Author: westyn

Simple Lemony Dill Sauce


This couldn’t be simpler or more delicious. I use this for salmon burgers, but you could use it as a Greek tzatziki sauce too. It has bright flavors and it’s even better when it sits in the fridge for a couple of hours to blend. 

SIMPLE LEMONY DILL SAUCE (makes about 3/4 C., which is a lot for a topping)
– 1/2 C. sour cream
– juice of 1/2 lemon
– 1 tbsp. dill
– 2 tbsp. chopped scallions
– 1 tsp. garlic powder
– kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1. In a bowl, combine the sour cream with the lemon juice, dill, garlic powder, kosher salt & pepper,  and scallions.

2. Mix everything together and refrigerate for at least an hour if possible. This keeps about as long as your sour cream would. It’s awesome. 




Spinach & Artichoke Dip

I love everything about this. Artichokes, creamed spinach, a little mozz, a little cream cheese, a little sour cream – it’s so delicious, it’s gone before you know it. And it reheats really well too. I hosted my friend Missy’s birthday party this past weekend, and threw this together before all the girls showed up for the night…at 3pm. Older, but probably not wiser. :]

SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP (serves a pack of 13 “ladies”, if you include 4 pizzas, another veggie dip, mini cupcakes, a couple cases of CLs/ALs, infinite wine and champagne and a total lack of shame on any of our parts).
– 2 8 oz. packages of creamed spinach (the creamed part is key)
– 2 cans artichoke hearts, drained really well and chopped
– a package of shredded mozzarella cheese (A whole package. Yes, I know.)
– 1/3 C. cream cheese, softened
– 1/3 C. sour cream
– 1/4 C. parmesan
– 1/4 C. mayo (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook creamed spinach according to package directions. Put into a bowl.

3. Add chopped artichoke hearts to the spinach and stir to combine.


4. To the spinach/artichoke mixture, add the cream cheese, sour cream, mozz, parmesan and optional mayo.  Stir it all together and spread evenly in an oven-proof serving dish.


5. Bake at 350 until cooked, approx. 15-20 minutes.  Remove, let cool, and serve with tortilla scoops or chips. 


Happiness – winter edition

 Bright pink manicures in December

 How cute my mom is with packaging little snacks for me

 My amazing Dad’s last day in the office and a surprise champagne celebration for him by his girls.  <3

 NYE with 2 of my favorite California guys

 Gift exchange party with my girlfriends

 Finding Maggie’s incredible peanut butter cup cheesecake bites in my purse the day after the gift exchange party

 ORGANIC EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME. It was honestly ridiculous how happy looking at everything in this cart kept making me.

  

 How in love my Mom and Dad still are after 36 years together

 Saturday celebrations that begin at 3 pm

 My favorite girl’s 4th birthday and her awesome approach to cake-eating.

Wine Club dinner at the Westmoreland Club – at least 2 things on that menu that I’d never had before.

New TV. Comprehensive installation directions. Somebody who actually knew how to assemble it.
Snowstorms (although, okay, I’m just about over them at this point).

I love you, winter! Looking forward to missing you when you go away real soon.  xo

My Dad’s “Better than Any Other You’ll Ever Have” French Onion Soup

For years I tried – and failed – to find a french onion soup that rivaled my Dad’s. It’s not just that he makes it and it’s so comforting it makes me feel like home, but it’s just hands-down delicious: perfect balance of onions and broth, flavor and cheese. There is nobody – no restaurant, no chef, no person – who makes this better than he does. It’s been FREEZING with this polar vortex lately – this is a perfect time to try one of the best soups you’ll ever have.

As a side note – I can’t stand soggy bread, so I just dump some shredded swiss in this and it melts on contact, but this soup does look so pretty with that little island of bread and melted cheese!

FRENCH ONION SOUP (serves at least 6)
— By the way. This is not exactly a recipe you’d file under “healthy”.  Enjoy.
– 1 stick butter (yup, I said it)
– 2-3 red onions and 2-3 vidalia onions, sliced into thinner half moons
– 3 cans beef broth
– 2 cans beef consomme
– 3 bay leaves
– 1/4 C. red wine
– 1.5 C. shredded swiss cheese
– rounds of toasted baguettes 

1. In the largest pan you have, melt the butter over medium heat. 


2. Slice the onions into thin half moons, then add to the melted butter. You don’t want to sweat them, you just want them to soften a little. So no salt needed.

