Spinach and Artichoke Dip

One of my favorite things about summer is grilling out. The other night, I grilled out with a couple of my friends and I made spinach and artichoke dip as an appetizer. This dip was a delicious accompaniment to our steak.

Ingredients

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese, softened

1/2 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry

Directions

1. Combine 1 1/2 cups mozzarella (set the rest aside), sour cream, 2 tablespoons Parmesan (set the rest aside), and remainder of the ingredients.

2. Spray 8x8 pan with cooking spray and spoon mixture into pan. 

3. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan on top of the mixture.

Before baking

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly and light golden brown.

The finished product after baking

Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, or pita bread.

Recipe adapted from myrecipes.com

Pizza Puffs

This weekend I hosted book club at my house and tried making these. I think they were the most popular food I had, so I had to share them on here. I tried two different kinds: pepperoni puffs and ham and cheese puffs.

Ingredients
2 containers refrigerated pizza dough (1 container per set of puffs

Pepperoni puffs
1 package pepperoni
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can pizza sauce
1 tsp parmesan cheese 

Ham and cheese puffs
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3-4 slices ham
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese

Directions
1. Grease cookie sheet. Roll out pizza dough and cut into 8-12 squares.
2. Add a small amount of all the ingredients to each square. For the pepperoni puffs, spread a little pizza sauce on each square first. For the ham and cheese puffs, spread a little Dijon mustard on the puffs first. 

Ham and Cheese Puffs

Pepperoni Puffs

3. Fold squares up to make a puff shape. In the case of the pepperoni puffs, I sprinkled a little parmesan on top of them. 

4. Follow directions on the pizza dough. In my case, I baked them at 400 for 12 minutes. 
5. Serve warm and enjoy!

Idea for this recipe came from my friend Rachel. 

Baked Brie

In college, I studied abroad in Lyon, France for 5 months, and the one thing I loved more than anything else in France was their food: fresh bread all the time, delicious cheeses, great wine, and much more. One cheese I really developed a taste for was brie. So when I saw the package of Brie at the store, I couldn't resist. But I figured, what better way to eat brie than by trying out a new recipe. I recently tried a caterer's baked brie for the first time and loved it, so I wanted to try it out myself.

Ingredients
1 wheel of brie (as in the picture above)
1 package crescent dinner rolls or 1 large sheet puff pastry dough
Strawberry, raspberry, or apricot jam
Brown sugar
Syrup 


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Lightly spray a non-stick cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread out half the sheet of crescent rolls (do not separate individual rolls) or puff pasty dough. 
3. Spread a thin layer of jam on the dough. Then place the cheese in the center of the dough (the rind is perfectly fine, do not worry about leaving it on)
4. If using crescent dinner roll dough, spread the other half with jam and lay, jam-side down, on top of cheese. 
5. Fold dough together and over the cheese, cutting off any excess dough.
6. Drizzle maple syrup and sprinkle brown sugar on top of pastry to give it a nice glaze. 

 7. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Allow pastry to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Serve with crackers and apple slices. 

Emily's Thoughts

I found a couple different recipes for this. Instead of using syrup and brown sugar on top, you can use 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water and brush the entire pastry with that before baking for a glaze. 

As you can see from my pictures, I had a little too much dough around the edges, so I highly recommend cutting off at least the corners of the crescent roll dough (this was what I used) to reduce the amount of breading. 

Also consider serving this with a red wine. The mix of the cheese and the wine would be a delicious combination. 

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes and the President cheese wrapper.