Mississippi Sin

We're going way back in time.  Here's one of the dishes I made for my New Year's Eve party...

Mississippi Sin

Ingredients:
16 oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 c chopped ham
1 green onion, chopped
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
French bread loaf

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except French bread; stirring until well blended.
2. Cut a thin slice from top of bread loaf; set slice aside.  Using a gentle sawing motion, cut a vertically to, but no through, bottom of the loaf, 1/2" from the edge, to cut out center of bread.  Lift out center of loaf.  Fill hollowed bread loaf with the dip.  Wrap loaf with foil.
3. Bake dip at 350F for 1 hour.  Serve with reserved bread cubes, crackers, or potato chips.

Adjustments:

• Most likely, I used fat free sour cream
• And 1/3 less fat cream cheese.
• I had Canadian bacon on hand, so I used that instead of ham.

Source:   Plain Chicken

Beer Cheese Dip

Who doesn't love a good dip?  And who doesn't love to try to make a new dip, especially when it's only 4 ingredients!

Ingredients
2 - 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 c beer
1 envelope Ranch dressing mix
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Beat the first three ingredients until well blended.
2. Stir in cheddar cheese by hand.

Comments

• If dip is too thick, add a little beer to thin it down. (wish I had read that before, my dip was pretty thick)
• Any dipping chip goes well with this dip.  Doritos were a bit too salty for me though.
• Carrots were yummy dipped in the dip!
• I used reduced fat cream cheese and reduced fat colby jack cheese.

from TidyMom.com

Body Bits Dip

I know this is officially a day late, but it's still really yummy and needs to be shared.  And really, it's hot cheese dip and it's football season...do the math.

Ingredients:
8 oz bulk pork sausage
1 medium red onion, sliced
2 lb American cheese, cubed
2 10-oz cans chopped tomatoes and green chile peppers, undrained
1 5.3 oz pkg cocktail wieners, halved crosswise
Tortilla chips

Instructions:

1. In a medium saucepan, cook sausage and onion over medium heat until sausage is brown; drain fat.  Transfer sausage mixture to a 3 1/2 to 4 quart crockery cooker (aka crockpot).  Stir in cheese, tomatoes, and wieners.
2. Cover and cook on high-heat setting for 1 to 2 hours or until cheese is melted, stirring after 1 hour.  To serve, keep dip warm on low-heat setting, stirring occasionally.  Serve with tortilla chips.  Makes 18 servings.

Alterations/Recommendations:

• I, always trying to "healthify" recipes, used hot Italian turkey sausage.  I just took the casing off and cooked it up!
• If I had them on hand, I would have used turkey lil' smokies.
• And if I could have found it at the grocery store I went shopping at, I would have used 2% velveta cheese.

Nutritionals per serving:
Calories: 168; Total Fat: 14g (saturated fat: 8g); Cholesterol: 41mg; Sodium: 644mg; Carbohydrate: 2g; Fiber: 0g; Protein: 9g

recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Caramel Sauce/Fondue

I've made chocolate fondue before, so I figured it was time to venture into the world of caramel fondue.  Which is kinda a little bit scary because there is a fine line between sauce and caramel chewy candies.  But what the heck, I'll try it anyways!

Ingredients:
1 c evaporated milk
2 c white sugar
4 tbs butter
4 tbs corn syrup
Assortment of dippers (apples, bananas, pound cake, marshmallows, pretzels, etc)

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, mix the evaporated milk, sugar, butter, and corn syrup.
2. Heat up over medium heat and bring to a boil while stirring.
3. Let the mixture boil and thicken for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour the content into your warm fondue pot.
5. Dip bite size pieces of various dippers using a fondue fork.
6. Enjoy and repeat.  No double dipping!

Alterations/Recommendations:

• For some reason, it took way longer than 5 minutes to thicken.  So I kept it on the burner longer.  I probably should have taking it off when the 5 minutes were up, 'cause guess up, it kept cooking while being kept warm by the fondue warmer!
• It was easily dippable for awhile, now I have caramel candies.  :)

Credits: Caramel Fondue Recipe

Southwest Corn Dip

First off let me say this, if you're not a member of Tasty Kitchen then something is wrong with you.  So go join.  And add your own recipes.  It's totally free!

Moving on.  I saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and decided that I had to make it.  Like soon!  Luckily I had a reason to make it soon, like for the next day.  To take to my friend's birthday party.  And it was a smashing hit!

Southwest Corn Dip
Serves 10 (according to the recipe, but it serves way more than that, but it could be used as a side salad I suppose)
Ingredients:
4 (15 oz.) cans corn, drained
1 (4 oz.) can chopped chilies, drained
1 (4 oz.) can chopped jalapenos, drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 whole red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch scallions/green onions, chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 (8 oz.) bag finely grated Mexican cheese
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped (or to taste)

Instructions:
Drain corn, chilies, and jalapenos.  Put in a large bowl with the beans, and tilt the bowl on its side while you chop the other veggies.  Add the rest of the veggies and drain - there will be liquid accumulated in the bowl.  Stir in the sour cream and grated cheese.  Add the cilantro last.

