Spicy Sausage Dip

Can you believe it is March already? I am ready for Spring weather, so I am looking forward to some changing temperatures! Thank you for sticking with me through my break. I am happy to say that I have successfully completed my thesis and will be graduating with my MBA in May of this year! I really did take the time off and tried to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible, so I don’t have many new recipes to share, but I did have a few saved up. This recipe is one that actually made an appearance on New Year’s Eve and happened to be the favorite appetizer of the evening. This was a nice change to the normal queso dip usually served. Loaded with cream cheese, chorizo sausage, and rotel tomatoes the dip has a creamy and spicy kick. The heat can be controlled by using a milder sausage and/or less hot sauce. The dip can be served with crackers, bread, or tortilla chips. This makes the perfect appetizer for game day and is sure to please the men in your life!

Spicy Sausage Dip

16 oz package pork sausage

1 can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained (I used Rotel)

2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, room temperature

hot sauce to taste (such as Sriracha or tobasco)

Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until evenly browned and no longer pink. Drain. Reduce heat to low, and stir in the tomatoes and cream cheese until evenly blended. Cook just until heated through. Serve warm.

Source: My Baking Addiction

Football Fridays: Spiced Pumpkin Dip

 

My family loves ginger snaps and pumpkin, so the thought of both of them together sold me on this dip. Our football Saturday was a little rough last weekend. I tend to head right for the food when games start going down hill..so this dip became my comfort food this past weekend. I don’t know if the dip complimented the ginger snaps or if the ginger snaps complimented the dip, but together they matched up well. The dip had all the flavors associated with pumpkin, with the added benefit of cream cheese and powdered sugar! The recipe yielded enough dip that we ran out of ginger snaps first…so next time I will make sure to buy two bags of gingersnaps, just in case!

Spiced Pumpkin Dip

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1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

In a large mixing bowl, combine canned pumpkin, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well. Serve with ginger snaps.

Source: Annie’s Eats, originally from The Fresh Market

One Year Ago Today: Sloppy Joes

Garlic and Brie Dip

This is one of the recipes from the baby shower menu I chose to share with you this week. The dip is smooth and creamy, filled with some of my favorites: roasted garlic, brie, and cream cheese. One thing I love about this dip is I would honestly rather enjoy it with vegetables like asparagus and zucchini  as opposed to other dips that are perfect with a potato chip! Crackers also go really nice with it. I love the idea of serving the dip straight from an artichoke! How cute is that?!? The hardest part for me was making a straight cut at the stem off the artichoke, mine was a little tilted, but not enough for the dip to fall out!

Cold Garlic and Brie Dip

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2 heads garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1 cup sour cream

5 oz package crème de Brie

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 fresh artichoke – for presentation

Blanched asparagus and zucchini, crackers for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove white papery skin from garlic heads (do not peel or separate cloves). Cut off top 1/4 inch of heads to expose cloves, leaving root ends intact. Place garlic heads, cut sides up, on a 6-inch square of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Drizzle each evenly with olive oil. Bring corners of foil up and over garlic, sealing tightly. Bake for 45 minutes, or until garlic is soft. Remove foil. Squeeze garlic to extract pulp; discard skins.

In the work bowl of a food processor, combine garlic pulp, cream cheese, sour cream, crème de Brie, Worcestershire, zest, and salt. Process until mixture is smooth. Cover, and chill for at least 4 hours.

If using an artichoke for presentation, trim stem of the artichoke so bottom is level. Cut out center core of artichoke. Spread outer leaves apart and place  a small bowl in center of leaves. Spoon dip into bowl. Serve with asparagus, zucchini, and crackers, if desired.

Source: Cooking with Paula Deen, May/June 2009