3. When onions are softened but still have some bite to them (that’s the master at work, right there!), open up the cans of beef broth and beef consomme and add to the pan.


 4. Add the bay leaves, then the red wine.

5. Bring the whole mix up to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Simmah.

6. Shred the swiss, cut and toast the french baguette rounds in the oven.  Turn the oven to broil.

7. Scoop some of the soup into an oven-proof bowl. If you don’t like the soggy (but pretty) island of bread and cheese, you can just mix the cheese right into the bowl. If you do, though, place a round of bread on top of the soup, then top with shredded cheese. 

8. My Dad swears the key to melting, not burning, the cheese is to leave the oven door open. I’m taking his word for it.


 



9. When cheese is melted, let cool a bit (it’ll be super hot) and enjoy!!!  You’ll never go back to restaurant french onion soup again.


Mom <3
If you get the bay leaf, it’s good luck!

World’s Greatest Pumpkin Dip


I had this pumpkin dip years ago with KOB at a party in Manhattan, and I’ve been making it ever since. I’ve taken it to parties in three different states and countless cities, and I’ve given out this recipe more times than I can tell you. It’s not the healthiest, but hey – pumpkin’s good for you, right?  Anything that tastes this good deserves a pass, in any case.

WORLD’S GREATEST PUMPKIN DIP (topped with pomegranate seeds – optional)
– 1 15-oz can Libby’s pure pumpkin
– 2 C powdered sugar (make sure this is powdered, not regular)
– 12 oz. cream cheese (1.5 sticks)
– 1 tbsp. cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
– 1/2 tsp. ginger
– pomegranate seeds (optional)

1. Let cream cheese soften, then combine with powdered sugar.




2. Add pumpkin puree and spices, blend. A hand blender really helps mix this all together. You want to combine it all so that there are hardly any lumps at all. 



3. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to let it all combine.

4. Top with pomegranate seeds (this is optional, but pretty – see this post for how to remove seeds from a pomegranate without making a mess) and serve with cinnamon-sugar chips, ideally. Get ready to give this recipe to just about everyone who tastes it. 

Happy 2014.  <3

How to: get pomegranate seeds out of a pomegranate without making a mess


Pomegranates are awesome and a powerhouse of antioxidants, but if you’ve ever tried to de-seed one, you know how messy they can be. I’ve found that this technique works like a charm, without making your kitchen look like a crime scene with all the red pomegranate juice.

HOW TO: DE-SEED A POMEGRANATE 

1. Get a pomegranate. They’re usually available in most grocery stores during the winter. They’re so pretty!

2. Fill a bowl with water.

3. Underneath the water, score the pomegranate, then pull the scored sections apart.

4. Working underwater (this keeps everything from being messy) separate the pomegranate seeds from the white “pith” part – they should all fall away pretty easily. The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the pith is light enough that it’ll float to the surface.



5. Drain the bowl, remove the seeds, and enjoy. Sprinkle them on top of the World’s Greatest Pumpkin Dip, yogurts, salads, or just eat on their own. I love everything about these. 

Merry Christmas


Ugh, I know, I’ve been the worst at writing for the last couple months. 2014 is going to better on every level. If it makes any difference, though, December has been a blast.

The last official party in the Piazza’s basement – great memories of this place!!
Beer pong table as notarized by Steppacher Law Offices 
Dad’s birthday, and Mom’s birthday:
Trips into NYC, where I had an unbelievable dinner at Mario Batali’s Tarry Lodge and did not take one picture of anything but the amazing cheeses and local pears I bought from Bedford Cheese Shop
Hearts in the snow on the drive in to a 4am morning show taping at the hospital with the lovely Jasmine Brooks of WBRE:
Live nativity performance…this was way more elaborate than I was expecting:


Friends & Christmas cocktails. Book Club Christmas party. Walks home in the snow with friends.

I love this season.
MY FRIEND Klob <3 





Christmas singalongs on the prettiest piano I ever saw in real life.




Our family’s Tree Lighting Party – haven’t had a tree go up in flames yet:

And, Christmas Eve. Christmas Day. Merry Christmas, everybody.


Dad making the Christmas ham with A Christmas Story playing in the background…perfect.









White Bean “Hummus” with Sage and Roasted Garlic

For months now I’ve been in a salad/scoop/soup kind of mood. That’s going to change next week, because my mom just let me know I’m in charge of making a pumpkin pie “with tiny leaves made out of dough” for Thanksgiving. I’ve never made a pumpkin pie. I’ve definitely never made one with “tiny leaves made out of dough”.  Soo…in the interim, let’s get back to the 3 s’s.  This one falls under the “scoop” category, and it’s awesome. 

