Spinach Artichoke Dip

Spinach artichoke dip is one of those party dishes that you can kind of feel good about. It's main base is vegetables after all. We won't talk about the other ingredients. They are there to make it all taste good!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

from

Copperfield's Coffee Cafe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 bag of frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well drained

2 cans plain artichoke hearts, drained.

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 or 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Optional: 1/2 teaspoon of Tobasco sauce

Salty tortilla chips for dipping

In a food processor combine all the ingredients except the tortilla chips. Process until smooth. Pour into a buttered casserole dish and back for 35 to 40 minutes or until the dip is hot and started to brown a little. You can transfer it to a chafing dish to keep warm on a buffet table. Serve with salty tortilla chips.

Spinach Casserole

First, I'll report that both Tigger and Pipster are doing fine and have mellowed out completely! No fights, no growls, no hissing. It's wonderful.

You may be planning a New Years Eve get together or a good roast pork and black eyed peas meal for New Years Day, so thought you might like a good spinach casserole recipe to go with. This one is from the 1987 cook book published by the Lebanon United Methodist Women. It's called "Specialities of the House" and it has some pretty good real recipes. This recipe is called Roxie's Spinach Casserole and was contributed by my mother. Roxie was a very dear friend who passed away a couple of years ago. She was always loads of fun, bright and always smiling. We miss her and we love her spinach casserole. Enjoy!

Roxie's Spinach Casserole



4 10oz packages of frozen spinach - or bags of frozen spinach to equal

1 pound button mushrooms, gently washed and sliced or any mild mushroom you like

1 glove garlic

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 pound grated Swiss cheese

5 tablespoons butter

5 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups whole milk

a few grates of nutmeg (optional)

Cook the spinach with the garlic. Drain the spinach well pressing down on it with the back of a large spoon to get the water out and discard the garlic. Transfer the spinach to a large mixing bowl.  Cook the sliced mushrooms in two tablespoons of butter. You might add a little oil just to keep the butter from burning. Cook the mushrooms over high heat, disturbing them very little so they brown a bit. Add them to the spinach. 

In a medium saucepan, make a white sauce of the five tablespoons of butter and flour and milk. Melt the butter, whisk the flour into the butter and cook it over medium high heat for a minute whisking the mixture as you go.  Add milk to the butter flour mixture and cook, whisking well until the sauce is thick and smooth. If you heat the milk, just until its hot, it incorporates more easily into the butter and flour. Add the salt, the nutmeg and 3/4th of the cheese to the sauce and cook, stirring until the cheese begins to melt.

Pour the cheese sauce over the spinach and mushrooms and mix together. Pour the mixture into a buttered casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese. Let stand one hour or longer before baking in a 350 degree oven for an hour.  My mother uses a deep, oval casserole dish with a lid. It's about 9 inches long and five inches wide four or five inches tall. It is an oven to table decorative dish. She likes to bring this casserole to parties in that dish because it keeps well and the dish is pretty, so all she has to do is take the lid off and serve.

Note:  I've augmented the original instructions and added the nutmeg - it was not in the original recipe but always goes well with spinach and Swiss cheese. 

This is my version of a deep, covered casserole dish. This one is by Portmerion and is great for serving a variety of casseroles and vegetables. It's oven to table as well.



Almost All Cats Neutered

Yesterday I finally took the 2010 kittens (now grown cats) to be neutered. I had purchased a spay/neuter voucher from the Warren County Humane Association to have the mother cat spay but she died before I could catch her. She was just a feral cat that showed up and left me kittens this spring. The voucher was going to expire in February so it was time to put it to use. Since I am off work this week it seemed a perfect time to use it and I had two tom cats that were fighting each other all the time. Yesterday I gathered up Tigger and Pipster and took them to my small animal vet to be neutered. I picked them up this morning. They are a little miffed with me and still a little quiet. I'll keep them in the house at least through today.

That means I have just one little guy from the spring 2011 litter to have neutered and then everyone is done!  That's eight cats, seven of which are male, all neutered.

Neutering male cats is a pretty simple procedure. I board cattle for a vet and he neutered three of the kittens on my kitchen counter in October. I just couldn't catch the fourth. He gave them each a shot of something to put them out, then it was a quick slice, twist, snip and tie off. The boys woke up later that evening, played just like always and seemed to have no idea anything had changed. I admit Pipster and Tigger are not quite so carefree about their operations, but I am sure they will be fine by this evening. I forgot to ask the vet how long it would take for the testosterone to disappear from their systems. I expect about a month. Here's a picture of the two "tuxedo boys" from this year, Zeke on the left, and Little Joe.