Artichoke Crab Dip Pasta Bake #FishFridayFoodies

This artichoke crab dip pasta bake starts with the main ingredients of everyone’s favorite baked artichoke dip, then adds crab, mushrooms and pasta for a delicious casserole the whole family will love.

One of our favorite things to have for a Sunday lunch is the chancre crabs found offshore the Channel Islands. They are huge, like Dungeness crabs, with wonderful flavor. We buy one per person so there are often leftovers enough to make another meal.

This pasta bake is one such. We like it so much that I’ve since made versions with shrimp and fish, so feel free to substitute your own favorite cooked seafood.

Artichoke Crab Dip Pasta Bake

If you do want to use crabmeat and don’t have leftovers from steamed crabs, by all means use the fresh picked stuff you can buy at the store. Ive used it in many recipes including Aunt Neen's Stuffed Crab.

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g shell (or your favorite shape) pasta
4 oz or 113g fresh button mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup or 60ml butter
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups or 200g picked cooked crabmeat
1 1/2 cups or about 190g finely grated Parmesan, divided
1 cup or 240g mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip or salad cream – they are too sweet.)
1 can (14oz or 400g) artichoke hearts, drained weight 8 1/2oz or 240g
1 small hot red chili, minced, optional but highly recommended

Method
Cook the pasta according to package instructions, leaving it decidedly al dente. This leaves room for it to continue cooking as it bakes and to absorb the flavors of the artichoke crap dip mixture.

While the pasta is cooking, slice the mushrooms and pan fry them over a high heat in the olive oil until they turn golden, about 5-7 minutes.

Warm the butter in a small pot and add in the minced garlic. Set aside to cool. When the pasta is cooked, reserve a cup of the cooking water and drain the pasta. Set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Chop the well-drained artichokes roughly.

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl, reserving 1/2 cup or 63g of the Parmesan for topping. If it seems a bit dry, stir in some of the reserved pasta water.

Spoon the mixture into a greased baking pan. Top with the reserved cheese.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes or until the pasta is heated through and golden brown.

Enjoy!

This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are celebrating Christmas Eve in a special way, as Italian Americans do, with the feast of the seven fishes. There are no hard rules, but here is how Bon Appetit outlines it.
1st course: Appetizer or a snack
2nd course: Seafood salad
3rd course: Meaty fish, grilled or broiled
4th course: Fish in pasta
5th course: Seafood Stew
6th course: palate cleanser like gelato
7th course: light dessert such as Italian cookies

Mine, of course. is for the fourth course. Our host today is Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories, a fellow blogger I’ve had the privilege to meet. Check out all of the lovely seafood recipes we are sharing below.

• Artichoke Crab Dip Pasta Bake from Food Lust People Love
• Baked Mussels from Caroline's Cooking
• Crab Bites from Making Miracles
• Creamy Clam Dip from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Creamy Mackerel Salad for Two from Sneha's Recipes
• Italian Seafood Salad (Insalata di Mare) from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• La Vigilia di Natale from Culinary Adventures with Camilla, who made new dishes for all of the courses for this Italian Christmas Eve dinner! Fun fact: She once spent a year in Rome and learned the food traditions of Italy. You need to check out her menu!

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

Pin this Artichoke Crab Dip Pasta Bake! 

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Gram's Famous Fruit Cake #BundtBakers

The only fruit cake I’d eat as a child, this recipe was my grandmother’s special treat at Christmas time. It’s chock full of pecans, walnuts, crystalized fruit, dates, cherries, raisins and pineapple.

I was not a fan of fruit cake when I was a child, at least not the store-bought sort. I made an exception for Gram’s famous fruit cake. (Famous in our family circle anyway.) It was not dry at all and it had lots of pecans, my favorite nut of all time. My grandmother made many of different sizes, wrapped them up in foil with ribbons to share and more for keeping safe under her bed.

I finally knew I was considered an adult one Christmas when I was given my very own little loaf.

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that both of my grandmothers were wonderful cooks and sometimes bakers and candy makers. I’ve inherited so many good recipes from them. Gram’s fig preserves and her Cajun rice dressing, Mo's chicken and sausage gumbo and her shrimp stew and crawfish étouffée, just to name a few. This fruit cake is one of my favorites.

Gram’s Famous Fruit Cake

Amongst my grandmother’s things I found several copies of the original recipe, copied out in her distinctive old-fashioned hand. I have no idea where she came by it or if it was a mixture of her own devise. I've downscaled her ingredient amounts to make one 12-cup Bundt cake.

