Cottage Cheese, Avocado, and Black Bean Salsa

Lauren hosted a great bookclub and provided some delicious dishes.  Below is the Cottage Cheese, Avocado, and Black Bean Salsa Dip that you can find on allrecipes.com:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cottage-cheese-avocado-and-black-bean-salsa/   

Bleu Cheese Appetizer

Bleu Cheese Appetizer (shared by Courtney)

**And the "Dip Queen" does it again!  Another delicious appetizer dip made by Courtney.

Ingredients
12 oz good bleu cheese
4 cloves of garlic - I used 5
1/2 cup olive oil
4 T red wine vinegar - ok to substitute balsamic vinegar if your red wine vinegar has gone bad and you don't want to run to the store to get more. Just beware that it doesn't look so pretty.
4 T lemon juice
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
Crumble bleu cheese evenly over bottom of a tart dish.
Mince or finely chop garlic and whisk in bowl with olive oil. Pour over cheese.
Combine remaining ingredients and spread over cheese mixture.
Chill in fridge covered for 2 hours.
Serve with apples or crackers of choice.
Whatever's left when the party's over you can save and use as a salad dressing.
Enjoy!

Peanut Butter & Nutella Swirl Cookies

Peanut Butter & Nutella Swirl Cookies (shared by Talia)

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Approx. 1/4 cup Nutella

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add flour, baking soda and salt. Drizzle Nutella on top of the dough then swirl it through the dough with a butter knife.

Chill dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll into balls by hand. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Using a fork, press down the balls to flatten slightly. Bake until edges are very lightly browned (about 7 to 10 minutes).

Allow to rest 2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Squares

Pumpkin Squares (shared by Courtney)

1 box yellow cake mix
1 1/2 sticks of butter
4 eggs
1 large can of pumpkin
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Walnuts if desired - I don't use them

For topping - mix 3/4 cup of yellow cake mix with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup butter. Set aside until later.

For crust - blend rest of cake mix with 1 egg and 1 stick of butter. Spread this over the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Don't worry if this is really sticky.

For filling - mix the rest of everything together. Should be 1 can of pumpkin, 3 eggs, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and milk. Pour this over the top of the crust. Sprinkle the topping over the filling. Don't worry if it clumps together. Sprinkles walnuts over topping if desired.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
Enjoy!

Canadian Mom's Pumpkin Cake

Canadian Mom's Pumpkin Cake (shared by Talia)

Combine the following ingredients together and beat until light and fluffy:
4 eggs
1 & 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup cooking oil
15 oz pumpkin puree

Sift the remaining ingredients together:
2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sale 
1 tsp baking soda

Slowly combine dry ingredients into wet mixture.  Bake in 10"x15" pan at 350F for 35-30 mins.

Cream cheese icing
Beat together the following ingredients until light and fluffy:
3 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
Slowly add in 2 cups of sifted icing sugar.


YUM!!!!!!!

Lauren's Arugula Salad

Lauren's Arugula Salad (shared by Lauren & Talia) 

For you girls who missed bookclub this recipe is the "famous" Lauren Yeip salad recipe that Talia made ;)  It is delicious!!

Mix the following together:
Arugula
sliced Granny smith apple
candied pecans
feta cheese
Champagne vinaigrette

ENJOY!

Roasted Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus (shared by Talia)

This is a super easy recipe.  
1. Set oven at 425F
2. Drizzle asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper.  
3.  Roast for about 5 mins
** Can add fresh Parmesan after cooked for extra goodness