Spinach and Artichoke Dip on bread. Dip in bowl. Dip da dip dip dippity do

Ohhhh my goodness. I am finally done with the season of Girls on GIRLS. Although we will be rolling out cocktail-making segments soon.
And in between doing a bunch of live shows that ran the gamut from improv to sketch to contortion for comedy, I decided to pull out some of the posts I had had in my drafts for a while. This is one of them. A recipe I’ve enjoyed enough to make more than once. That’s a big compliment from me because having to vet new cookbooks leaves little time for old favorites. The genius work of Joy the Baker keeps me coming back.

Here’s the deal:
I LOVE a sandwich. I cannot dislike anything involving ample carbohydrates.

Here’s the other deal with a sandwich though:
I only love it if I can eat it on a plate with a knife and fork so I can deconstruct and reconstruct as I like. Here, a bite of the whole sandwich, there, a forkful of filling. Then a leftover bit of bread from where I swiped the filling. That I may butter.

The third and final deal with a sandwich is that I rarely actually eat things that are supposed to be served on carbs ON the said carbs. I devour bowls of spicy salsa with a spoon pretty much daily. It is not so different from gazpacho right? Then I butter the chips.
And I rarely eat the cheese on cheese plates atop the slices of baguette that come with it. I nibble each bit of fromage individually. The better to really taste the cheese, my dear. Then I butter the baguette.

So I made this dip and enjoyed deconstructing a sandwich made with it, and still had leftover dip to gobble from a bowl. And at some point I ran out of bread but I always keep back-up butter.

Take home lesson from this blog post is this: ALWAYS HAVE BACKUP BUTTER.

Spicy Spinach and Artichoke Dip/Spread adapted from this recipe by Joy the Baker
Olive oil spray
1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
A few handfuls if baby spinach
2 pieces of whole wheat bread
1 Tbsp. cream cheese
2 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded
3/4 c. Chopped artichoke hearts
Pinch of fleur de sel
1 heaping Tbsp. Cottage cheese, mashed with a fork until relatively smooth
1 1/2 tsp. Sriracha
Butter
Spray a pan with the oil and sauté the garlic a bit then add the spinach, an cook just until wilted. Take off heat. Spread the bread slices with the cream cheese. Stir together the spinach mixture, Swiss cheese, artichoke hearts, fleur de sel, cottage cheese, and Sriracha. Heap as much as you want on top of cream cheese on one piece of bread, (save the rest for another sandwich, or if you are like me, eating out of a bowl) and top with other slice of bread, cream cheese side down. Spread outside of sandwich with butter and cook Ina skillet on each side until browned to your liking. Because it is all about you.

Dip it up: Un-pizza day 2

If it doesn’t dip like a dip, is it still a dip?
Am I the only one who doesn’t really like the word dip? And dipstick. Yech. Something about it makes me shudder.

So while this could have been properly heated and used like a dip, I was having none of that.
I made a boatload of changes to the original recipe. I made little individual serving-lets, and baked rather than microwaved it. But feel free to double it and microwave in a pie pan if, unlike me, you have a shindig to bring it to. And people who want to get dippy wit it.
I used roasted red pepper instead of green bell pepper. I put all the mozzerella on top. There were probably a few other tweaks but I forget. So the recipe you are getting is a bit distant from the original. It is the un-pizza un-dip. That is a double negative that does not translate to a positive.
If it did it would end up like a real pizza with toppings that could be scooped with a celery stick.
I also let this chill after baking so I could unmold it and see the layers:

Pretty! Colors! Better than dippy sludge, no?
Then I left some if it chilled(ain’t nothing like cold pizza!) and reheated the other part. The verdict is it is quite tasty both ways.
As I said, I didn’t get dippy with this. I did not even try to spread it. I ate it straight up, like my salsa. Except for this I used a fork.
Hot Pizza Dip(adapted from allrecipes.com, original recipe by Dayna Dumas)
4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. dried basil
Freshly ground black pepper
Dash sea salt
1 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella
1/2 cup tomato basil pasta sauce
1/2 jarred roasted red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
1 vegetarian Italian sausage, sliced
Mix cream cheese, herbs, black pepper and salt. Spread in two small bakers or ramekins. Cover with pasta sauce, then cheese, then red bells and sausage. Bake at 350 for…I dunno, awhile. Til it is bubbly and the cheese is browning is probably the best indicator.

Tofu: a (slight) change of heart

I actually found a use for tofu that may cause me to go out and purchase more. I know, I know. I’m a vegetarian. I am supposed to love tofu. And it does, to its credit, soak up the flavors of what it is cooked in. And you can play around with it to change its texture. But all this seems like a lot of trouble when I could cook with something that is delicious without having to be pressed, frozen, thawed, marinated, basted, tied up and smacked around. However, two words that made me reconsider: Ranch Dressing. Good lord, some fries to dip would be good right now.
Who convinced me to give tofu another shot? Chocolate-Covered Katie. Sounds kinky, but she seems pretty un-kinky, which probably means she secretly is? I dunno. Sorry Katie, I will stop contemplating your kink-factor. You seem like a very sweet girl.
Anywho, she posted this recipe for Crazy-Good Ranch Dressing that is so healthy you really could eat a bowl of it, and do no damage, unless you are sensitive to soy. Not only is this stuff healthy but I did not have to do anything to the tofu except mix it with my immersion blender aka the best unsung hero of my kitchen. Love that thing. Less clean-up than a normal blender. I digress. Make this dressing. Go tell Katie she’s awesome for inventing it. I did.
Eat it up with a spoon, if you want. I ate it with broccoli. Then celery. Then roasted beets. Then said what the hell and broke out the spoon. It was worth it.