Buffalo Chicken Dip

This is a recipe I got from Kendall - so yummy, yet so rich!

Ingredients:

2- 8oz packages cream cheese

20 oz pulled/chopped chicken (I usually boil chicken and pull – this time I had the pre-chopped from Trader Joes to save time)

1 cup ranch dressing (or blue cheese but I HATE blue cheese)

1 cup shredded mozzarella (or cheddar)

1 cup Franks Fred Hot Sauce

Directions:

Mix chicken and hot sauce in deep dish pan.

Simmer cream cheese and ranch in saucepot.

Pour the cheese mixture over the chicken and mix.  Fold in mozzarella.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  (or place in slow cooker for an hour)

Dip w/celery or crackers

Giada's Tilapia with Citrus Bagna Cauda

This is a quick (25 min) tilapia recipe that's really yummy and you probably have nearly all of the ingredients already (except for maybe the anchovies).


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/tilapia-with-citrus-bagna-cauda-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons
• 4 anchovy fillets, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 6 (6-ounce) skinless tilapia fillets
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Cook the butter and 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a heavy medium saucepan over low to medium heat just until the butter is melted, stirring frequently. Add the anchovies and stir until the anchovies dissolve, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Stir in the orange juice, basil, and lemon and orange zests. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt.

The bagna cauda sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before using.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper and brush both sides of the fish with remaining 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil. Working in 2 batches, fry the fish until just opaque in center, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer fish to platter. Cover with foil and keep warm in the oven while cooking the second batch of fish. Drizzle the sauce over and around the fish and serve.

Whole Foods' Cranberry Tuna Salad

I've been searching for a good Cranberry Tuna Salad recipe, and found this one for the salad at Whole Foods.

2 cans solid white albacore tuna
6 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
juice from 1 fresh lemon
4 tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon baker's sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped sun-dried cranberries (not craisins)
kosher salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients except for the tuna. Drain the tuna and add to the other ingredients. Combine gently, making sure to not overmix. (This helps keep the tuna in more solid pieces. Hey you are paying more for the solid pack white albacore.)

Lately I've been spending a small fortune on the tuna salad with cranberries at Whole Foods. I saved on of the lids with the ingredients list and then I searched for a recipe. I found one. I made this for dinner tonight. This is the best tuna salad ever. Even the picky Mr. j* likes it and he is hard to please.

Some ingredients I believe is crucial to purchase at Whole Foods and use their 365 brand. The albacore tuna you can use any brand. I bought it at Whole Foods since I was already there. The Whole Foods canola mayo is not like your Kraft or Best Foods mayo. The consistency is different. A lemon is a lemon and they simply use regular lemons. I picked up a ginormous one. I suppose you can use any type of onion for this. I had some yellow onions at home. Maybe next time I'll make it with a sweet onion. They call for unrefined sugar. I always keep baker's sugar in my pantry so I used that. It is a finer grain so it blends in faster. The salt and pepper is really not that important. The recipe calls for sea salt but I only cook with kosher so it was kosher this time around. I added a couple turns of my pepper mill. I never buy preground black pepper. The most important part - the star of the dish is the cranberries. In the bulk food section of Whole Foods is something called sun-dried unsweetened cranberries. Be careful, they also sell the sweetened cranberries.