Bread Bowl Spinach and Artichoke dip

Ingredients:  creamed spinach (I get the frozen-steam-in-bag-kind), a jar of artichoke hearts, feta or goat cheese, mozzarella shreds, and a nice, round, unsliced loaf of bread.

Instructions:  1.)  cook/heat/nuke creamed spinach if it is frozen, then mix creamed spinach, artichoke hearts, and cheeses.  2.)  cut the center out of the bread so that it creates a bowl.  3.) place bread bowl on cookie sheet and surround with the torn to chip sized innards of the bowl.  4.)  fill bowl with dip mixture.  5.) bake at 400 for about a half hour, then remove the bread pieces and put the bowl back in the oven.  6.)  bake another 15 to 20 minutes, arrange in an aesthetically pleasing manner and enjoy!

Mini Quiches

Ingredients:  eggs, shredded cheese, steamed and pulverized broccoli, flour, butter, water.

Instructions:  1.) make some pie crust dough:  this is really easy and usually requires mixing together a little less butter than flour and a trickling of water to hold it all together.  You don’t even have to worry too much about the texture and consistency on something this small.  2.) push pie crust dough into a mini muffin pan (yup, don’t roll it out at all, just use your fingers–I told you it was easy).  3.) mix together steamed/pulverized broccoli, eggs, and shredded cheese.  I used 2 eggs for an entire mini muffin pan (see previous sentence on small portion consistency).  4.)  spoon mixture into pie crust dough lined mini muffin divots.  5.)  bake at 350 or 400 until they firm up and brown a bit (estimate 20 to 30 min.).

Release tip:  I typically use a lot of butter in my pie dough and so do not worry about greasing the muffin pan.  If you are worried about sticking, you can use the butter stick paper to lightly grease the pan.  To get all the little quiches out, fit foil over the top of the pan after it cools a little.  Hold edges firmly and flip the whole thing over on the counter, then un-crimp the foil and lift the pan off the freed and un-dented quiches.

As I was drawing out my little appetizers, I noticed how alike they all look.  At least they look alike in black and white line art.  But then, many appetizers share the key characteristic of being finger foods.  They are bite sized and usually do not require any type of serving/dining wear.  They are like little pill capsules of food, and this is why (I say) all my pictures look alike.

On with the recipe:  Mini Potato Halves.  Ingredients:  I like to get the net bag of mini Yukon Gold potatoes, but any mini potato will do.  You will also need sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon and chives.

Instructions:  1.) empty the little potatoes into a big pot with some water and boil until manage-ably soft.  2.)  let cool enough to handle.  3.)  slice in half and spoon out a good portion of the innards (put aside in a bowl);  line hollowed halves on a foil lined cookie tray; water your plants with the potato water.  4.) add an entire small potato or two to the separated innards, combine with sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon bits, and chives; mash all into paste.  5.) spoon or pipe paste into hollowed halves and top with bacon piece.  6.) bake at 350 until edges are brown (I estimate 30 min.).