I’m sure you need a last-minute dish to bring to a New Year’s party (oh wait, most people are more prepared than I am??) so I present you with one of my favorite ridiculously easy recipes: beer cheese dip:
Ingredients:
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
2c. shredded cheddar cheese (sharp is better!)
1c. beer
1 package ranch dressing mix
Instructions:
Mix.
That is seriously all. It’s like heaven on a cracker.
I really dislike the taste of beer whilst drinking it, but being from Wisconsin I’m morally obligated to ingest a certain quantity each year. Luckily, we have a wide variety of delicious foods that contain our most famous beverage: beer brats, beer cheese soup, beer battered cheese curds (I sense a theme here)… and beer bread!
This is one of the simplest recipes I know, and it’s super delicious – especially hot. I used a bottle of Matt’s home-brewed honeybee ale – it’s SO good with honey butter.
Preheat the oven to 350?.
3 c Flour (sifted)
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
(OR 3 c Self-Rising Flour – in which case, leave out the baking powder and salt)
1/4 c Sugar
12 oz (one can or bottle) Beer
1/4 c melted butter
Mix dry ingredients, then stir in beer. Pour into greased breadpan.
Pour melted butter on dough; bake for 1 hour.
Take out of pan and let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
If you know of any other good beer-inclusive recipes, let me know!
I’m not going to pretend to be a food blogger; not even for a second. I’m far too impatient to make my food look pretty (that is, when I do cook), and my kitchen isn’t usually clean enough to take photos in, and I’m sure as heck not going to take the time to set up a nice photography station when I could be eating.
However, I have to tell you about this, and I can’t just post something without photos. Â I discovered the best recipe ever for making horchata.
In case you’re not familiar, horchata is a Mexican drink made from rice and/or almond flour, usually sweetened and flavored with cinnamon. It’s usually poured over ice, but I have heard of drinking it warm, too.
The first time I made horchata, I used a recipe that I found via a foodie blog that involved soaking whole almonds and rice in water overnight, then blending it smooth and adding milk, sugar, and cinnamon. Afterwards, you strain it through cheesecloth.
It was delicious, but even after straining it (twice!) through a double layer of cheesecloth, it had the consistency of a smoothie and was truly more like a meal than a beverage. It was very grainy and kind of grossed me out.
This time, I used rice flour and almond flour. The rice flour was from the Mexican grocery store, but I had to go to the health food store to get almond flour. Â Amazingly, my first experiment was a success!
2 c. water
2 c. milk
4 T almond flour
4 T rice flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sugar (or to taste)
In a blender, combine all of the ingredients except for the sugar. Blend for 30 seconds or so. Blend in the sugar to taste.
That’s it.
I didn’t think it needed straining, but you certainly could if you wanted to. Drink it; it’s amazing.
I made my first foray into pie this week. I LOVE pumpkin, which is why this time of year is my favorite. I can take or leave the holidays, but I LOVE pumpkin. I wish it were available all year round.
So I bravely decided to try pumpkin pie out of fresh pumpkin – a feat I had been told to avoid because fresh pumpkin pie can be stringy and dense and weird. But I couldn’t resist. After I made my pumpkin oatmeal bread with a real pumpkin, I decided it couldn’t be too hard.
I was kind of wrong. Pumpkin pie (at least the recipe I used) isn’t hard, persay, but it is time-consuming.
First I used the pie crust recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. I highly recommend this book. Very simple food- but very detailed instructions about how to cook it the best possible way.
So to start, I cooked the whole pumpkin. Just stuck the whole thing on the oven rack for an hour at 350ºF. After that I sliced it open, scooped out the seeds, then scooped out the flesh and put it in the food processor. I processed it for about 10 minutes total- occasionally turning it off and scraping down the sides. I think this is the key to making it smooth and not stringy!
Next I started the crust. Just butter, flour, and water basically. Mixed it up, formed balls, and put them in the fridge. Then I took them out and Puppers jumped on the table and ate one. Good thing I only had enough pumpkin for one pie.
Next I rolled it,
Put it in the pan, forked the bottom,
Filled it with beans
And blind baked it
In the meantime I mixed up the pumpkin with eggs, sugar, evaporated milk, and spices, and when the crust was done I poured it in. The filling recipe was from Betty Crocker.
Bake for about an hour, and yay pumpkin pie!
By the time the pie was done baking, the sun had gone down and the lighting was bad 
.
See Puppers hiding behind the trash can?
She’s so cute!
It was SO GOOD. Definitely try it.
