For the Super Bowl party that I went to, I ended up making three different dips to share.  I thought I’d share them all in one post so that you’d have all three together…..and since this post is already pretty delayed, this way it wouldn’t be even longer delayed by putting them each into their own post.

The first dip I made was the NaCHO Cheese Dip from Little Bitty Bakes.  Liz actually warned me that it might be too spicy for me, so I definitely kept an eye on the spices I was adding.  Thanks for the warning, Liz!

This dip does take a bit of time and patience to make – especially if you are like me and are prone to burning things on the stove.  But once its all melted, it is very easy to adjust the spice level of this.  We ended up adding about 1/2 cup more cheese to the recipe, my taste tester (aka the husband) thought he could taste the Greek Yogurt in it still after it was all melted together.  A little extra cheese can’t hurt. When I added the spices, I added about half of the suggested amount first and then had the husband taste it and tell me how spicy it was. He said it really wasn’t spicy at all and had me taste it.  YUM!  Well, yummy for me but bland for probably every other person that would taste it.  So, the husband added the rest of the spices, and then he actually added about a teaspoon more chili powder than suggested to give it a bit more flavor.  At that point I’m sure it was too spicy for me, but he seemed to like it and others did as well.

Ease: A-, it does take a bit or time and attention to melt the cheese yogurt together.
Taste: A, It looked and tasted just like “normal” nacho cheese, with a bit of a healthy twist with the Greek Yogurt.

Would I make it again? Yeah I think so.  It is a bit tricky to serve since it needs to be hot.  Next time, I think I’d actually serve it in a fondue pot rather than a little crockpot that way it doesn’t need to be so close to a plug!

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The second dip that I made was Spicy Black Bean and Corn Dip from my Madison area friend Sarah Learns.  As you all probably know by now, I’m not a big fan of spicy things but I know other people are so I decided to make this anyways – I know other people like spicy things so I wasn’t really worried about it getting eaten.

This dip was very easy to make thanks to the food processor! You basically just throw everything in, blend, and you’re done! I did actually try a tiny bit of this, and it was definitely too spicy for me to eat more than a tiny bit. but it tasted pretty good!  I was afraid it was going to taste like beans,  but actually the corn really stood out as a flavor as well.

Ease: A, although you do have to chop a couple of things, really the food processor does all of the hard work.
Taste: ?, I don’t feel like I ate enough of this to really comment on the flavor, but the bite I had was flavorful and it smelled good!

Would I make it again? I’m not sure.  Since I’m not really a fan of it I’d have to make sure that I was making it for other people who were.

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The third dip was a Beer Cheese Dip, you can find the recipe here.

This dip was really a no-brainer for me to make for the Super Bowl.  Beer. Cheese. Dip.  All of those words scream football to me. This recipe was VERY easy to make, and only involved 4 ingredients.

It tasted pretty much how you would expect – cream cheese with a hint of cheddar and beer. It was a bit rich for me, but it definitely screams typical foodball food.

Ease: A+, by far the easiest of the three dips.
Taste: A-, it was a bit rich for me, but definitely the thick cheesy dip that you would think of as a party food.

Would I make it again? Yeah, I see this being a popular party recipe in the future.

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

 Our first night in town we decided to just walk until we found somewhere for dinner.  The problem with that idea is that there are SO many restaurants in NYC – and luckily a ton within walking distance of our hotel – that we had a hard time deciding . After a bit of walking, we decided to stop at St. Andrew’s.  It was a Saturday night so we were afraid if we waited too long that everywhere would be crowded and we would be way too hungry to wait to be seated.

The style of this restaurant was rather interesting.  By the name it sounds like an Irish restaurant, but by the decor it seems like a brew pub.  The food was a little mixture of both.  Definitely not your typical pub food, but not too out there that I didn’t feel like there was anything I would eat either.

I started my meal out with a glass of Pinot Noir (which is my wine of choice these days) and it was delicious – especially after a long day of flying.

The meal came with a bread basket.  There were a few different kinds of bread, and even though they weren’t warm, they were still very good.

The restaurant wasn’t very crowded at all when we got there, so apparently this meant our food would come super quickly.  And it did.  I think we had only had our bread for a couple of minutes when our entree’s came.  I guess I’d rather have the food come out quickly rather than having to wait for it for a long time!

For my entree I had the Hazelnut-Crusted Sea Scallops which came with crispy leeks, pearl couscous and a warm tomato emulsion.  At first glance, I was impressed with how much food it was!  Sometimes when you order scallops, you get a couple of small scallops on a large bed of grains, but this was definitely not the case.  Five large scallops and a large portion of couscous. Not only was the portion size large, but they tasted delicious!  I’m not sure what I was expecting hazelnut-crusted scallops to taste like (when I think hazelnut, I always think of Nutella) but these were really good.  The crust added a little bit of nutty sweetness to the perfectly cooked scallops.  Oh, and the couscous really could have been a meal on its own.  Of course being the picky eater that I am, I did pick around some of the peppers and onions that were in the mix, but the couscous was good AND the crispy leeks on top were good too! The presentation was stellar as well.  Definitely a winner.