Ingredients
8 oz or 227g pecans
8 oz or 227g walnuts
15 small bottled cherries (weight 48g)
1 cup or 125g flour
1 1/4 lbs or 367g crystallized fruit mix
12 oz or 340g seedless dates, roughly chopped
3 oz or 85g raisins
2 oz or 57g sliced pineapple, cut in chunks
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons each allspice, cloves and cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups or 132g sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter (plus extra to butter pan)
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml red (dark) Karo
1/8 cup or 30ml fruit juice from canned pineapple and bottled cherries

Method
Separate out your prettiest pecans and walnuts to line the bottom of your classic Bundt pan and set them aside. I use a Nordic Ware anniversary Bundt so I set aside 8 of each. Cut the cherries in half and set aside an equal amount of cherry halves.

Check your nuts thoroughly for any errant bits of shell that might have been missed before they were packaged up. You do not want to break a tooth while eating the fruit cake! Roughly chop the rest of the pecans and walnuts, then mix all of the fruit and nuts with 1/4 cup or 31g flour.

Whisk or sift the baking powder, spices and salt into the rest of the flour. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 250°F or 121°C. Liberally butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan, then arrange the reserved pecans, walnuts and cherries as decoration for when the fruit cake is turned out of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter. Separate your egg whites and yolks, adding the whites to a clean, grease free bowl.

Add the egg yolks, Karo, flour mix and fruit juice to the creamed sugar and butter. Mix well.

Beat the egg whites until foamy.

Fold them gently into the fruit cake and then do the same with the fruit and nuts.

Spoon the mixture into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake the mixture for 3 1/2  hours in your preheated oven.

Leave to cool for about 10 minutes, then invert the fruit cake on a serving plate. If any of the bits stick to your pan, just pry them off and poke them back in the cake.

My grandmother never added alcohol to her fruit cake, but feel free to brush yours with some good dark rum or brandy if you so desire.

Leftovers should be tightly wrapped in cling film and foil and stored in a cool place.

Enjoy!

This month my Bundt Baker friends are all sharing fruit cake recipes. Check them out!

• Applejack Bundt Cake from Palatable Pastime
• Cake aux Fruit Bundt from Patyco Candybar
• Cranberry and Apricot Fruit Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Dried Fruit and Pecan Bundt Cake from I Love Bundts
• Dried Fruit Bundt Cake from Living the Gourmet
• Gram's Famous Fruit Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Macadamia and Tropical Fruit Bundt Cake from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Sorrel/Hibiscus Fruit Cake from Sneha's Recipe
• Spiced Rum Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

Pin Gram's Famous Fruit Cake! 

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Pecan Snowball Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.

I’m calling these pecan snowball cookies because they are chock full of pecans and do look like little snowballs, but all across the interwebs, similar recipes are known as Mexican wedding cookies, biscochitos, polvorones, Russian tea cakes, Italian wedding cookies, Kourabiedes or Greek wedding cookies or butterballs.

Whatever you decide to call them, I hope you do give them a try. This recipe is a fun one to make with children. They love forming the little balls and then rolling the cookies in the icing sugar (twice!) after they’re baked.

Pecan Snowball Cookies

As you can tell from the recipe, the cookie dough isn’t very sweet because sugar is added outside with the double rolling, making these perfect, just as they are. If you are feeling adventurous, you might also want to try my Mexican chocolate (with cinnamon) wedding cookies too.

Ingredients – makes 6 dozen cookies
For the cookie dough:
2 cups, finely chopped, or 210g pecans
2/3 cup or 83g icing sugar
1 cup or 226g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour

For coating cookies:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Place the pecans and powdered sugar in a food processor. Pulse the pecans and icing sugar, until the nuts are fairly finely ground with just a few bigger bits.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the pecan mixture, the butter, vanilla and salt. Beat until everything is well combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula then add half of the flour mixture to the mixer bowl.

Mix on low speed until everything is well incorporated. Repeat with the second half of the flour, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula before and after the addition.

Scoop up spoonfuls of the dough and roll the dough between the palms of your hands into balls about 1 in or 2.5cm big. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet spaced about 2 inches or 5cm apart.

Keep any balls that don’t fit in the first batch on parchment paper in the refrigerator if your kitchen is warm.

Bake the cookies for about 18 to 20 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool for five minutes.

While they bake, sift a cup of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. When the cookies have cooled for about five minutes, roll them one or two at a time in the icing sugar to coat completely.

Leave to cool completely then roll them in the sugar again.

Enjoy!

After a hiatus of several months, I am delighted that my Cookie Exchange friends are baking together again. Many thanks to our leader, Laura of The Spiced Life, for organizing us this month. Check out all the other great seasonal cookies we are sharing today!

• Pecan Snowball Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Spritz Christmas Tree Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Espresso Sable Sandwiches with Blonde Chocolate Filling from The Spiced Life
• Gevulde Speculaas - Dutch Spiced Cookies from Spiceroots

Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board!

Pin these Pecan Snowball Cookies! 

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