a lovely living

I don’t know about you, but we have plenty of plans in the upcoming week. Fun, relaxing plans with friends and family, but plans nonetheless where hungry people will be involved! Spinach artichoke dip is nothing new, but recipes can often be hit or miss. I view it similarly to a chocolate chip cookie, there must be a million recipes out there but when you find one you love, you stick to it. A friend of mine made this particular dip over a year ago and since then I must have used the recipe close to a dozen times! It’s easy to put together, can be served with anything from bread to chips or vegetables, and is a hit with everyone that has tried it. If you don’t use it in the immediate future, you may want to bookmark it because it’s worth coming back for!

Recipe via The Girl Who Ate Everything:

Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained well) OR 10 ounces fresh spinach, chopped
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, or more to taste
dash of cayenne pepper, or more to taste

Directions:
. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, warm cream cheese in microwave for about a minute to soften. Add spinach, artichokes, sour cream, mayonnaise, and parmesan. Mix all together and add garlic salt and cayenne to taste. Don’t worry, if using fresh spinach it will reduce down while cooking.
. Place in an oven safe dish and bake in the oven at for about 20 minutes or until the top is toasty. If you’re using fresh spinach bake for 20 minutes, stir, and bake for an additional 10 minutes if needed.
. Serve with bread, chips or veggies.

When I can find the time, I love to sit and decorate sugar cookies. Time, well, and patience, being the main ingredients. Prepping the dough and baking the cookies is simple enough, but working with icing and it’s varying consistencies and colors can take a bit of time. However, if you do have the time and this sounds enjoyable (I know I’ve lost some of you already!), then these are right up your alley!

The key to the base layer of icing is to have it a bit runny so that it will dry smoothly. This means you may need to add a few teaspoons of water to your icing. Do this slowly, it won’t take much.  If you do mess up, you can always add more powdered sugar back into the icing to thicken it back up. Make sure you give the base enough time to dry before decorating. You’ll then want the icing a bit thicker when you’re ready to decorate (as I just stated, simply add some powdered sugar back into your bowl of icing and mix), otherwise your designs will be running all over the place.

After browsing Pinterest and magazines and playing with my own ideas…

…I narrowed this years batch to my favorite three designs…a snowflake and two types of Christmas trees.

A classic cookie that becomes all your own! My son wanted to help but when he saw things were getting a bit intricate he decided “Mom, you’re doing a good job on your own”, ha!

Here are the recipes for the Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing that I used both via All Recipies:

Sandy’s Super Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:

5 1 /2 C flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch of salt
2 C butter at room temp
2 C sugar
2 large eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

Beat butter and white sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture on low speed until dough is just-combined.

Divide dough into 4 portions; refrigerate 3 portions. Roll remaining portion out on a lightly-floured work surface to 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into desired shapes and transfer cookies to prepared baking sheet

Bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat rolling, cutting, and baking process with remaining dough portions.

Royal Icing III:

Ingredients:

3 C powdered sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 egg whites

Directions:

In a bowl, sift together confectioners’ sugar and cream of tartar. Using electric mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.

I’m a sucker for Mexican food. I’ve previously shared a wonderful Chicken, Black Bean & Quinoa Bake and highly recommend it. This casserole, however is one of the easiest dishes I’ve prepared. It only has four ingredients, so how difficult could it be? Chances are you’ll be baking up a storm in the upcoming weeks, so you may want to keep this recipe on hand. Simple, quick and delicious so you can spend your valuable time elsewhere!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole via Jo Cooks:

INGREDIENTS

1 14 oz jar or can Enchilada sauce
2 to 3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
6 corn tortillas, 6 inch each
2 chicken breasts (I used 3)

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut each chicken breast in about 3 pieces, so that it cooks faster and put it in a small pot. Pour Enchilada sauce over it and cook covered on low to medium heat until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. No water is needed, the chicken will cook in the Enchilada sauce. Make sure you stir occasionally so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Remove chicken from the pot and shred with two forks.

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.

Start layering the casserole. Start with about ¼ cup of the leftover Enchilada sauce over the bottom of a baking dish. I used a longer baking dish, so that I can put 2 corn tortillas across.

Place 2 tortillas on the bottom, top with ⅓ of the chicken and ⅓ of the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with ⅓ of the cheese and repeat starting with 2 more tortillas, then chicken, sauce, cheese. Repeat with last layer with the remaining ingredients, tortillas, chicken, sauce and cheese.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes uncovered, until bubbly and cheese has melted and started to brown on top.

Serve warm.