WHITE BEAN HUMMUS WITH SAGE AND ROASTED GARLIC (makes a side for about 5 people)
– 1 can white Northern beans, rinsed and drained
– couple sage leaves, chopped
– 1 clove garlic, roasted
– 1/4 EVOO (or less. Add this little by little to desired consistency)
– squeeze of lemon 
– Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1. Roast that garlic. Lop the top off of it, place it on a piece of tin foil, cover with some EVOO & salt, wrap the top loosely & place in an oven at 400 for about 30-40 mins.


2. Remove garlic from the oven when it’s soft & golden. Let it cool a little bit.


3. Rinse and drain a can of white beans. Put in a food processor.


4. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the food processor with the beans (you can skip this completely if you don’t like roasted garlic. I do, though!)


5. Add chopped sage & lemon juice & salt/pepper.


6. Add EVOO little by little, blending well, until the “hummus” is combined and fluffy.


7. Serve with french bread, veggies, or (of course) pretzel chips.


— Side notes.  It’s been an incredible couple of days. Without getting into the beginning part of this week and why it was wonderful, in the last 24 hours two of my friends Pat & Peggy got engaged. I set them up at the beginning of this year, and couldn’t be more excited for them. This is the second couple I set up who are getting married!!! I mean that’s got to be a better track record than Patti Stanger, right??

Also, we had an incredible time promoting The Great American Smokeout this morning with one of my favorites, Ryan Leckey, at South Scranton Intermediate. I do PR for Geisinger-CMC. The hospital, and Geisinger in general, is really involved with community health initiatives, so we brought in the Director of the PA Department of Health to talk to the middle school kids about the dangers of smoking, and I built a morning show (“Leckey Live“) around it. I could talk for an hour straight about everything that went wrong while I was trying to coordinate this, but I won’t, because when I walked into South Scranton this morning and saw how they had decked out the whole auditorium with signs and posters and banners etc., I was so psyched about how it looked that I high-fived the maintenance guys who’d shown up at 4am to let us into the school to start taping. South Scranton has a special place in my heart as the school we used to do our high school plays at before Scranton Prep built our fancy stage & auditorium, and it was so cool to be back there as an adult, coordinating one of my favorite morning shows ever, and feel the energy in the place from everyone (90+ kids, cheerleaders, parents, school staff, Geisinger representatives) who was so excited to be there. Ryan and his cameraman Corey just knock it out of the park, every time, but today was something extra special.  

At least once a day I think “I love my job”. Today I had a bunch of those moments. 

Enjoy the clips from the show here and here. 


My Kind of Town

I love Chicago. My college boyfriend grew up outside the city, so I spent some time here back then, but aside from a stopover on my way back from Montana, I haven’t been here in about ten years. When I got the last-minute nod to attend a healthcare conference, AND fly out on a day that otherwise would have held some significance for me, I had to acknowledge the “fate” aspect of all of it. I crammed restaurants, Magnificent Mile shopping, a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, gorgeous runs along Lake Michigan and around Navy Pier, an event at the Shedd Aquarium around 4 days of awesome panels, presentations and people at SHSMD.  And of course, had some incredible meals, too.

First night’s dinner was at Piccolo Sogno. I had an unreal grilled calamari and radicchio salad and pumpkin ravioli.  Hurraugh, it’s Fall!


Breakfast at Yolk:  


I’m usually not an eggs benedict kind of girl, but my Dad loves that breakfast, I whenever I travel I’ll get eggs benedict as a nod to him. These were awesome. Right, that’s smoked salmon instead of ham.

The Art Institute of Chicago, which I haven’t been to in years. This museum has my favorite Impressionism collection in the country, and the first time I saw some of these paintings in real life it actually made me emotional. 


And, one of the best (and prettiest) meals I’ve ever had in my entire life at Topolobampo. Oh, my god. I had this tuna tartare with tomatillo guac & mango, which was one of the tastiest things I’ve ever eaten, roasted cauliflower soup, this unbelievable lamb with a 28-spice mole, and the best margarita I’ve ever had, anywhere, including Mexico. Ok, two margaritas. 

I had to make myself stop saying “Oh, my god”, OUT LOUD, after every bite.  

  

I love you, Chicago. Thanks for being everything I needed.