Dips & Spreads

Apricot Honey Goat Cheese Spread

March 28, 2014 by Erica

Apricot Honey Goat Cheese Spread

Happy Friday!

First of all, I have to say that I’m so glad you all love chocolate cake as much as I do. Not that I suspected otherwise… but, you know, I like bonding with you over cake. It’s kind of like a girls’ night, you know? We bond as we chat and eat chocolate together. My favorite.

Yesterday the phrase “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” popped into my head. Actually, I heard a wedding ceremony (on TV, thank goodness, not real life) where the bride included that phrase in her vows! Is it just me, or is that a little weird and… insensitive? Also, it implies that the speaker does not love cake, which I would hope to be false. Especially given the cost of wedding cakes. If you are gonna pay for a wedding cake, you better freaking LOVE that cake.

Anyway, let it be known that I love cake. Whatever that makes me, so be it!

But we are not here to talk about cake. We’re here to talk about goat cheese. Remember the time I put goat cheese on top of cake? That was awesome, and I think I’ve mentioned it in every post since. But I digress. Goat cheese. Focus.

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Muhammara (Syrian Red Pepper and Walnut Dip)

March 3, 2014 by Erica

Muhammara (Syrian Red Pepper and Walnut Dip)

As I type this, I’m in the midst of the Sunday blahs.

I’ve eaten too much, our apartment is a mess, I haven’t done any of the work I have to do before tomorrow (despite the fact that I dreamed about it both Friday and Saturday night), and I’m trying to get up the motivation to go to the gym before it closes at 7:00.

Why does the gym close at 7 pm on Sundays?!

Muhammara (Syrian Red Pepper and Walnut Dip)

The more I think about it, the more I conclude I need a clone to stay at home and take care of all the things I want to avoid, like cleaning the sink and revising PowerPoint presentations. That way I can go about doing the important things, like baking cupcakes and getting to the gym on time, without that other stuff hanging over my head and causing unsettling dreams.

Any volunteers?

I guess if the worst things in my life are ~~dirty sinks~~ cleaning and PowerPoint, that’s not so bad, after all.

Forgive my complaining. I’ve been too busy lately, and I can just tell it’s going to be another crazy week. But isn’t that always the case? Luckily, this weekend I made it a priority to cook some delicious food to share with you. So let’s just hop to it, shall we?

Muhammara (Syrian Red Pepper and Walnut Dip)

Today I want to introduce you to something called muhammara. Because you need to get to know this deliciousness.

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Spicy Red Lentil Chipotle Hummus

February 14, 2014 by Erica

Spicy Red Lentil Chipotle Hummus

Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves!

I didn’t really do the Valentine’s recipe thing this year, as you can see. Though at least this hummus is red? Yeah, it’s a stretch.

But before we get to the food, a shout-out to my valentine.

Snowy Engagement Photos

The man who puts up with me for better and for worse, and is so supportive of everything I do. The man who washes the whole sink full of dishes when I am too stressed out to even function. And who just poured me another glass of wine as I type this.

He’s a keeper, and I am so lucky he’s mine!

Poor guy has a super stress case of a valentine this year, but that’s besides the point.

And the point, of course, is this red lentil hummus.

Spicy Red Lentil Chipotle Hummus

Did you know you could make hummus with red lentils? It is super protein-packed, and tastes surprisingly similar to regular hummus, actually. And I’ll be honest, it’s great for when you forget you’re out of chickpeas.

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Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

February 10, 2014 by Erica

Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

Happy Monday! I often post healthy recipes on Mondays, but I think today deserves some chocolate.

Not only chocolate… chocolate and pecans.

Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

I have a slight pecan obsession. I’m actually surprised I don’t have more pecan recipes on this site. But it’s tiiiime to fix that! And it doesn’t hurt to add to the chocolate archives, either.

Remember the cashew-macadamia nut butter I posted a few weeks ago? Well, it’s probably one of my favorite recipes on this site. It’s a pretty solid rule that anything I can’t stop eating is blog-worthy! And in that post I wrote about the time or two that I’ve tried to make pecan butter… with horrible results. As I was writing that, I was thinking, hmmm, that doesn’t make any sense. There must be a way to fix that. So naturally… this happened.

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Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter

January 24, 2014 by Erica

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

Welcome to this week’s edition of Erica’s Food Addictions. And the food I can’t stop eating this week is… drum roll please…

Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter.

Succinct? No. Unbelievably cram-it-in-your-face, spoon-it-from-the-food-processor, lick-the-spoon, decadently deliciously amazing? Yes.

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

(Oh and P.S. it also has cashews. Hence the picture of cashews. But Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter was a little too long of a title, even for me. And “Cashew” was the only part of it I could bear to part with? I don’t know.)

This nut butter is the inevitable result of last week’s carrot butter. While I had my carrots simmering on the stove, I was blending up the macadamia nuts, maple syrup, and vanilla, and sneaking a taste (of course) from the food processor, I thought, Holy crap, this is good. Maybe I should stop right here? But I really wanted to make carrot butter for you, so I forged on, and I wasn’t disappointed with the result. I knew, though, that the macadamia nut butter was something I’d have to revisit. And by revisit, I mean have another excuse to spoon it out of my food processor straight into my mouth.

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