Squash Puppies with Jalapeño Cream Dip

After eating at Sissy’s Southern Kitchen while in Dallas, I became obsessed with re-creating their Squash Puppies with Jalapeño Jelly!

I started playing around in the kitchen this week and came up with a similar version that is gluten-free and baked, not fried!

Ingredients (makes 24 puppies)

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 2 medium yellow squash
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup onion (chopped)
• 2 tbsp butter (softened)
• 1 jalapeño (de-seeded and diced)

Start by slicing the squash into cubes. Next, boil the squash in a large pot of water for 10 minutes (or until soft).

Then combine the cornmeal, sugar, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl combine the milk, eggs, butter, diced onion and jalapeño.

Next, drain the squash.

Add the squash to the mixture and puree.

Next, add the cornmeal mixture.

Combine well then form into balls and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350° then remove when firm.

Next, make the jalapeño cream dipping sauce.

Ingredients

• 4 jalapeños (de-seeded and roughly chopped)
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 lime (juiced)

Start by de-seeding and chopping the jalapeños.

Place the jalapeños, as well as the other ingredients into a food processor and puree into a creamy consistency.

Serve on side of the squash puppies for dipping.

These are the perfect guilt-free alternative to the delicious seafood side dish favorite!

Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, slightly salty with a little jalapeño kick!

These squash puppies are perfect as a snack or side dish!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is Gluten-Free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Adventures at the Farmers Market

So Heather Locklear may not actually shop at the same Farmers Market as me, but it is located on the street that made her famous, Melrose Place… yes, every Sunday morning (if you consider morning sometime between noon and 2:00) I strut on over to Melrose Place, yes I live walking distance to Melrose Place I am that cool, and to their lovely little Farmers Market!

And this is where I find all those fresh yummy fruits and veggies you see in my cooking posts!

After a few weeks of attending this little treasured Sunday ritual I now have my “spots”, like the Hummus people.  There are 2 vendors who sell hummus and each one is still vying for the #1 spot in my book… one has more flavors, but the other has amazing whole wheat pita bread, decisions, decisions, either way they are both delicious and if I miss a Sunday (heaven forbid!) I have to live without the amazingness of fresh hummus for a WHOLE WEEK!

My other favorite vendor sells purple potatoes, yup there it is again, my love for purple foods! I will admit this obsession began after watching an episode of Dr. Oz.  Probably seen the show 3 times in my life, all I know is he talks about poo a lot and I’d almost always rather be watching the food network than that guy! But I did stumble upon the show one day when he was talking about foods that provide lots of nutriton in your diet and I thought yes, something I can get behind!  So I tuned in and learned that, as I talked about in my post on What’s for Lunch?? Carmelized Beet and Feta Cheese Salad, purple foods are packed with antioxidants, great cancer fighters and heart disease preventors!  Obviously all of these things should appeal to well EVERYONE, so began my search for more and more purple foods and there they were at my little Melrose Place Farmers Market, purple potatoes! So fun to cook with, add so much color to whatever you are making and cook just like any other potato! Usually they’re just little guys, but this Sunday I found a couple baking size and put them to work quickly!

I feel like this would be something that kids would love and what a fun way to feed them something yummy and nutritious!!  You can fill up one of these guys with the same things you would a traditional baked potato, cheese, veggies, sour cream, bacon, whatever you like!

A new item I came across this Sunday was the “amazing mix”.  Well, the name pretty much says it all, who wouldn’t buy something that has amazing in the name??? So I did!

Usually my Sunday morning Farmers Market adventures are a bit more leasurely but this week it was about a billion degrees outside so to save the veggies from getting drinched in my sweat I rounded up all my treasures in about half an hour and headed home to assess my purchases. Bell peppers, onions, carrots, the usuals, and a couple little yellow summer squash to throw something different in the mix!