My Cup Overfloweth . . .

My cup overfloweth . . . or at least my herb garden does!

We even abandoned it for 11 days of 95F+ heat with no rain, no watering and it thrived!

The only thing not completely happy is the mint. It's in front. You can see that we still have plenty for Greek salad and mojitos though so I'm not worried.

School has already started here in the Greater Kansas City area but the heat certainly hasn't dissipated.

So after the kiddos were settled on the buses some girlfriends and I decided to assuage our grief over the separation with cocktails and pool time.

And snacks! Gotta have snacks!

After buying school supplies for three and shipping various electronic devices to my Airman I had no money for anything but emergencies. Now, generally I do find the need for good snacks an emergency but I was trying to control myself and decided to dig around the house and check out what I had on hand. I considered it a challenge.

Two packages of cream cheese! Woohoo! Ding, Ding, Ding! Cream cheese just screams party to me.

I was raised in a household where cream cheese and cream soups were never, ever used for meals.

Between the cream cheese and all those herbs I just knew I could make a spread of some sort. These were my friends! They'd be kind. They'd just avoid it if it wasn't good.

I wanted just one large clove of garlic. It'd give it a garlic undertone but it wouldn't be the star of the dip. Mince it up! I just throw mine into a dry work bowl of a food processor that is running. I'm lazy.

Then I peeled some tarragon leaves off of them stem and threw them in too.

I threw them in and they promptly flew to the sides and stuck. So I had to stop and scrape everything down to the bottom . . .

Now a little salt. It'll help release the oils of the herbs . . .

Now for some thyme! Just drag your fingers down the stem . . .

Some beautiful fresh basil . . .

A little scallion . . .

A tad bit of olive oil just to get things moving and mingling while it whirls around.

Now for the cream cheese!

Now for a little taste! Hmm, the cream cheese is so rich and creamy it can handle a LOT more herbs.

Thyme in all its bright bitterness reminiscent of Thanksgiving! Basil with its grassy, aromatic, Italian flavors!

Tarragon with that lovely anise flavor! It'll remind you of fennel, liquorice, and Italian sausages!

After I got the flavors right I added some smokey ground chipotle pepper. You could just add a shot of Tabasco if you like. It just makes the cheese seem cheesier.

Tarragon ended up being the star of this dip. It was creamy, cold, and herbalicious. It was like pesto met its girlfriends Italian sausage and cheese lasagna for a GNO!

Creamy Herb Dip

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground chipotle pepper (optional)
1 scallion, chopped finely
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped*
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped*
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves*

Mix all ingredients together.

*If you don't like really strong herb flavors start out with just small amounts of these herbs. You can always add more. Since they're fresh the flavor of the dip really isn't going to get a lot stronger while it sits. If you want it "greener" add some flat leaf Italian parsley.

Hummus!!!

We needed some munchies between Easter brunch and Easter dinner so I thought I'd whip up some hummus. Did you know my mother-in-law introduced me to hummus 22 years ago? I had never had such a thing before! She introduced me to artichokes too! Oh and fennel and all sorts of interesting things.

So it's only appropriate for me to make hummus for her!

Did you know they're charging $5 for a tub of hummus these days? Goodness gracious! Make your own!

Do you have to have a food processor to make hummus? NO! You could use a blender, a hand mixer, mortar & pestle, or even a bowl and fork. You'll just get a chunkier more "rustic" hummus.

I like to start with garlic. Garlic is always a good place to start!

Mince it up! The tinier you get it the more garlic you'll taste.

Let's throw in some lemon! It'll brighten things up and it helps the garlic give up it's goodness.

Now for some salt. The salt will help break down the garlic too.

Scrape everything down to the bottom so they're mingling. Now we'll leave them to get friendly a few minutes. Let's talk seasoning.

I love the taste of cumin in my hummus and I really love it when there is a few whole cumin seeds in there. It's like little nuggets of bonus flavor in the dip.

Cumin likes heat. Since our hummus doesn't get cooked I'm going to heat up my cumin to get it's flavor a little brightened. I can use less cumin and get more flavor.

Heat it over some high heat until you can smell it!

I went ahead and threw a little powdered cumin in after I turned the heat off. The powdered cumin likes a little heat too and it'll distribute through the hummus quicker. (I want to eat the hummus today after all!) Take the cumin off the heat. If you're using a nice heavy pan such as the cast iron I'm using you may want to put it in a bowl to stop it's heating.

Open up a can of chick peas and rinse them off with some nice cold water.

Throw them all in with the garlic and lemon! We're practically there!

Give it a mix! It'll just break up the beans a little. Now hummus is supposed to have this gorgeous sesame paste in it called tahini. It's wonderfully tasty stuff but I only have one use for it. I like more "multifunctional" ingredients around the house so I make a few . . . substitutions . . . shh, don't tell!

A little peanut butter for it's nutty creaminess.

and a little sesame oil. This is roasted sesame seed oil and it is fantastic. I bet your grocery store carries it! It'd be right near the soy sauce in the Asian section. I use it in Asian soups, stir-fry, and in dipping sauces. The kids even put a few drops in their ramen noodles! Very multifunctional.

Throw them in a blend them up.

Now for a little water to help things get wetter and more pureed.

We're getting there. I like my hummus to be fluffy and light.

Olive oil will fix that!

Now I like a little "kick" in my hummus so I added a tad touch of this too. It's smoky and hot. Some canned chipotle would be delicious too. Sometimes I just throw in a bit of hot sauce.