My co-worker had the Horseradish-Crusted Salmon which came with an artichoke ravoili.  She said it was delicious as well.

Overall the meal was delicious and filling, definitely a good choice for our first meal in the city.

Taste: A+, really delicious.  Some of the best scallops I’ve ever had.
Cost: A, my entree was $25 and for the amount and quality of the food that I got I’d say that’s reasonable.

Would I go there again?  I’m not sure.  Although the food was delicious, and a little out of the ordinary, there are just so many places in NYC to try that I’m not sure I’d want to go to the same place twice.

Sometimes, I get behind on posting recipes that I make.  The ones that I blog about first are generally the best ones – because really, I’m sure you’d all rather hear about something that was delicious rather than something that was not so good, I know I’d much rather write about the delicious ones!  Often when I make a bunch of new recipes in a week, there are at least a few that are just kind of  ”meh.”  Not great, but not bad either.  These are basically recipes that I’m glad I made, and they satisfied whatever craving I had, but I’d probably not ever make again – at least not the exact recipe.  Instead of writing a whole post about each recipe, I thought I’d just do a mini-review of each one and throw them together in one post.

Here I am again with a few recipes that weren’t entirely a bust, but weren’t my favorite either.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

I found this recipe on Pinterest (which seems to be my recipe source of choice these days) and you can find it here.

It wasn’t bad, but I guess I’m just not as big of a fan of spinach and artichoke as I thought I was.  The sauce itself was actually pretty good, and really you can’t go wrong with pasta, just too heavy on the veggies for me I guess.  That being said, if you love spinach and artichokes, you would love this! Oh, and it isn’t all that difficult to make really either.  You just have to make the sauce and then add in everything else once its cooked.  It makes a very large portion too, so there will definitely be leftovers…..well, unless you are feeding 6-8 people…..or maybe just 4 really hungry veggie lovers.

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Looks delicious, right?  I wish it looked as good on the inside as it did on the outside!  This is another Pinterest recipe, and you can find it here.

I should have known something wasn’t quite right when the dough was pretty dry putting it into the skillet to cook.  The directions say to cook it for 35-45 minutes.  Now, I know that our oven is not the best, so I almost always assume that it will be cooking for the longer amount of time.  The photo above is after it had been cooked for 45 minutes. I looks like it is done one the outside, and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean….or so I thought.  I waited a few minutes for it to cool, and then I cut into it realized the middle was still very much dough.  So, I put it back into the oven for another five minutes.  The time came and went, and it didn’t look any more done than before.  Five more minutes.  At this point I’m afraid that the outside is going to burn so I take it out and let it sit for a few minutes, hoping that maybe it will continue cooking a little bit as it sits there in the hot pan.  After a while, I cut into it again.  It still wasn’t completely done, but definitely better than it was before.  I didn’t want to put it back in the oven at this point, so I just ate some of the more done outside, and left the middle.

I was definitely disappointed with how this recipe turned out.  I know that my oven temperature sometimes is off, but could it really have been THAT off?  What else could I have done wrong? Maybe you’ll have better luck with this recipe than I did, because it really would be delicious if it didn’t frustrate me so much!

Have you had any recipe flops recently? Are you a spinach and artichoke fan?

Full Disclosure:  I paid for these cupcakes with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

If you remember my posts from my time in California last summer, it should be no surprise to you that I love cupcakes.  A love that is probably only second to my love of FroYo.  While I was in New York City last week, I visited 3 different cupcake shops in the five days that I was in the city.  And then I visited one of them again because it was so delicious.  Instead of writing a review for each place, I thought I’d combine them into one spot so that you’d only have to be tortured by seeing delicious cupcakes once this week.  Aren’t I thoughtful?

We stayed near the Times Square/Hells Kitchen area so all three of these are within walking distance from there – just in case you are planning a visit in the near future.

Baked By Melissa

The first night we were in town, we stumbled across Baked by Melissa while walking around trying to find somewhere for dinner. The tiny cupcakes looked so cute, and so many of the flavors looked delicious to me!  I got 12 of them for my roommate and I to share.  After I tried a ton of different cupcake places while in California, I learned not to get my hopes up too high with cupcake shops since they are such a trend right now and everyone things they can do cupcakes. Although I was excited about these tiny delicious looking cupcakes, I made sure to be cautious about how excited I got so that it wouldn’t be a total let down if they weren’t very good.

Good news!  They were DELICIOUS!!  The size and flavors were delicious, they were super moist, really some of the best cupcakes I’d ever had.  My favorites of the batch that we got were the Chocolate Chip Pancake and the S’Mores.

The cupcakes were so good, that we even brought some home with us!  The neat little package above held them in perfectly so that they weren’t going to slide around of get squished.  They actually will ship cupcakes to you too!  I also just found on their website a “cupcake customizer”  where you can actually make your own cupcake, and they will make it for you!  Of course, the custom cupcakes are only available when you buy at least 300, but how cute would that be for a wedding or baby shower?!

Taste: A+, seriously some of the most delicious cupcakes I’ve ever had.
Cost: A, I believe each bite size cupcake is a little less than $1 – I know that 25 cupcakes was $20.  I’d say that’s pretty reasonable!

