as an accompaniment to the grape leaves or as a dip by itself.

Note: The cheesecloth should be more than one layer thick, and you can set it in a strainer over a bowl to catch the liquid.

Sweethearts...Bravehearts...Tenderhearts..... Artichoke Hearts?????

The Minnesota Vikings played
the the Philadephia Eagles on Sunday.
The Vikings were supposed to win,
they didn't,
which means that now, the Eagles have moved up
yet another notch on the road to the Super Bowl.
This means that I have to seriously think
about a menu for the Super Bowl, just in case.
The other day we made sausage bread.
Today, a very simple Artichoke Dip,
that takes 5 minutes to assemble,
can be done in advance, and is delicious...
good Super Bowl Sunday Dip

ARTICHOKE DIP
Elise Feiner

1 can of plain artichokes hearts, drained and finely chopped
1½ cups of shredded mozzarella
1 cup grating cheese (I use Pecorino Romano, but Parmesan is fine)
1 cup of mayonnaise

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray Pyrex®, corning ware®, or other oven proof 8 x 8-inch dish with PAM® (I have also used a disposable aluminum cake pan.) Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. This can be done ahead and refrigerated until time to bake. Just bake it right before serving. Serves 4- 6

Variations: Add one cup of sour cream and a box of Knorr® Vegetable soup mix to the above; or 1 cup of sour cream, a package of Lipton® Recipe Secrets Golden Onion Soup mix and top with buttered bread crumbs.

This is what you will need to make the dip:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.


Spray an 8 x 8 Pyrex dish or other oven proof dish with PAM
I have also used aluminum baking pans for this
(great if you are bringing it somewhere else)


Open the can of artichoke hearts
make sure you buy plain, not marinated one
Drain all the water from the can


The hearts will look nice and full
like all hearts should be :)


Take each heart and begin to make a very
thin slice into it with a sharp knife


Continue making thin slices


Separate the slices

Run your knife quickly in the
other direction


You will have thin pieces of the
artichoke hearts


Place the grating cheese in a bowl
I am lazy, I mixed everything right in the pan



Add the mozzarella
(today I tried Sargeanto's 6 cheese
Italian mix just for fun)


Add the mayonnaise


and then the artichoke hearts


Stir


Blend well


Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown


Let it set a few minutes

Serve with crackers or chips


The texture is custardlike


Enjoy!


Prepare this the night or morning before the game
and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake it!

...and, what IF the Giants win this Sunday?????

Then, we may be dealing with

Broken Hearts ....

Spinach Dip

This is  my son Steven's favorite dip.  We usually make it for Thanksgiving, but this year he wanted it for Christmas as well.  I usually double it when I make it for a large group.

Here is the recipe:

Spinach Dip Steven:

2 (10 ounce boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed very dry

1 (16) ounce container of sour cream

1 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise

1 package Knorr Vegetable soup mix

4 scallions, finely chopped

1 large loaf of pumpernickel or rye bread to cut up and cube and a smaller one to serve the dip in (buy round loaves and don't have them cut)

In a medium bowl, stir the spinach, sour cream, mayonnaise, soup mix and scallions until well blended.  Cover and chill overnight. Cut a hole in the middle of the rye or pumpernickel bread.  Remove the bread from the lid and cut into cubes.  Remove most of the bread from the middle of the bread to form a bowl, and cut into cubes. Cut up the remaining bread and cube. Fill the middle of the bread with the dip.  Serve on a large tray and surround with the bread cubes.  Cover well until ready to serve or the bread will dry out.

Ingredients you will need for the recipe:

 I always make this a day in advance as the dried soup mix needs to soften

Wash the scallions 

and remove the root end (I use a scissor, it is faster and easier than a knife to cut the scallions)

I usually remove the outermost layer of the white because dirt can hide there

Cut the scallions into very thin slices (I cut them right into a plastic container.) I am all for doing as little work as possible, this way you can mix it and them store it in the same bowl until you are ready to serve it.

Add the the soup mix to the scallions

(my son David says he prefers to add the soup mix 

after the our cream and mayonnaise as it's easier to mix

that way.  You can do it either way, it doesn't matter)

Now, take the defrosted spinach in your hand and squeeze it.  Use two hands or a strong fist to get rid of all the excess water.  You want the spinach very dry

This is just some of the water that was removed from one box of spinach

Add the spinach to the scallion mix

Add in the container of sour cream

Add in the cup of mayonnaise (as I said, I hate extra steps, so I just fill the sour cream container half way and that equals the cup of mayonnaise

Stir in, being sure to go all the way to the bottom to mix the soup in well

Mix until well blended and them cover and refrigerate until ready to serve

You can cut the bread into cubes the night before if you want to

 Place the bread on a cutting board.  Take a long serrated bread knife and begin to slice the bread up

 I usually slice the bread into 1-inch slices, 

then cut each slice into 3-4 pieces

 and each piece into cubes

  You can even stack the slices to cube them to save time.

You can store the cubes in the same bag that the bread came in

To make the bread bowl, take the smaller of the two loaves 

and  insert the knife on an angle 

and cut our a circle

Lift up the piece that you cut, 

and remove the middle of the bread 

to hollow out a bowl

Cut the piece you removed from the top and the inside of the bread into cubes

Again, store the cubes in the bag the bread came in 

Wrap the bread in foil until you are ready to use it

When you are ready to serve the dip, place the bread on a round tray lined with doilies

 Fill the bread bowl with the spinach dip and enjoy!

  You can  also serve this with crackers, breadsticks,  snack chips, or whatever you prefer.