Day 8: Spinach-Artichoke Dip and Chocolate Cake

Well, here goes another day of dessert. It's a whole weekend loaded with sugar and fat pretty much, but the good news is that Taylor and I are not eating this all ourselves. Tomorrow is my friend Jennie's birthday. I decided to have a surprise birthday party for her. Last week I inconspicuously asked what her favorite dessert is and she gave me this recipe for a chocolate cake.

I also made my Aunt Cristy's famous recipe for Spinach and Artichoke Dip. I don't even like artichokes but this is seriously the best stuff. I don't have nutritional information, but it is one of those things that we'd all probably just rather eat and not know.  I sauteed the onion in the butter and omitted the olive oil. Then I combined all the ingredients in the miniature crockpot that I also got from my Aunt Cristy and Uncle Tim and let heat on low for a couple hours. If you don't have a lot of time, you can add the frozen spinach into the pan until it is heated then combine in the crockpot. I like using the crockpot because it keeps everything warm for hours.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

¼ cup butter

2 ½ tbsp olive oil

½ cup chopped onion

Sautee the above over low heat.

½ cup flour

1 pint whipping cream (I use½ and ½)

½ teaspoon salt

Pinch of sugar

10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed

½ cup parma cheese (I use grated)

½ cup sour cream

14oz can of artichoke hearts chopped

Mix all the above into onion mixture, cook 15 min. until warm.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen I looked over and noticed I had 2 very ripe avocados. So I made a basic guacamole, but added roasted corn and a little bit of cumin powder. It was sort of based off a recipe for "Roasted Corn Avocado Salsa" that I got from my mom but I didn't have all the necessary ingredients so I just made my own thing. Too tired to write the recipe now but just know it was good. Here's a picture.

Shoot..just realized I deleted the chocolate cake recipe. Jennie had sent me an email and when I was done making it I deleted it so I would never be tempted to make it again! I realized right before people came over that it was also our friend Caroline's birthday this week. So we got to celebrate both!

::Tip of the Day:: You can never have too much garlic. That is my motto to live by. Pretty much, whenever a recipe calls for garlic I use double or triple what it calls for. I Love Garlic. And....it's good for you!! Garlic is a powerful natural antibiotic and research shows that garlic in its raw state is best. I don't know about those garlic powders out there.... So don't be afraid to eat lots of garlic (it'll keep the vampires away).