Here are three ways to make mealtime easy, including dips, empanadas and sweet treats.
Ready-to-serve dips
Can dips be dinner? Jeff Scardino’s family thinks so. Each year, the Scardinos serve an all-dip Christmas Eve dinner. Knowing others would enjoy dips just as much, Scardino joined with Whitney Otawka to form Dips Kitchen. They offer nine regular flavors, including the fried hot chicken and Low Country shrimp dips that we tried. These creamy dips pack plenty of flavor, and the bits of cucumber pickle and spicy chicken crumbles in the chicken dip were a fun surprise. Three seasonal flavors rotate, and the current dessert dip is strawberry hibiscus shortcake. To make serving easy, each comes with dippers, such as sourdough crackers or seasonal vegetables.
$12-$13.50 per 7.4-ounce container plus dippers. Purchase at Dip Mobile in Ponce City Market and Buckhead Village, Buckhead Butcher Shop, Lucy’s Market, Frazie’s Meat & Market, Fresh Harvest and Garnish & Gather. Information: dipsdipsdips.com
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Empanadas
These popular Latin American pastries can be served at any meal. Chef Zachary Basto founded his Decatur-based empanada bakery, Casa Cardoza, to honor his grandparents, Romeo and Maria Cardoza. He and his brothers make nine varieties of empanadas by hand, with fillings that range from Riverview Farms pork chorizo, eggs and scallions to steak and potato. The empanadas are available already baked, or you can buy them frozen in packets of four and bake them right from the freezer in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
$4-$5 per empanada. Available at Chrome Yellow, Con Leche, East Pole Coffee, Taproom Coffee, Joe’s East Atlanta Coffee Shop and Morningside Farmers Market, or order at casacardoza.com for pickup in Avondale Estates or delivery in northeast Atlanta and Gwinnett.
Credit: Julie Medina Everingham
Credit: Julie Medina Everingham
Something sweet
If you need a dessert or something sweet for a midday treat, turn to pastry chef Jenni Etchison-Villafuerte and her Marietta-based Open Heart Bakeshop, which has a menu ranging from chocolate fudge brownies to petit fours. We sampled two of her seasonal offerings. One was a mini bundt coconut cake — moist, studded with shreds of coconut and topped with candied and toasted coconut, as well as dollops of vanilla buttercream. However, the favorite was the lemon bar, with its garnish of candied strips of lemon peel. The lemon filling was that combination of tart and sweet you always hope for, offset by the tiniest bit of salt in the pastry crust. Forks were clashing over who would get the last bite.
$7 per coconut cake, $8 per lemon bar. Order at openheartbakeshop.com for pickup at Marietta or Avondale Estates farmers markets. Direct message via Facebook for other pickup options.
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