Homemade Tzatziki Sauce

To go along with the Chicken Gyro recipe, this sauce is the perfect accompaniment to any Mediterranean food or as a dip for your veggies.  I recommend using the small side of your grater for the cucumbers. 

Click here for printable recipe.

Posted by Lara.

( Makes 3-4 cups of sauce)

The ingredients:
2 regular cucumbers, peeled
1 (32 oz.) container plain Greek yogurt
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp. red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp.  fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. dried dill
salt and a little pepper
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Shred or grate the cucumbers, place them in a clean kitchen towel, and then squeeze to get rid of as much excess moisture as possible.  (NOTE:  the smaller you grate the cucumber, the better the texture of the sauce)

Mix together the Greek yogurt, shredded cucumbers, garlic, vinegar and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. It’s best to refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving, so flavors can blend.
Drizzle a little olive oil over the top before serving.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Tide and Thyme

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Crab Dip or Crab Alfredo sauce

For the last week I've been wishing that there was something I could do for Lara and her family. If I were still in her town then I would be bringing her family dinner, but then I realized that I can bring her virtual dinner! Lara asked me to be a part of this blog last year to help her out. Sorry I've been a slacker, but I promise that I will do a better job to help keep this blog going and not give Lara more things to worry about. So without further ado...

Whenever I have a social gathering at my house I love to make various dips. One of my favorites is a warm crab dip. This recipe is rather special to me because it is the recipe that my mom has been using for years and every year during the holidays we would make this. So now it has become one of my traditions as well, but not just for the holidays. It's always popular with my guests and people are constantly asking me for the recipe. The great thing about this dip, is that if you make it a little thinner by adding more cream or milk then voila...you have a crab alfredo sauce for your pasta!

Click here for printable recipe.

Posted by Jen.

The Ingredients:
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
2-3 c milk
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
dash pepper and nutmeg
dash Tobasco sauce (oops forgot to put it in the picture)
14 oz pkg of imitation crab meat, finely chopped

The Directions:
First make a white sauce. (check out the tutorial for making a white sauce here). Melt the butter in a large pan, then sprinkle in the flour. Stir together until the flour is cooked into the butter.Turn temperature up to med high and add a cup of milk at a time, stirring constantly so that it doesn't lump up. As it gets thicker, add more milk until the desired consistancy.Mix in the Parmesan cheese, and spices. At this point you have a basic Alfredo sauce that would be great over pasta. (just add a little more Parmesan cheese and garlic to taste if that's your thing). But we are not stopping here, so add the chopped crab.
Mix well. Add more spices to taste. This is actually better served the next day. So let it cool and then put in a microwave or oven safe bowl and place in the fridge overnight. The following day just add a little more milk or cream (it will be quite thick!) and heat all the way through. You can heat it in the microwave or my mom actually sprinkles more Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs on top and heats in in the oven. Serve with solid crackers as this is rather thick. Triscuits are great, Ritz are not. Or serve with toasted baguette/french bread. If you happen to have left overs, or just want to make this a pasta dish, simply add more milk and make the sauce thinner. Pour and mix into cooked pasta.

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Avocado and Pomegranate Chip Dip

Welcome to the Recipe Shoebox's goodie-a-day Holiday Baking series.  Come back daily through December for a new holiday recipe! 

Okay, okay...I know this isn't technically a goodie recipe, but it's so good, so different, and so Christmasy looking that I just couldn't resist sharing it here.  Avocados and pomegranate may sound like such a weird combination, but the creaminess of the avocados actually complements the tart juiciness of the pomegranate seeds in an unexpectedly yummy way.  Every time I've served this it has disappeared quickly, so you may want to save out your portion before serving to everyone else! ;)

Click here for printable recipe. 

Posted by Lara. 

The ingredients:


2 ripe avocados, diced small
1 large tomato, diced small
1 Tbs. finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. lemon juice
seeds of one pomegranate
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and stir gently.  Serve with tortilla chips.
Enjoy! 

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Fun Halloween Food Ideas

I've been doing Halloween dinners for my family and friends for the fast few years. Every year I look forward to planning out new ideas and theme meals. Here are a few that I've done in the past couple of years. These are just pictures with a little "how to" but not a ton of detail. If you're anything like me, sometimes you're just looking for an idea to get those creative juices flowing. I hope I can help out even just a little bit with your Halloween holiday season.

Coffin cake
I baked a cake in a loaf pan and then froze it. Then I cut it into a coffin shape and cut off the top part for the lid. I put cherry pie filling in the middle. Then I used leftover cake crumbs for the ground and piped white frosting hands coming up out of the ground. My only complaint was that this was small. The next time I'd make it in a 13x9 pan.

Stake through the heart chicken nuggets.
This is just chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce. I thought it looked kind of gross so it was appropriate for our Halloween dinner.
Batty brownies
I baked brownies in a spring form pan. When cooled I sprinkled powdered sugar on one side to be a moon. I melted chocolate chips and piped it into bat shapes. Before the chocolate set I added red hots as the eyes.
Eyeballs and brains
This is just spaghetti and meatballs. I used red pepper for the tongue. My boys loved this.

Funny face tostadas
We had tostada shells with all the toppings. Use some re-fried beans so that things stick a little better. Everyone got to create their own face.
Spider pizza
I used the pizza dough in a tube and bread sticks in a tube to make this. I made my pizza with our preferred toppings. Then I took some of the bread sticks and criss-crossed them on top to be like a web. Take a spare bread stick and roll into 2 balls with one being larger than the other. This is the spider head and body. Add on some cut in half bread sticks to be the legs. I used olives for the eyes.
Spider guacamole dip
This was actually like a 7-layer dip. I reserved the sour cream in a baggie and piped a spiderweb on it. For spiderweb instructions go here.Frankenstein dip
This is a spinach dip underneath with a Frankenstein guacamole on top. I used sour cream and olives for the eyes, olives for the hair and bolts, and red pepper for mouth. I found a Frankenstein picture on line and printed it out. I traced it onto the cold spinach dip with a toothpick and then filled it in with the guacamole.
I hope you enjoyed these ideas and have as much fun coming up with ideas and making them as I do. Have a great Halloween party! Happy Halloween!

Click here to see a menu of all of our Halloween recipes in one place and be sure to stop by Recipe Shoebox every day this week for more fun Halloweeny recipes!



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