Avocado Basil Pesto

When I was in 3rd grade, I got 3rd place in a spelling bee contest.  I remember, I lost on the word “calendar.”  I spelled it with an e instead of an a: “calender.”

I cried.  Isn’t that silly?  I should have been happy that I got 3rd place, but I cried.  I didn’t feel so bad anymore, though, when the boy who got 2nd ran to the corner of the gym and started bawling.

I guess the moral of this story is…well, I’m a pretty good speller but there are a few words that trip me up.  Avocado, for example.  I want to spell it “avacado” every. single. time.  Those vowels man, I tell you what.

Anyway, I just felt it necessary that I tell you guys that story.

I don’t care how you spell avocado, all I know is that you should make this pesto.  It seriously takes 5 minutes to make, and if you put it on pasta, you’ll have a healthy and delicious dinner served up in 20 minutes flat.  Do it.

What words do you have trouble spelling?

 

Avocado Basil Pesto
From: A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon sliced almonds
• 1 lemon, for zest and juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 medium avocado

Directions:

1. In a food processor or blender, add the basil, garlic salt, almonds, zest from 1/2 of the lemon, juice from the whole lemon, salt and pepper.
2. Blend until chopped, scraping down the sides, if need be.
3. With the blender running, slowly add the olive oil and blend until smooth.
4. Add the avocado and blend once more. If the mixture is a bit too thick (mine was), add a few tablespoons of water and blend one last time.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

 
I know, I know, two cranberry recipes in a row and it’s not even Thanksgiving, let alone November.

Don’t judge me.

Honestly, I don’t like that phrase.  I looked it up to see who started saying it because I’m weird and I like to know where everything started.  I couldn’t find it, but I did find this site: Don’t Judge Me, Judger.

It’s one of those guilty pleasure sites like F My Life and Text From Last Night that everyone thinks is really stupid but can’t help but read anyway.  So yeah, you should read it.

You know what else you should do?  You should make this dip!  It’s a cream cheese dip… is anything better than cream cheese dips?

Sorry about the short post, I think I’m having blogger’s block.  😦

 Instead of putting mine in the oven, I added all of my ingredients in a pot, excluding the nuts and jam, on the stove and added a little bit of orange juice until the cranberries popped.

 Then I chopped the nuts and added them.

 And then I added strawberry jam instead of apricot.

 And poured it over the cream cheese.  Yum!!

Cranberry Dip
All Recipes

I followed this recipe very loosely, and it still turned out wonderfully.

Ingredients

• 1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup apricot jam
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
2. Combine cranberries with sugar in a 2 quart baking dish with a lid, stirring well to coat all the berries. Bake in the preheated oven, covered, for about 30 minutes, until the cranberries pop and release their liquid.
3. Remove from oven and stir in the apricot jam and pecans. Refrigerate overnight to blend the flavors. To serve, allow the cream cheese to come to room temperature, and pour dip over the block of cream cheese on a serving dish. Serve with buttery round crackers or small pretzels.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

 
I know, I know, two cranberry recipes in a row and it’s not even Thanksgiving, let alone November.

Don’t judge me.

Honestly, I don’t like that phrase.  I looked it up to see who started saying it because I’m weird and I like to know where everything started.  I couldn’t find it, but I did find this site: Don’t Judge Me, Judger.

It’s one of those guilty pleasure sites like F My Life and Text From Last Night that everyone thinks is really stupid but can’t help but read anyway.  So yeah, you should read it.

You know what else you should do?  You should make this dip!  It’s a cream cheese dip… is anything better than cream cheese dips?

Sorry about the short post, I think I’m having blogger’s block.  😦

 Instead of putting mine in the oven, I added all of my ingredients in a pot, excluding the nuts and jam, on the stove and added a little bit of orange juice until the cranberries popped.

 Then I chopped the nuts and added them.

 And then I added strawberry jam instead of apricot.

 And poured it over the cream cheese.  Yum!!

Cranberry Dip
All Recipes

I followed this recipe very loosely, and it still turned out wonderfully.

Ingredients

• 1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup apricot jam
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
2. Combine cranberries with sugar in a 2 quart baking dish with a lid, stirring well to coat all the berries. Bake in the preheated oven, covered, for about 30 minutes, until the cranberries pop and release their liquid.
3. Remove from oven and stir in the apricot jam and pecans. Refrigerate overnight to blend the flavors. To serve, allow the cream cheese to come to room temperature, and pour dip over the block of cream cheese on a serving dish. Serve with buttery round crackers or small pretzels.