Dip

So, last night’s Super Bowl was … less than gripping?  Let’s face it: it was a blowout.  Which is great if you’re a Seahawks fan, and really awful if you were rooting for the Broncos.  For the rest of us who had no real emotional stake in the game, it wasn’t terribly exciting.  Even though the game wasn’t riveting, the food was pretty darn good.  Here’s one of the dips that I served last night to some friends.

I found this recipe on the blog Something Swanky.

You’ll need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 5 tbs all purpose flour
• 5 tbs cocoa powder
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 tbs milk, divided
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for topping

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and 1 tbs milk.  Beat again until it’s relatively smooth.

Add the powdered sugar and beat again, starting out on low so that the sugar doesn’t fly out of the bowl and get everywhere.  Add another tbs of milk.  If you feel like the dip is still too thick, you can add the last tbs of milk.

Add the mini chocolate chips.  Serve in a bowl, topped with a few more chocolate chips.

You can eat this with whatever you want: graham crackers, apples, etc.  I followed Something Swanky’s lead and used pretzel chips, which were awesome with this.

Welcome readers, new and old, to my new blog!!  I’ve been toying with the idea of changing the name for a while now, and finally went for it.  A new name and look for a new year, y’know?  I had a lot of fun with “Hey, who cut the cheese?”, but was looking for something with a title that was a little less… silly?  I wanted something that was more pertinent to my life.  I don’t know.  But I just wasn’t feeling it after a while.  At any rate, welcome to “A Nerd Cooks”!

There will continue to be changes during this transition period, so don’t be surprised if things look different from day to day.  Also, if you were one of my (few) followers who subscribed via email, you’ll need to re-subscribe here on this new blog.  And if you haven’t done so already, please “like” this blog’s Facebook page!  There’s a little box on the right hand side of the page that can help you out with this.

Now for the fruit dip!

I brought this fruit dip to a baby shower recently.  At the request of a few friends, I’m blogging about it for you!  The recipe is outrageously simple, and is delicious.  I found this recipe on the blog This Week for Dinner.

You’ll need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 7 oz. jar marshmallow fluff
• juice of 1 orange

Blend all of the ingredients together.  Serve with the fruit(s) of your choice for dipping.  Seriously simple, right?

So, this is baba ghanoush.  Strange name.  Delicious dip.  Let’s talk about it, shall we?

On a recent trip to PA, my dad gave us vegetables from his garden that is currently overflowing with produce.  We received some beautiful, and delicious, heirloom tomatoes, as well as two eggplants.

Yeah, this is an eggplant.  As if you didn’t already know.   I just got a little camera-happy.

We were invited to a Labor Day cookout, and I wanted to bring a little something.  Since we had the eggplants lying around, I opted for baba ghanoush (in addition to a cocktail that you’ll be seeing later this week!).

Adapted from a recipe on Food Network’s website.

You’ll need:

2 small-medium eggplants
olive oil
salt and pepper
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup olive oil
parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Cut the tops (stem and whatnot) off of the eggplants, and then slice them in half lengthwise.  Drizzle them with some olive oil, and add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Place them cut-side down on a baking sheet.

Put the garlic cloves on a small square of foil.  Add a sprinkle of salt and a bit of olive oil.  Seal the foil into a little bundle.  Put this on the baking sheet, too.  

Bake everything for 30-40 minutes, or until the eggplant can be easily pierced with a fork.  Set it aside to cool.

Once the eggplant is cool enough to handle, remove the flesh from the skin, and discard the skin.  Place the flesh of the eggplant, roasted garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, and some of the chopped parsley into to food processor.  Process until smooth.

Garnish with another drizzle of olive oil and the remaining chopped parsley.  Serve with pitas, pita chips, vegetables, or whatever else you’d like.  Enjoy!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  Unfortunately, I don’t have some patriotic themed recipe for you… but I do have an awesome, sweet dip! 


I saw this dip on the blog Eat Yourself Skinny, and knew that I had to make it. I’m a huge fan of Funfetti cake (see my homemade version of Funfetti cupcakes here!), so this dip was particularly appealing to me. It’s very tasty, not so terrible for you, and simple enough to put together that I whipped this up while in my hotel room on vacation. 


You’ll need: 


1 box Funfetti cake mix (I used the white cake) 
1 cup Lite Coolwhip 
2 cups plain, non-fat yogurt 


Mix everything up in a bowl until it’s all well-combined. Garnish with extra sprinkles, if you desire. Then dig on in! I used graham crackers for dipping, but you could use whatever sounds good to you. I originally had some chocolate animal crackers, too, that I thought would be particularly good with this dip. But I sort of… ate the entire bag before leaving for vacation, and was too lazy to make another trip to the store. Use whatever you’d like, though! Enjoy!! =)