Potstickers Return

As I sit here with a cat on my lap who wants to cuddle, and its pre-6am on a day off, I must write. Gotta get this out and send it off. Not that I didn't try to go back to bed. But it seems that little Bean sleeps better while I'm awake??? At least this morning he is. Poor guy is teething and is doing so well. The last couple nights have been a bit rough though. Good thing I have today off. I hear a nap calling my name in the VERY near future.

Something came over me to make these. I hadn't made them in a while and it sounded good. While easy to prepare and cook/bake, it takes a while and thus as soon as they come out of the oven someone is bound to grab a few. 

Instead of steaming these like I have in the past, I baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes each. Just to make sure the meat inside is cooked through.

Ingredients:

1 package wonton wrappers (or egg roll wrappers if you want bigger ones)

1 1/2 lbs ground meat (I used half turkey, half pork sausage)

1-2 tablespoons Soy Sauce to taste

Hot sauce, to taste if preferred

green onions, optional

Mix all ingredients in a bowl (except the won ton wrappers of course). Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with foil. Makes for easier clean up! Won ton wrappers: You will need a small bowl of water, this is your glue. Lay out a wrapper and put meat filling in the middle. You will see how little it takes to fill these. About an over sized spoon full. Of course, fill it fuller if you wish to have it bursting at the seams. Dip your finger in the water and run along edge of wrapper. Bring sides up to meet together and it will form a "peak" of sorts when closed. Really, all you need is to close the thing, so however you want to "design" it, go for it.

Bake for about 15 minutes and take out. Wa-la! I like to dip mine in a soy sauce - hot sauce dip. Siracha hot sauce to be exact.

Enjoy!

3 Layer Cheese Dip & Dairy Free

I found this recipe on another blog over here and was pretty excited to try it. While I was shopping for other items to make Thanksgiving last weekend I was looking really hard to find dairy free items that I could use in my cooking. I was pretty stoked when I came across dairy-free butter! I didn't use that in this recipe but was still excited to find it!

I thought this cheese dip would be a great idea for an appetizer at a party or holiday, I just made too much in my case!

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese ( I used dairy free kind and didn't taste any different)
8 oz goat cheese (same thing)
1-2 garlic cloves smashed and made into a paste (I pressed the garlic clove through a garlic press and added a dab of olive oil)
1/2 cup basil pesto (also found dairy free kind in the store, or you can make your own)
1/3 cup sun dried tomato paste ( I used sun dried tomato pesto that I found!)

image found from other blog

In a large bowl combine goat cheese and cream cheese and mix together. FYI: Don't use a mixer, it will get stuck in the mixers and be useless. I used a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 3 separate bowls. To one bowl add garlic paste and mix. To another add pesto and mix. To another add tomato paste/pesto and mix. In a taller, narrower bowl line with a damp cheese cloth towel and put in the tomato paste cheese mix, followed by the garlic cheese mix and top it off with the pesto cheese mix making sure to smooth out each layer before adding the next. Top with the rest/extra cloth and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, I did mine over night to get it ready early. Take it out and plop it onto a plate with some crackers! Yum!!

For mine I used a wider bowl so my layers weren't as pretty and my garlic layer was kind of lost in the appearance but tasted just as wonderful! Also my tomato pesto, instead of paste, was a bit darker and the basil pesto I used was a bit darker, otherwise mine looked like the picture. The goat cheese really give it some nice creamy flavor. Sweetness!!! It's dairy free!!