Five minute Garlic Feta Dip. Just Three Ingredients!

As always, I'm running late and forgot to make an appetizer for a house visit. How I'm always forgetting one last step or ingredient is crazy but apparently consistent for me. Well, this weekend we went over to our cousin's house and volunteered to bring over something to snack on. I had totally forgotten and looked in to the fridge to see what we could bring. Feta Dip!

I recalled this pin I saw and checked to see if I had everything. It was so simple, I thought for sure I would be OK. So if you have a bunch of feta in your fridge, good oil and garlic you can make the base of this easy dip. After those ingredients the rest is to get fancy!

It asked for 8 oz of feta. two cups was very close to the 8oz I measured on my food scale

I used a ton of garlic, like three cloves. Recipe says to use only one but we love garlic! 

Add feta and oil to the mixer and go at it! I added half the oil in initially and then added more in slowly but ended up using it all! 

That's it! Simple right! The recipe calls for lemon but we thought it was already a bit sour.

I cut up some cucumbers for a light snack

Here's the recipe from SweetPaul.typepad.com

Lemon and feta dip
Serves 4

8oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil+ extra for serving
fresh thyme

Place feta, lemon zest and juice, garlic and olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth.
Spoon into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with thyme.
Serve with grilled tomatoes and grilled pita bread drizzled with olive oil, salt and thyme.

Comparing Prices at Various Wal-Marts in the Same City

I have always wondered if Wal-Marts in the same city sold items for the same prices or if there was area specific pricing. Well the good people at cockeyed.com figured this out for us! They did comparisons on various groceries (items that would be in an average shopping cart) and found that there was a little variance.

The most interesting discovery, the higher prices were at the stores in poorer neighborhoods!

I also wonder if there is a difference in price between the normal Wal-Mart and the green smaller Wal-Marts. Generally because the smaller Green Wal-Marts are generally in higher traffic areas which I would assume have higher rents. Though, Wal-Mart could easily absorb that cost in order to have a competitive pricing...

NYT: Student Loan Delinquency is Rising

Student Loan Debt Rising, and Often Not Being Paid Back

NYT image from article

So while all other debt is going in a general downward motion, student loan debt is increasing and delinquencies are rising.

Seems odd. But the author notes that during the crisis, a lot of the non-student loan debt had been erased through bank write off vs being paid off. But there's still a strong trend of loans being paid down after the crisis. I understand the lower rate and refinancing the mortgage, HE revolving and possibly the auto loan which results in extra money that can go toward the credit card bill but why not pay down the student loan as well as the credit card? Does it not seem as important?

It scares me that most Americans do not know the many options available to them for student loans. My favorite being the income based repayment system. Pay only 15% of your discretionary income for 25 years and then rest of the loan is forgiven by the government (you will have to pay taxes on that amount though). It's very easy to sign up for this program and you can prepay if you just want it for security reasons (in case you lose your job or what not). Some people are waiting since it appears the Obama administration might change it to only 10% of your income and only 20 years!

Income Based Repayment

Consumer Confidence Difference Two Families: Shop vs Save

NYT image of couple's xmas list that they have budgeted for

CNN is trying very hard to make the American public appear to be in dire need.See below.

I enjoyed this article from NYT better: Two Families Show an Uneven Rise in Consumer Confidence

One family worked an extra shift to have the mother working 100 hour weeks in order to get out of debt and be able to spend more this Christmas season. Last year, there was no gifts or dinner for this family.

The other family chose to allow the wife to quit her job in order to work from home and is choose to have a strict budget on their holiday spending. There was no mention of how hard their economics were last year.

I don't agree with either story. The first family should have strict budget regardless of what they're currently making but the second family should not be considered a hardened American family, they took a huge gift in allowing the wife to quit her job in order to stay at home with her new born (they do note that she is returning to her work soon). As both stories are a little irritating, it is good to note that though they are considered "average" families in America both are spending a good amount of money this season. America is doing OK.


CNN did this video on a Thanksgiving worker: I work Thanksgiving Day

After half of the video is spent on her account of how hard her life is, she eventually notes that her  Thanksgiving shift was voluntary, she has a full time job (which I would assume includes benefits) and while she's tending to her daughter you can hear her iphone ringing.

I'm sure there were many people that CNN could have interviewed that had much harder circumstances, why did they chose this person, who is obviously doing pretty well for herself. She gets a bit teary eyed when she realizes that she'll be at dinner late that night and asks her daughter to save some potatoes for her...ie she's still making it to dinner at some point!

Maybe this is CNN's objective, to make us realize that the poor really aren't doing so badly and we can look forward? Either way, this is bad journalism.

Life After an Affair

NYT's Modern Love is my ultimate favorite read on Sunday. This Thanksgiving weekend, the essay was about a woman who stayed with her husband after an affair. Though I hope to never go through this in my life, she did it so well and eloquently, I hope I will always love my husband as much. I'd hate to give away more of this excellent essay but please read this excellent life story and how an event like this can change everything.

So Easy Gingerbread Rice Crispy Treats! Gingerbread Man Melting...

