Dips and Dustings

For Dolly's birthday dinner, she asked for a Calamari appetizer. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, so before I lose the scraps of paper I made my notes on, I thought I'd write it all down here where I can find it a lot easier later.
And while I'm in a recording mode, let it be noted that Dolly made dinner by herself (mostly) Monday night. Tuna Casserole (she followed a recipe out of her new cookbook) and perfectly cooked green beans. She'll never understand what a treasure to me that milestone was, but it's one I'll savor for a long time.

Deep Fry Calamari Appetizer
Serves 8

• 680 g. calamari pieces
• 1 red pepper
• ½large onion
• 1&12;c. flour
• &34;tsp. ground black pepper
• &3tsp. salt
• 2tsp. paprika
• vegetable oil for frying

Thaw (if frozen) and drain calamari. Slice pepper into ¼" strips. Thinly slice onion across the grain to make ¼" or smaller half-ring strips. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Heat oil to 375° in a large skillet. In turns, dust and fry calamari, peppers and onions for 2-5 min until golden. Drain and keep in a low temp oven until ready to serve. Layer peppers and onions throughout calamari on a platter and serve with a dip of your choice.

Chipotle Dip
Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 Tbs. pureed Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
• ¾c. mayonnaise
• ½c. plain yogurt
• ½c. sour cream
• 1 tsp. Liquid Smoke

Mix all ingredients together and serve! Super easy, and delicious!

For Hal

This little boy love anything and everything that has to do with chickens. He also learning his colors. I have told him that the egg on the top-right of the photo below is blue. Sir claims it's green. I doubt Hal would understand what aqua or teal or turquoise was though, so we have to settle on a normal color name for that particular chicken's eggs. I still say it's closer to blue. :)

On a white background.


On a blue background

And I shouldn't end a post without a picture of our littlest guy. He still doesn't have a blog name, but I'm working on figuring it out. I'm thinking of doing some name changing around here anyway. Maybe it'll all happen at once.

50 days old and smiling.