Olive Dip

Ingredients:

2 8oz packages cream cheese
1 4oz can black olives, sliced
1 8oz jar green olives
2 Tbsp green olive juice

Drain olives, reserving 2Tbsp of green olive juice. Quarter the green olives. Place the olives, cream cheese, and olive juice in a bowl and blend together until the olives are slightly chopped. Shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Serve with crackers.

Cheese Ball

I bought the corned beef for this recipe at the deli for no other reason than I was couldn't find it in the lunch meat section of the store I where I was shopping(Commissary on Buckley AFB). I ordered 4 oz of corned beef sliced for sandwiches. (I was doubling the recipe for Thanksgiving.) The lady behind the counter asked why I wanted my corned beef sliced that way so I told her about this recipe and how delicious it was. As she is repeating the recipe back to me (probably to make sure she has it right), I realize the guy standing behind me is also making a mental note of the ingredients. Boy, I love sharing recipes!

1 package cream cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped really small
2 oz corned beef, sliced thinly as if for sandwiches, then roughly chopped

Combine these three ingredients. Form into a ball. Refrigerate overnight wrapped in plastic. Serve with crackers.

Cook's Note: See that cute plate? When I bought that plate I had no idea what to use it for, but it's the perfect size for a cheese ball and crackers.

Queso Dip

In college, we used to splurge and buy Queso Dip on special occasions...(I think it was about a dollar more than Salsa)...Awwwh the good old days when high class meant the expensive tortilla chips!!

2 lb Velveeta Cheese
2 can diced tomatoes with Green Chilies, drained
(Rot-tel or Del Monte are both nice.)
2 lb hamburger
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Brown the hamburger. Dice the Velveeta cheese. Combine all four ingredients in a saucepan and cook until it is hot all the way through. You can also put all the ingredients in a crockpot and put it on high for an hour or so. You are just heating the cheese through. Serve with chips.

Hot Apple Pie Dip

I picked up this recipe at the grocery store. It was printed on one of those little pull tab thingies. The combination of apples and cheddar cheese peaked my interest. The family eyed it suspiciously at first, but gave it rave reviews after tasting it.

Ingredients:

8oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 apple, chopped
1/4c cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp pecans, chopped

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl until blended well. Stir in half of the chopped apples. Spread into a pie plate or small casserole dish. Top with the remaining apples, cheese, and nuts. Bake at 375˚F for 10-15 minutes. Serve with Wheat Thin crackers.

Pico de Gallo

It's game day. The Packers are playing the Steelers at 6 EST. I'm super excited...not so much for the football game, but because it is a great excuse to make some Pico de Gallo and Guacamole. Do you ever really need an excuse to make some Pico? In a perfect world, not really.

Ingredients:
5 whole Plum (roma) tomatoes
1/2 large onion
2 whole jalapeños
Cilantro
1/2 Lime
Salt and Pepper

Chop jalapeños, tomatoes and onions into a very small dice. (Leave seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico, I take mine out). Adjust amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature. Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.

Squeeze the juice of half of one lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again. Put the whole thing in the fridge. It needs an hour or so for all the flavors to mix together.

Guacamole (from scratch)

Ingredients

3 whole Avocados
Pico de Gallo, see recipe
1/2 Lime
Salt to taste

Start with ripe avocados. Halve them lengthwise and remove the pits. Next, with a spoon scrape the “meat” out into a bowl. Mash the avocados, making sure to leave it relatively chunky. Salt to taste, just a few shakes should do. Next, add a generous helping of Pico de Gallo. Fold together. Lastly squeeze the juice of half of a lime over the top. Give it one more stir. Cover with plastic. Press the plastic down into the bowl to prevent the Guacamole from browning. Guacamole tastes best if it's had a little time for the flavors to mix so I put it in the fridge for an hour or so before digging it.

Smoked Salmon Spread

We ate Thanksgiving dinner my good friend Laura's house. My oldest told me, on good authority, that Pumpkin Pie was the only Thanksgiving food she likes. Luckily, she was wrong. On the way home my child, who hates fish and onions, asked if I would make this dip for her.

1 package salmon (I use the Star-Kist salmon in the pink pouch)
1 block of cream cheese
2 green onions, chopped (use more or less depending on personal taste)
Garlic salt, to taste
1 Tbsp liquid smoke

Mix all the ingredients together. Chill for at least one hour in the fridge. Serve with crackers of your choice.

Cheese Plate

The first time I read about a cheese plate was in a book of recipes written by the Barefoot Contessa. My mom didn't do cheese plates. I'm not sure my mom ever did appetizers...There were those rice pockets things she always brought to Grandma's Christmas party, but I digress.

I really miss the cheeses that I could buy in Germany. I'd make a cheese plate with a French cheese called Comte and a Dutch cheese from Old Amsterdam. Yummy. I haven't found those cheese at my local supermarket, but that's okay. They were yummy, but not essential to the cheese plate.

When making a cheese plate for a dinner party, women's lunchon, or church pot luck all you have to do is cut up some of your favorite cheeses. I used Cheddar, Brie, and Fontina on this plate. Fontina is a mild Spanish cheese that I found in the Deli. I usually try to mix up the cheeses...something mild and something strong. Add some crackers. I used Sociables and Town House crackers. Then add some grapes. I cut the grapes into little bunches and left them on the vine to make them easier to pick up. I also sliced up some red and yellow bell peppers to add a flash of color to the plate. You can really be creative with this appetizer. Arrange your ingrediants on a pretty plate and refidgerate until needed.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I found this recipe just in time for the Super Bowl last year...and let me tell you that it is the yummiest dip I think I've ever tasted. It's super easy to make and your friends will be impressed!

1 8oz block of cream cheese
½ cup bleu cheese dressing
1 cup (or more) of finely chopped cooked chicken
¼ - ½ cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (what’s your heat tolerance?)
(I used the Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce and it was just as awesome)
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
salt & pepper to taste
Cheddar Cheese

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese (for topping)

Heat the block of cream cheese and bleu cheese dressing in microwave for about one minute or, until the mixture is easy to stir. Add in the chicken, hot sauce, Monterey Jack cheese and salt/pepper. Blend together ingredients.

Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish. I like to use a larger dish (or spilt into two smaller dishes) and have a thinner spread of the dip. Top with the grated cheddar cheese and place in oven. Bake at 350°F (180°C) until the cheddar topping is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve immediately. The original recipe tells you to use Frito Scoop! Corn Chips, but we prefer the Tostitos chips. Also, if you want to pretend that celery sticks will make this more healthy, then, by all means, knock yourself out.