Now give it a little taste and see if you need more salt. Not all canned chickpeas or peanut butters are created the same. You can even add more lemon if you like. If the lemon is too strong for you then sit it in the refrigerator for awhile and it'll tone down. Fresh lemon mellows with time.

Oh, oh, oh! It's so light and fluffy and creamy! Garlicky, nutty, and spicy. Just a touch of tangy lemon. Perfect for parties or picnics! Serve it on pita, pita chips, crackers, or raw vegetables. Happy munching!

Hummus

1 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
juice of 1 lemon*
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin seed, toasted**
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (optional)

Mix salt, lemon juice, and garlic together and set aside for 1-5 minutes. Toast cumin seed.**

Blend all ingredients together using food processor, blender, hand mixer or even by beating and smashing with a fork in a large bowl.

*If you don't like a strong acidic lemon flavor allow the juice to sit out for an hour and it'll mellow. If you love strong acidic lemon in your hummus only add half the juice at the beginning and add the other half immediately before serving.

**If you want to skip the toasting of the seed just leave it out and add a few extra sprinkles of ground cumin.

Deviled Eggs

Happy Holy Week!

Time to make the Easter Eggs or Spring Spheres if that's how you roll . . . uhm . . . wobble . . .

I don't know about you but my kiddos are expecting to each dye about a dozen of these things. We are talking about dozens of hard boiled eggs in the house! What to do? Well here in Missouri a lot of people LOVE deviled eggs so I thought I'd give 'em a shot.

How do you boil your eggs?

When I told one lady how I boiled mine she laughed at me and accused me of thinking she was an idiot! Seriously, she thought I was lying! At that time I didn't realize my way was "weird." After the passing of many moons my favorite cooking magazine came out with this exciting new way to cook hard boiled eggs . . . it was my family's way.

I submerge mine in water . . .

. . . and bring them to a boil. Nothing shocking!

There it is a nice hard rolling boil! Things are splashing around in there. I'm not looking for gentle movement on the top. If you stuck a thermometer in there you'd fine that the whole small bubbly thing happens well below the 212 deg. F mark!

Now put a lid on it and turn off the heat! If you're on an electric stove go ahead and take it off that burner. In 10 minutes you'll have beautiful firm yellow centers!

Why was she so shocked? I still don't understand!

Now since I'm skipping that whole egg dye thing I'm going to give these a little crack before I submerge them in some nice cold water to cool. The water seeps in and helps them peel.

Time to peel them!

Goodness, I need a manicure! I blame it on the cleaning, I cleaned house last Friday and I'm still recovering.

There we go! Not perfect but not too bad either! My dear father used to take the eggs out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature before boiling them. He said it made them easier to peel. I just get too impatient with my eggs.

Let's get devilling! Cut each one in half. Notice there's no green edge around the yolk? Overcooking causes that. It also gives that sulfurous quality eggs have a head start.

Pop it out!

Make sure to use your finest serving trays . . .

There! I made 10 eggs. I couldn't get myself to use the full dozen. I always want to save eggs for emergencies . . . I feel truly unprepared without at least a dozen eggs in the refrigerator!

Add some mayonnaise!

Then add some more because I don't ever add enough the first time . . .

Now I wanted a sort of plain Jane egg. I have big plans for them you see so I need the filling to be a little innocuous. So I took the simple route and just added rice wine vinegar. It's seasoned with salt and sugar already so it basically fixes them right up.

It's a little lumpy! If I had some lovely onions chopped up in there it'd be no problem. I'm neurotic so . . .

. . . so I squished them through a strainer. I'm sorry, I have issues . . .

My filling was very smooth so I stuck it in a bag, cut off the corner, and filled the eggs!

Aren't they pretty? Well maybe not. They're plain. They're a blank canvas! Remember I kept the filling plain? Let's garnish! I tried several.

Roasted red bell pepper and a little chunk or blue cheese, It was pretty but unanimous consent said the cheese was too big. So if this sounds good to you make the blue cheese more sprinkly! It'd be prettier to see more of the red bell pepper anyway!

So I tried the traditional sprinkle. Well I used chipotle pepper and it was tasty but you'd need a ramped up egg filling to make it truly delicious.

Red onion was good!

A little sliced mango pickle was rather nice. If you like that sort of thing.

I liked the smoked oyster! But then you kind of gotta be into smoked oyster to enjoy this . . .

Now this was tasty! A sprinkle of chipotle pepper, a sprig of cilantro and sliced roasted red bell pepper! All that was missing was a little onion.

Can you tell I'm deeply attached to onions in my deviled eggs? How could I go so wrong and leave them out?

These were tasty! A dab of cocktail sauce and itsy bitsy precooked shrimp!

Have you seen these before? Little 4 oz packets of tiny shrimp goodness! Perfect for hordourves, salads, and cat treats. I paid $1.50 for the bag. That's right you can serve a shrimp appetizer to a bunch of people for cheap!

Now it was time for me to whip out my secret ingredient! There is one condiment that raises hard boiled eggs to delicious heights. It just changes them. It makes them! I don't know why it's so good!

WASABI! Yes, wasabi in a tube can change the entire way you feel about hard boiled eggs! It's just yummy. Besides, wasabi is just fun to say! WASABI-I-I-I!

This is by far the FAVORITE egg of the night! That dollop of wasabi has the perfect hit of bitterness and nose clearing heat to balance the richness of the egg. The shrimp is a briny jewel of goodness on top!

Plus it's really the prettiest too!

So when you're making your deviled eggs try adding something new to them!