Spiced Cottage Cheese Chip Dip

Cottage cheese blended with spices makes a simple dip that is great with potato chips or vegetable dippers. But really, you want it with potato chips. The ruffled kind are best.

On this blog I typically share how I feed my family the seasonal produce of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. Occasionally I'll share other, non-produce inspired recipes.

This is one of those times because every summer gathering needs a good potato chip dip.

This is an old family recipe that has been passed onto the 3rd generation. My daughter now makes it, and scribbles the amounts I call out in decimals--".66 mayonnaise", anyone? It seems awfully silly for a family recipe of what amounts to a diet food [used as a way to get more potato chips into my mouth] but no matter.

Growing up my mom didn't buy those tubs of sour cream-based dips for parties. She'd just make up this dip instead. When my brother comes home from overseas, in addition to fried eggs, he wants a bag of chips, a container of cottage cheese, and seasoned salt--the bachelor version. I thought everyone ate cottage cheese as a chip dip, and had no clue cottage cheese was thought of as a diet food until recently.

We are particular about our cottage cheese and prefer a dried style and smaller curd than most nationwide brands. Each time we move I have to find a new cottage cheese source, and here in Ohio it's Michigan brand cottage cheese.  Since I'm still not really sure how to respond when someone yells O-H!, and since my spouse is from Michigan, there is no foolish sports-related reason not to live in Ohio and enjoy Michigan brand cottage cheese. No sponsorship implied--sharing a fine example of 'good' cottage cheese for this dip. Back on the east coast it was Nordica brand. I never found a good brand in Hawaii. I ate sushi and malasadas instead.

For grins and giggles, even though there's not a vegetable in it or a Chip Dip Category on it, check out the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. If you're still got time to kill while avoiding something more pressing, head over to Pinterest and follow my Awesome Vegetable Apps and Snacks. Still want to poke around? Learn how to Use This Blog here.

Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto Smashed Potatoes

Crispy grilled potatoes smashed and seasoned with garlic scape pesto.

Subtitle:  Yet Another Reason Why You Should Put Up Garlic Scape Pesto This Year

I will shamelessly admit that this post is a Call to Action. I want you to find garlic scapes (if it's not too late in your neck of the woods) and make pesto with them. Make lots and lots of pesto, then freeze some of it because pesto lasts a long time and can be enjoyed in so many ways.

Here is my garlic scape pesto (GSP) recipe, using pistachios, parsley and basil for that whole Green on Green action, but use the recipe that appeals to you the most. There are many pesto options in my Garlic Scape Recipe Round Up and on my Garlic Scapes Pinterest Board. If you get enough scapes, you could try them all!

I use a bit less olive oil in my recipe so the result is a thicker pesto, easy to scoop (Amazon affiliate link to my scoop) onto a tray to freeze. [I prefer not to use my ice cube trays since I use them to make ice and never have enough ice in the summer.] I often whisk thawed scoops of GSP with additional oil before using, like I did in today's recipe.

The first time I heard about smashed potatoes was while skimming through a Pioneer Woman cookbook in the bookstore. I failed at my first attempt to make them [I was too vigorous with my smashing] but they still tasted good. I tried them again on our old grill, but when your grill is optimized for portability and powered by a creme brûlée torch-sized can of propane, you learn not to expect much. The third time was the charm for these spuds--I didn't crash too vigorously and the grill was big enough, and hot enough [and gosh darn it, people like it] to make this concept work.

These were rounds 3 and 4 for the grill--I'd already grilled green beans and zucchini for later use.

My daughter filled up a 3 quart saucepan with potatoes because I know that no matter how they are prepared, my family loves potatoes. I only grilled what would fit on my grill sheet because I didn't want overcrowding, and because we can always find a use for cooked & cooled potatoes. [In this case, some went onto a pizza, some went into a spinach and potato quesadilla, and some were fried up with onions and eggs for breakfast.]

For other recipes using Garlic Scapes, please see my Garlic & Garlic Scapes Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. I've got a Pinterest board of Garlic Scape Recipes here, and a Round Up of 28+ Food Blogger Recipes Using Garlic Scapes here.

Make and Take Smoothies for Moms

Consider giving the gift of smoothies to a new mom, a friend recovering from oral surgery, or a harried neighbor. Ready to shake up and drink, smoothies are a fast way to get some nutrition and get back to business--be that bonding, healing, or caregiving.

Motherhood equals nurturing (no, you don't have to have created/raised offspring to read on--we've all had moms). One way folks nurture is via food [hello, nurture and nutrition share the same root].
Taking meals to a new mom is one way of nurturing the new family as they become a unit. Taking a meal to a mom after her 6th kid is just plain nurturing for her [though watching the kids and doing her laundry so she can get a massage is even better but doesn't fit with my theme for today's recipe].

What about other folks who need nurturing? A busy friend caring for aging parents? A neighbor caring for his ailing wife? Someone recovering from oral surgery? It's the last situation that inspired today's post, but the more I though about it the more I think this concept would work for a variety of circumstances.

Smoothies keep for several days, and it's easy to scale up a recipe to make an extra portion. With that in mind, when I found out my friend wouldn't be eating solid food for quite some time after her tonsillectomy, I offered to bring her some smoothies. I was going to be near her home on post-op day #5 and that seemed like a good time to deliver as she'd be coming out of the initial post-op haze.