Would I go there again? Absolutely.  We went back another time while we were in town, and I’ll definitely be stopping back there the next time I’m in town too.  So good.  

Crumbs Bakeshop

You may remember that I’ve already reviewed the Crumbs Bake Shop’s in Chicago and Los Angeles.  Each of those times that I went, I went back multiple times during the trip, and everyone that I was with loved the cupcakes.

This time, the day that I happened to venture over to Crumbs was Valentine’s Day.   I realized on my way there that a cupcake shop at 8pm on Valentine’s Day may not have the best selection left.  But I went anyways in hopes that they still had a good variety left.  When I got there, I was disappointed in the selection, as suspected.  I had my heart set on cupcakes though, so when I say the “box of chocolates” filled with mini cupcakes I decided to get one of those.

Unfortunately, these cupcakes were not as awesome as I remembered them being the last time I had them.  Some of the flavors were ones that I had had before – chocolate brownie – and others were new to me – salted caramel chocolate.  I didn’t love any of them really, and they all seemed a bit dry.  I don’t know if this was because they weren’t as fresh as the larger single options in the case or what, but I was definitely disappointed.

Taste: B-, this was partially my fault for going on Valentine’s day, but even the option that they had available was definitely not my favorite.
Cost: C, the “Box of Chocolates” that I got was $20.  Maybe if you were going to eat the whole thing that wouldn’t be a bad deal, but they were so rich, and not super tasty, that I don’t really think it was worth the $20.

Would I go there again?  Possibly.  Other cupcakes that I’ve had from Crumbs are definitely up there in my favorites.  The moral of the story I think is not to go to a bakery on Valentine’s Day

Magnolia Bakery

Just like Crumbs, I’ve been to Magnolia Bakery before, but the one in Los Angeles.  Actually, I’ve been to the Magnolia Bakery in New York before too, but it was long before I was blogging…and actually, I think I only got a brownie that time.

This time when I went to Magnolia Bakery, I chose two cupcakes (one for me and one for my roommate) – Red Velvet (for her) and Flourless Chocolate (for me).

Generally, I don’t like cupcakes with a ton of frosting.  These have about an inch or so on top of the cupcake – however the frosting is very light, almost like whipped cream, so I actually didn’t mind it!  Since the frosting was so light, it wasn’t super rich so I was ok with it in combination with the chocolate cupcake.  The cupcake itself was delicious too!  It was rich, but not overwhelming, and definitely the dense chocolate flavor that I feel like flourless cake should be.

Taste: A, delicious!  I could have lived with a little less frosting, but the fact that it was nice and light helped it not to overwhelm the cupcake flavor.
Cost: A-, I don’t remember exactly, but I believe these were about $4 per cupcake.  Not too bad, but not super cheap either.

Would I go there again?  Yeah, I think so.  Even if you aren’t a fan of cupcakes, Magnolia Bakery has all kinds of other delicious desserts as well!

What is your favorite kind of cupcake?  If you couldn’t tell by my choices, my favorites always have to do with chocolate and/or marshmallow, and sometimes cookie dough.

First of all, can I just ask, what is the deal with Kenley’s headdress (aka scarf) when they go to the theatre in the beginning?  I just don’t get her.

Also: This is another challenge (similar to the Miss Piggy challenge) where I would not wear any of the outfits. However, the purpose of the challenge is to fit the costume design that they were asking for so thats what I will try to judge on.

Favorite: Kara’s design seemed classy enough to feel rich, but still bold enough to stand out without looking too ridiculous.  I think the big bow on the front kind of tied the whole thing together for me.

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(I did like Mondo’s too, but minus the jacket and the crazy hair.)

Least Favorite: Mila’s skirt was off-kilter, the white faux-fur jacket, really just everything about it was kind of off.  It definitely did not feel rich, or even well constructed like Mila usually does.

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What were your thoughts this week?!

• I am back from New York City!  I’m always happy to be home sleeping in my own bed, but I’m sad that I didn’t get to spend more time there so I could make time to visit friends  Dear Friends, please come to Madison and visit!
• Coming home from a work trip on a Wednesday and then having to go to work the next day is kind of rough.   And by that I mean Thursday was definitely an extra-long shower and triple grande latte kind of day
• I am so far behind on the de-clutter calendar.  I guess that’s what happens when you are out of town for 5 days!  I definitely will try to catch up this weekend!
• My sweater knitting project is coming along well, and I’m on track with the knit-along…..but I’m kind of scared because the next step is separating for the sleeves, eep!
  
• I’ve been keeping up with my Operation February project, I’m over half way through! Check out all of my posts here.
• I got my Foodie Penpals Package in the mail yesterday, and I can’t wait to dig in to it! Be sure to check back on March 1 to see what I got!
• The weather that we have right now is crazy for February in Wisconsin – but in a good way!
  
• I’m glad you all agreed with my Project Runway thoughts from last week!  I have plans to watch this week’s episode this weekend, so stay tuned for my thoughts on Sunday!
• I’m signing up for my first race ever in the very near future…..possibly this weekend…..stay tuned….