Festive Cranberry Cheese Dip

A friend introduced me to this recipe a couple years ago and I like it so much, I'm looking forward to eating it around the holidays!  I'm making this recipe next week, so I'll add the exact measurements to this post, but for now, here's the general idea in case you feel so inclined to make it for an upcoming event.

You add a 12 oz. bag of cranberries and one store-bought pint of pico de gallo to a blender or food processor.  Add sugar to taste (I'm thinking maybe 1/2 cup?) and a handful of cilantro.  Add a few drops of red food coloring to beautify it.  Then pour it over an 8 oz. brick of cream cheese.  Garnish with cilantro and serve it with rice crackers.  Yum-O!

Corn & Black Bean Salsa

A coworker shared this recipe with me and I love it! Unfortunately, I ate it before I remembered to take a picture of it.

1-2 Tomatoes (medium to large)
3 Avocados
1 Can White Shoepeg Corn, drained
1 Can Kidney Beans, drained
1 Can Black Beans, drained
1/2 Bottle Italian Dressing
Lime or Lemon Juice

1. Dice the tomatoes and avocados, place in a bowl and sprinkle a little lime/lemon juice over the avocado to keep it from turning brown.
2. Add the corn and beans.
3. Pour italian dressing over the top and stir together!

Serve with chips. If you chill it in the fridge for about an hour before serving, the flavors blend together better.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ok, here's the second one. You would not believe how good these taste with so few ingredients. I even have to pop bits of the filling into my mouth while I'm making these because I can't wait until I'm all done!

2 Pkgs. Whole Button Mushrooms

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 Pkg. Jimmy Dean Sausage Tube

1. Cook sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink.
2. Meanwhile, clean mushrooms and remove stems.
3. Chop stems.
   
4. Combine stems, cooked sausage and cream cheese until mixed together (if the sausage is still warm, it will melt the cream cheese and make it easier to stir).
   
5. Stuff mixture into mushrooms (and don't worry if they are bulging far over the top). I've tried many methods for this, but you really just have to use your hands.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You could also sprinkle bread crumbs or parmesean cheese on them if you wanted to, but I really think they are fine just the way they are. CAUTION...Make sure you have a napkin when you eat them, because they drip!

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

I'm posting my two favorite appetizers that I always make during the holidays. Wait til you try these two EASY recipes. You won't believe how good they taste for being so simple!

1 Pkg. Bacon

2-3 Cans Whole Water Chestnuts

1 Cup Ketchup

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1. Combine Ketchup and Brown Sugar.
2. Cut all of the bacon in half.
3. Separate the bacon and lay on a plate with paper towels. Cook in the microwave until they're about half-way cooked.
   
4. Wrap bacon around water chestnuts and secure with a toothpick.
5. Dip each one into ketchup mixture and set into a glass pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Ok, I know the Ketchup and Brown Sugar mixture sounds nasty, but it's really the only combo that works. I've tried every kind of BBQ sauce known to man on these, and they just don't work! Ketchup is really just tomato sauce, sugar and vinegar anyway, so that sugar really comes out when you bake it and it becomes sweet and delicious...of course you're also adding the sweet brown sugar to it as well, but man, it just doesn't get better than this!

Tangy Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

I'm trying to think of fun recipes for summertime that you can make to bring to parties or just different ways to use all the readily available fruits and vegetables during this time of year. I am a huge fan of any kind of chips and salsa, definitely my weak spot, but I like knowing that at least the salsa is packed with vitamins and nutrients. Here's a unique one that I just love. In this recipe you make your own chips and they are baked, so it's fairly healthy.

1 Tablespoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
4 (7 in.) Flour Tortillas
1 Cup Raspberries (fresh or frozen)
2 Peaches, peeled and chopped
2 Kiwifruit, peeled, sliced and quartered
1 Lime
1 teaspoon Sugar

Cinnamon Chips:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a flour/sugar shaker, combine sugar and cinnamon.
3. Using kitchen spritzer, lightly spray tortillas with water; sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
4. Using pizza cutter, cut each tortilla into 8 wedges; place in single layer on flat baking stone. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Remove to nonstick cooling rack. Cool completely.

Fruit Salsa:
1. Place raspberries, peaches and kiwifruit in 1 qt. batter bowl.
2. Add zest and juice from lime.
3. Add 1 tsp. Sugar and mix all ingredients gently.

Cucumber Dip

This is one of my favorite dips during the summer. I make it all the time. Every time I bring it somewhere I get requests for the recipe. It seems like it wouldn't have a lot of flavor because there aren't many ingredients, but it really does. I got this from my friend, Natalie, several years ago. I did make one adjustment to the original recipe and that is that I added the garlic. If you're not a big garlic fan, just take it out because it didn't originally call for it anyway.

1 Pint Cottage Cheese
1 Pint Sour Cream
1 Cucumber, peeled & shredded
3 Green Onions, sliced
1 Clove Garlic, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients and serve with Ruffles potato chips.

I decorated the top with green onion and a little bit of chili powder, just for garnish.

Poor Man's Queso

I was thinking that one of the problems for me on this blog is going to be the fact that I really don't have "recipes" for some of the things I come up with on my own. So I had a couple of choices. I was trying to decide if I should make each recipe and pay careful attention to how much I put into it so I can give you an exact recipe or I can just tell you the method and you can make it to your own taste. I liked the second idea better. Sometimes just learning a method rather than following a recipe makes it easier to be flexible and adjust things if you don't have the exact right ingredients. So, here's one of my favorite snacks. My sister-in-law, Trish, came up with the name tonight.

Take a couple of handfuls of whatever kind of cheese you like (I usually use cheddar) and put it in a saucepan over medium-high heat on the stove. Sprinkle in a bit of flour. This helps to both emulsify and thicken it. Pour in a little bit of milk and stir until it's melted. Rachael Ray would tell you it has to be stirred with a figure 8 (I'm not sure why, but I do it because she says so). Keep adding milk until it's at the desired consistency. Then throw in a can of your favorite chili. Mix together and serve with tortilla chips. It's delicious!