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Warm broccoli cheese spread

Courtesy of The Taste of Home Cookbook and website!

Warm Broccoli Cheese Spread

I cut this recipe out of a newspaper a year ago and decided to trim it down by substituting fat-free and reduced-fat ingredients. Whenever I make this for an occasion, I end up being asked for the recipe. -Patricia Moore of Toledo, Ohio

SERVINGS: 14

CATEGORY: Lower Fat

METHOD: Baked

TIME: Prep: 15 min. Bake: 25 min.
Ingredients:

* 1 package (8 ounces) fat-free cream cheese, cubed
* 1 cup (8 ounces) reduced-fat sour cream
* 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
* 3 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed, drained and patted dry
* 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese, divided
* Reduced-fat wheat snack crackers

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream and salad dressing mix until blended. Fold in the broccoli and 1-1/2 cups of cheese.
Spoon into a shallow 1-qt. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Serve warm with crackers. Yield: 3-1/2 cups.

Here’s mine…note that I used white cheddar cheese, so it doesn’t look quite as cheesy as theirs, but it was!


Don’t miss my review on this wonderful cookbook!

Cookbook review: The Taste of Home Cookbook

I want to tell you about a really delightful cookbook that I received to review called The Taste of Home Cookbook, the new revised edition. It’s a companion book to the cooking magazine by the same name! I love everything about this book: it’s got a notebook style binding, so that you can remove sheets if you need to, it’s well-organized, prep and cooking times are clearly marked…I could go on and on. But the best thing about it is the selection of recipes

I’m kind of appetizer-challenged. We’ve all got a weak spot, and this is mine, so I’m always looking to delicious stuff that won’t destroy my waistline. Well, the first one I tried was such a hit that I’m going back for more! I’ll share this particular recipe and my results in the next post.

Another feature that I like are the multitude of recipes that give you 4 preparation options:
“Classic Recipes” (Taste of Home) for traditional preparation techniques
“Time-Saver Recipes” (Simple & Delicious) for minimum effort
“Light Recipes” (Healthy Cooking) for trimming calories, fat, etc. but not flavor
“Serves 2” (Cooking for 2) for scaled-down versions for smaller households

Cool idea, huh?

Some comfort food classics...no recipes needed!

Corned Beef Hash with Eggs

Open-Faced Melted Cheese Sandwich

Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup

Veterans Day

Apple tarts

When you're in too much of a hurry to make apple pie, or if you're running short on enough flour to make two pie crusts, maybe a rustic apple tart will suit! We love these, and they are so quick and easy to make it's almost ridiculous how good they taste.



Rustic Apple Tart

Single pie crust

3-5 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
Dots of butter, optional

Roll out the pie crust and place in a deep dish pie pan. Pile the apple slices on, and top with spices and butter. Loosely pleat the pie crust around the top, leaving a good sized hole in the center. Bake at 400 for 30 to 40 minutes. Slice like a pie; serve in a bowl with milk.

Farmer's market this weekend

Some friends and I went to Northampton MA on Saturday, just to stroll around, buy stuff, and eat good food. We found good food at Bela, a vegetarian restaurant very near Smith College (on Masonic Street).

Here is one of my finds for the day, at the farmer's market. All the fresh Brussels sprouts seem to be gone already in my area. These were amazing last night, grilled in salted butter :-)