Image from mystore411.com

I found these at the grocery store and instantly thought...how would those taste as a rice crispy treat??? I got a bag of regular mini marshmallows as well, just in case they were horrible.

Just to be sure, I checked out Kellogg's official recipe for this master piece (not the official text):

• 6 cups of rice crispy cereal
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• Half a bag of marshmallows

1. Melt butter
2. Add marshmallows
3. Add cereal 
4. While still warm, dump onto greased or wax papered dish and flatten
5. Wait till cool and then enjoy!

So I obviously half the recipe for each type of marshmallow I was using. And in my forever attempt to get rid of our halloween candy, we stuck in a bunch of our favorite chocolates in them.

hmmm...melted butter

I'm melting!!!

Buahahaha

The wax paper helped to use only half of the pan for each type

Tada! with the added candy

The easiest treat ever

Simple Spinach Tarts!

For Thanksgiving, I was slated to make the appetizers for dinner. I fell in love with this simple recipe for Spinach Tarts. I have never worked with Pillsbury Dough before but it turned out very easy! I'm sure anything cooked with this dough is not good for you but for Thanksgiving all the health concerns go out the window.

The square(ish) of crescent dough pressed into the muffin tin. I'm sure you can guess which ones my husband did and which ones I did...

After you pop open the can of Pillsbury crescent rolls, you carefully mend two triangles of dough into one rectangle of dough. After pressing the dotted crease together, I found it helpful to actually press down on the crease to help it stick together. Then we cut each of the four rectangles into six square(ish) pieces and then put them into the muffin tin. 

Quick cook of the mushrooms

I was a little worried about them rising but they didn't. I'm not sure what is in this delicious dough but it seems to be very easy to work with. We set the muffin tin to the side and cooked the filling of mushroom and spinach with cream cheese. 

Really quick cook of spinach

Added the whole (!) block of cream cheese AND a quarter cup of parmesan cheese

I have also never cooked with cream cheese (beyond the mashed potatoes). It was not very appetizing to see the cheese melt into the pan filled with delicious spinach and mushrooms.

I used the two spoon method in order to stuff all the tarts

Right out of the oven! 

hmmm...yummy

Tips:

1. Chop up all the veggies into small pieces. As you can see, I did not do this and as a result some tarts got a big piece of mushroom and others got none
2. If you're not into cream cheese (we weren't), feel free to add your favorite tomato sauce instead! We made a second batch that was only mushrooms and spinach (finely chopped) and either a spicy tomato sauce or just parmesan cheese. They were a hit! Way more popular than the cream cheese version
3. You could also add herbs to the dough! Add dried rosemary or thyme to the dough to make it more flavorful and rustic! This is a simple recipe that can only be added to!
4. I followed the recipe from Eclecticrecipes.com to a tee and was still a little short on the filling. I would suggest making a little more. And if you have spare, it's delicious!

Mushroom and Spinach Tartlets (from EclecticRecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 teapsoon olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 (8oz) block cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350°. Roll out crescent roll dough and press together the diagonal seems. Cut dough into 32 equal squares. Place small dough squares into a mini-muffin pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Drizzle a pre-heated skillet with olive oil. Add chopped spinach, mushrooms and garlic. Saute until mushrooms are tender and spinach has wilted. Remove from heat and add cream cheese, Parmesan and basil. Mix well.

Add 1 heaping teaspoon of filling to each crescent roll dough square. Bake at 350° for 15 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Tip: For even more flavor, add 1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil and 2 cloves garlic, grated.

Tip: I used a very small muffin tin. Depending on the size of your mini muffin tin, you may choose to cut the dough into 16 instead of 32 squares.

Crockpot Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

As you can tell from my blog, I love to use the crock pot. I registered for this mini crock pot after visiting my friends and they had one for hot dips. But after we did our first party with a hot dip, I started to wonder what I else I could use this crock pot for. Enter mashed potatoes!

From pinterest, I noticed some recipes of crock pot mashed potatoes. I figured it would work in the mini crock as well to make a smaller portion for just me and my husband.

Cut up two medium potatoes and put it in the crock. Add about a quarter cup of chicken stock and couple of pats of butter and a clove of garlic per potato.

  In this pic you can see how tiny my crock pot is.

I was very worried about how little liquid was in the crock but it worked!

After two hours on low, just mash up the potatoes and garlic (or you can remove the garlic if you like). 

I added a small dab of cream cheese and a dollop of light sour cream to the mashed potatoes.

I like my potatoes chunky, so this was perfect for me! If you want a smoother potato, add another half an hour of time. 

Recipe from Budget Savvy Diva (I adapted this to one pound of potatoes): 

• 5 Pounds of Russet Potatoes
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes chunks
• 1 1/4 cup light  sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup milk, warmed
• 2 ounces of light cream cheese ( really makes a difference)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Did you eat too much? Maybe you would like some tips on how to burn off all those extra calories you consumed....