Refrigerate before serving if you have time and the self-control to keep from eating it.  Recommended to serve with Fritos Scoops or lime Tostitos.

My alterations:
-I used light sour cream.
-I added a little bit of salt and lime juice.
-Served with regular tortilla chips.

Pan Fried Onion Dip

I've had this twice, then I decided I had to have the recipe.  And thank goodness, with Food Network's help, I found it on their site.  And yep, when I made it, it was still just was scrumptious as ever!

Ingredients:
2 large yellow onions
4 tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temp.
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup good mayo

Instructions:
Cut the onions in half and then slice them into 1/8" thick half-rounds.  (You will have about 3 cups of onions.)  Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onions, cayenne, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes until the onions are browned and caramelized.  Allow the onions to cool.
Place the cream cheese, sour cream and mayo in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth.  Add the onions and mix well.  Taste for seasonings.  Serve at room temperature.

Makes about 2 cups

Me, true to my I-can't-follow-the-recipe-and-must-alter-it fashion made a few minor adjustments...
-The cream cheese was 1/3 less fat, and I ended up using the full 8 oz. block.
-Sour cream was fat free.
-Mayo was low fat.

1999 The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook of online here

Stinky Rose Relish

Chris, my bro, often goes to San Francisco. And generally he eats at "The Skinking Rose" in Little Italy. This is a recipe that they have pretyped and ready to give to a customer upon request. It's also available on their website.

Guaranteed to keep vampires away...

The Stinking Rose ® Garlic Rose Relish

1 bunch chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped garlic (about 2 bulbs)
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
Olive Oil to cover

1. Mix parsley, garlic, vinegar and salt.
2. Add oil to cover ingredients, stir.
3. Cover and store in refrigerator (good for 3-4 days).

Notes from the Peanut Gallery:
-I recommend using a cuisinart to chop everything up.
-Even tasty spread on a piece of tri-tip.
-Have minty gum readily available.

Cheesey Salsa Dip

See that...

It's a dip that Katie makes often. And it's good. And it's bad for you. And it was perfect for the NYE Shindig. And well, it's perfect for every other shindig for that matter.

Ingredients:
1 block/brick/8oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese

Instructions:
Mix it all together. Thomas suggests that you don't put it in a nice dish that you care about because it's really hard to scrub out. So use a pie tin or one of those other aluminum disposable tins. Put it in the dish. Optional, add another 1/2 cup or so of cheese to the top. Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes. Serve with strong tortilla chips.

Yum!

Amy's Pumpkin Dip

While in college I worked for the Alumni Office. We had a little gathering and one of my co-workers, Amy, brought this dip. Oh my. I think I feel in love! I haven't made it in awhile, but I think I just might have to this fall season.
Ingredients:
1 large can pumpkin
4 cups powdered sugar
2-8 oz. cream cheese (soften in microwave)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tst. ginger
2 bags Ginger Snaps

Instructions:
Mix and serve. Ginger snaps are for dipping.

Excellent chilled.
Good to cut recipe in half!

Black Bean Corn Salsa

Who likes salsa? Who likes chips? Who likes salsa with chips?

Yea, me too!

I made the salsa this past Monday for Bible Study. I had a hankering for it, so I made it to share.

I learned this recipe while I was in college. One of my roommates would make it whenever she was asked to bring something to a party. After the first bite before she walked out the door, I made her swear that she would bring home the leftovers. There generally wasn't any left over though. Bummer.

But I managed to memorize the recipe. HA! Sometimes that memory thing doesn't fail me!

The Ingredients:
There is one (optional) ingredient missing, a lemon. It's ok though, the world will not come to an end if you don't have lemon.

The Instructions:
Open and drain a can of black beans and a can of corn.
Dice a couple of tomatoes, I used 2 but use as much as you'd like.
Dice about a 1/2 to 2/3 of a yellow onion.
Mince up some garlic, I used 3 cloves maybe that was a little much though.
Dump it all in a bowl and mix.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Option: Add juice of a lemon, as much as you feel needed.

It takes no time at all to whip this up. Chopping and dicing takes the longest. Darn chopping and dicing!

Make sure you sample. How do you know it's good if you don't sample?

I would like to point out that no oil or fat was added to the making of this recipe. Therefore, it's gotta be healthy. Right...?

Enjoy!

And when that was all done, I had dinner. Dinner of champions I must say. I did spruce this box of macaroni up though. I added some diced onion, sliced up 98% fat free turkey dogs, and real shredded cheese. It was delicious!

Then Bible Study happened and I had more chips and salsa. I'm counting it as a serving of vegetables!