Good Noms spinach dip

Ingredients:

• Spinach - 1 bunch - 2 frozen packages (thawed and drained)
• Bacon - 4 slices
• Cream cheese - 6 oz
• Heavy cream - 1 cup
• Cheese of your choice - 1 cup
• 1/2 stick of butter
  
• Garlic powder, salt

Cook the bacon and place on paper towel to drain.
Rinse and chop up the spinach.
Melt some butter in a pot, add the cream. When the mixture begins to bubble, turn off the heat and add the shredded cheese, stirring vigorously.
Preheat the oven to 350. Once the mixture begins to thicken slightly, add the spinach and leave on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the cream cheese and the garlic powder and a tiny bit of grated Parmesan cheese (optional) and salt. Place into a baking dish, chop up the bacon, sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. It will thicken as it cools. Enjoy warm. I recommend these chips. Delicious and nutritious.

Good Noms celebrates Christmas... with crab ravioli

Since other blog members have brought up the idea of writing about Christmas traditions, Tu and I decided to spontaneously start some.
Crab Ravioli

• 1 packages wonton wrappers

Stuffing:

• 1/2 lb crab meat (finally acting like real Maryland-ers)
• 1 lb ricotta cheese
• 1 green onion, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 large onion, chopped
  
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
  
• red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

Sauce:

• 1 pint heavy cream or whipping cream
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 4 oz cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan/romano cheese
• garlic powder
  

The party-crasher in this picture is the egg. We didn't end up using it for anything. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the stuffing. Mix.
One by one, stuff the stuffing into the wonton shells. Involve the whole family. Begin by using a teaspoon-sized dollop in the center of the rectangle. You can fold in half diagonally as pictured below, or in half to make another smaller rectangle (the half-circle looks fancier, but the rectangle is less labor intensive).

Dip your fingers in water to help seal the edges, press in with a fork. If you like, you may use your favorite dough recipe (we don't have one) and a ravioli press to speed up this process.

For sauce, put cream in a saucepan on medium heat, then melt butter into it. Throw in cheddar little at a time once the mixture begins to bubble. Once the cheese is dissolved, add the parmesan/romano, lastly followed by the spices. It's perfectly acceptable to have a bland filling, because the sauce will be salty because of the cheese.

Lightly pan fry the ravioli until the outside becomes crispy and golden brown. Top with the sauce. Share at your your own discretion.

Good noms presents chili (non-veg)

If there is anything anyone knows about my cooking style, it's that I'm not much of a cook. I know how to make maybe a half dozen recipes from my head. Of course, I can usually follow directions well enough to concoct something roughly resembling a new dish, but the real chef in the family is my future husband.
With that said, I eat home cooked meals every day. This is easier on the wallet (everyone knows that cooking for yourself is cheaper than having someone else do it for you), but it wasn't always healthier. I gained a little weight in the recent months.
But we made a vow to make a solid effort to eat naturally, and healthily, and so I present to you an almost all natural version of chili!
Soooo you will need:

• About 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 green bell peppers
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1 to 2 large onions
• 2-3 jalapenos
• 1lb red kidney beans
• 1/2 lb black beans
• 1 can tomato paste
  
• 2 cups beef broth
• taco seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic

You might notice that many of these measurements are not precise. This is because you can make a good chili a number of ways. If you want a hot chili you will add more peppers. If you aren't big on onions you can have fewer. It's like your own custom chili generator!
This moves us on to the next part of the post - or How To Cook Your Chili. For your sake and those you like to feed, I hope you own (or can borrow) a Crock Pot. Basically, if I were told I was going to a deserted island... with electricity.. or I I were told that my house were burning and I only could save two appliances... anyway, no kitchen should be without a Kitchenaid mixer and a crockpot. Why? Because if you have a stand mixer and good accessories for it you will not need any other appliance (except a coffee maker if you're into that). You might not save money (most accessories for a Kitchenaid cost as much as a stand alone appliance that does about the same thing) but you will save counter space. And a crockpot is essential if you like hearty, warm homecooked meals and have to work 8 hours a day.
Back to chili. We start by rinsing and boiling the beans. You can use canned beans and skip this step. I like to use products that are as close to their original state as possible, so ideally I'd go to the farmers market and buy some beans there (I miss NY) but that's not an option so I got the middle choice of beans in a bag from a store. You have to boil them for a minute and then let them chill out in a bowl (if you look this up, this is not only so that they can be more delicious, but so that you don't get a stomach ache).
Here are some beans that have been boiled and are now chilling in a bowl of water. They look kind of wrinkly and gross, but that doesn't matter because they aren't trying to win a beauty contest (only a deliciousness contest).
Next we will brown the meat. Allow me to insert another Kitchenaid plug here. Ground beef doesn't go on sale very often at our local grocery store. However, various other kinds of meat do. Sometimes for as cheap as a dollar. We got the food grinder attachment for our mixer and I'm pretty sure it's paid for itself by now (or very nearly did) in money we saved buying and grinding our own meat (freeze it for burgers, meatloaf (especially easy since it's a mix of different meats anyway), tacos, nachos, pasta sauce, the list goes on).
So we are browning the meat, which is super juicy because it's part leaner beef ground at the store, part more fatty beef we did ourselves. Use a packet of taco seasoning to spice it up (after you drain it). Some garlic can't hurt either, if you have it handy.Veggies are easy. Chop up those onions, peppers and tomatoes. Wear gloves when de-veining the jalapenos, or wash your hands and don't touch your eyes. Next comes the most difficult part. Brace yourselves. Dump all your ingredients into your (5 quart) crock pot and go to sleep (it helps to dissolve the tomato paste in some broth).When you wake up, it will look like this.
I served mine over rice. By the way, that much cheese on top of anything is not healthy. And the slice of what could be vanilla cheesecake is actually cornbread. Fitting, no? Bon appetit!