From LisaJohnsonFitness.com:

1. Add 20-30 more minutes of exercise during the rest of the week
1. In my mind that means some shopping! I read that about five hours of walking will work off most of the extra calories. That's what Black Friday is for!
2. Focus on Veggies
1. I love veggies, so bring it on!
3. Skip the junk food
1. I agree. Why waste your tummy space on food that you only get once a year! 
4. Exercise on Thursday.
1. Again...Black Friday!

So plan accordingly to go out and shop and eat only good food. Even if you're walking around while your wife shops, go! It'll help to kill the calories! 

image from fitnessforlifeinfo.com

Mini Pull Apart Bread - Garlic and Jalapeno

I fell in love with these pull apart bread appetizers on pinterest: inthekitchenwithpolly.com and the-girl-who-ate-everything.com and changeabletable.com. All had a simple recipe: cut up the bread, stick cheese into the slits, stick whatever you want into it, cover it with butter, cover it with foil and then bake it.

I wanted to do a trial set before serving it to my guests (I'm a freak, I do this all the time). I found this mini bread boule from Wal-Mart! I wanted sourdough but I was stuck going to Wal-Mart and this was the only bread boule I could find.

I wasn't keen on putting the recommended amount of butter (a whole stick!) on my dish. So I used olive oil instead. Also, I used thin sliced Sargento colby jack cheese.

Cute little boule of bread

Cut slices in one direction but not all the way through the bottom. Use a good serrated knife

Then cut in the opposite direction, these will be the pull apart bread pieces

Stuff with cheese. I cut the cheese in half and put those in one direction. Then cut the cheese in quarters to stick in the opposite direction. 

Then I stuff in the chopped garlic. 

And then the jalapeno.

Drizzled about two tablespoons of oil over the top

Then wrapped it up...though it didn't fit. 

So I had to use another pice of foil to cover the full bun.  Then into the 350 degree oven. 

After twenty minutes, I unwrapped it and then baked it for ten more minutes. 

Right out of the oven. Yum!

Cheesy goodness. 

Tips:

1. Use more cheese. I thought I was saving some calories by not using a lot of cheese, but you really need it to make it gooey cheesy.
2. Easy to save cals by using good oil vs butter
3. I decided to use these mini boule instead of a large boule of bread for my guests. It allows for me to try two different flavors of goodness. 

Part 2: growing from scraps

Earlier, about a month and a half ago, I tried to regrow my kitchen scraps. I tried it with green onions and red lettuce. I read about this on pinterest (of course) and the main step was to not cut beyond the base and roots of the plant. Then put the bottom into a tub of water. It was amazing to see the plant regrow in the small container water! Later I added moved the plants to the garden in my container plants. They are growing so well! We've been eating from the green onions but I'm not sure how I'm going to harvest the lettuce. I guess I'm waiting until there's enough to eat a salad or a sandwich from. That might be awhile....

AMAZING!

Whiskey - Our first Pappy Van Winkle

My husband and I enjoy a good glass of whiskey. We will always have a bottle of basil hayden, bulleits and maybe an oban. Our house whiskey is maker's which we use in our more common drinks or with mixers.

I enjoy whiskey almost as much as I enjoy wine because of both have a flavor element that changes with the manufacturing process. I find it almost a challenge to try different varieties in order to test my palate and see what flavors I find vs my husband.

We first heard about Pappy Van Winkle from another good friend who is also a whiskey fan. He had a taste and highly enjoyed it. But it was rare to find. So when we went to a new restaurant and noticed that they had Pappy, we decided to have a taste. Our two ounces cost $25 for the cheapest variety which is the rye. The 20 year was a $50 taste (which we plan to get on a different occasion, by the time we noticed that they served Pappy, we were already two drinks in).

Though dry, it was a very smooth whiskey. It has a high alcohol concentration (95+ proof) so it was an amazing whiskey to allow to evaporate on your tongue while the flavors mix on your tongue. I also encourage you to bloom the whiskey after your first few tastes. It changed the elements to an almost sweet flavor. Very cool.

I can't wait to taste the 20 year!

Target vs Wal-Mart: Economic Indicators?

image from webpicks.com

Wal-Mart and Target: A tale of 2 discounters

Two discount retailers but with very different customer bases. How each is fairing in these past couple of months have been indicators on how each customer base is financially.

Wal-Mart, who's customers have an income range of 30k to 60k, has been showing some signs of falter. For stores open for more than a year, there was a growth of 1.5%, .3% below estimates and a slow down from the 2.2 and 2.4% from earlier quarters of this year.

Target on the other hand, with a consumer median salary of 64k, has been fairing quite well. It's year or older stores are increasing sales by 2.9% and is surpassing expectations with an increase in earnings at 1.64 to 1.74 vs the investor prediction of 1.51. A lot of this increase will be due to high expectations for the holiday season with their loyal higher income customer base. Wal-Mart on the other hand increased their holiday numbers by lowering the cost for layaway and starting earlier on their layaway program.

Are the higher crusts of the middle class doing better? Are the lower income Americans doing worse? Are those Americans who were hit hard by the recession regaining their income and moving back from Wal-Mart to Target?

Obviously we'll need more data than a few quarters to determine all this activity but it is an interesting "back of the envelope" study.