Tag Archives: appetizer

White Trash Dip (Recipe Re-Do)

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White Trash Dip

White Trash Dip

Lovely name, ehh? But since when did I ever try to convince you that I was classy, prim and proper? You love me like I am, right? Low class, strange, and always doing my best (such as that may be) to give you a giggle.

The first time I made this dip was not long after I started the blog. Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few people coming to it and while that makes me happy, it has, yet again, one of those photos that makes me cringe, cry copious tears of embarrassment, and

want to gouge my eyeballs out so that I don’t have to see it again. Yes, it’s that bad. I love the post I made to go with it because it’s one of my funnier ones (has cuss words; you’re forewarned) but I know that the photo makes baby kitten throw themselves off cliffs. So, it was time to remake this one. Partly because I’ve changed it a little over the years and partly, well, that photo *cries more*

This is one of the worlds easiest dips to make. Why is it called white trash, you ask? Because it’s fairly cheap to make and uses canned chili 😀 and because this is so not something you’d serve at a classy party with champagne and caviar. This is more beer, chips and family and friends you love gathered together. Perfect for a game or for family movie night, for a Christmas buffet, what have you.

This is creamy, meaty, a little bit spicy (easy to adjust), cheesy, great for digging into when you have the munchies.

You know the drill…. 🙂

White Trash Dip

  • 1 15 ounce can of your favorite chili
  • 2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
  • 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 2 teaspoons finely minced jalapeno (omit if you use the typically spicy chorizo, unless you really like the bite) plus extra for garnish
  • 1 lb chorizo sausage, cooked and crumbled (you can also use bacon, which is how I originally posted it)
  • 4 green onions, plus extra for garnish
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 2 quart serving dish (I used  a souffle dish). Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, then scoop into the serving dish. Smooth top.
  2. Bake at 350 until browned on top and bubbly, about 15 to 20 minutes. Garnish with green onions and jalapeno. Serve hot.
White Trash Dip

White Trash Dip

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Sticky Spicy Sweet Thai Wings

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Sticky Spicy Sweet Thai Chicken Wings

Sticky Spicy Sweet Thai Chicken Wings

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with friends on facebook about how the American public (and a few other westernized cultures) has gotten fatter and fatter even though there is a far larger variety of good for you foods to choose from. We went back and forth over whether diet or lack of exercise was the larger culprit with my personal stance being right in the middle of both. We make crappy food choices, then do nothing to work it off. As a society we have come so far from our agricultural work 10 hours a day at manual labor roots that’s it’s frightening. most of us now get our exercise at home via a dvd or at the gym or maybe jogging and that’s assuming we even get up off of our computer chairs to do ANYTHING. And as I said to friends, I’m as guilty of that as anyone.

Case in point, chicken wings. I absolutely love them and would happily eat them several times a week with no problem. The problem lies in how I usually like them. I love the prepackaged bags of Hooters coating, frying the wings up all nice and crispy and then slathering them in the Hooters sauce. In my defense, I don’t have them often, maybe 2 or 3 times year, but to be totally honest, that probably stems more from the price of wings than any healthy living on my part. Like I said, I’m as guilty as anyone else. Last night, I had those same Hooters wings all planned for dinner. But after that conversation, I just couldn’t do it. I have been trying to eat better lately anyway (as I’ve said before, I actually don’t eat much of what I make for the blog… this is where having teenage boys and my husband having female coworkers who love sweets comes in handy hehe) and after my soapbox talk on facebook, couldn’t justify fried wings coated in flour and a buttery sauce.

So I played. I love spicy foods, I love sweet hot foods even more and I love Thai influenced foods too. So I dreamed up a sauce that had those flavors. I am rather pleased with how these turned out. The sauce is sticky, (and a good wing just HAS to be sticky. It’s the law!), sweet and with a nice punch of heat to it. If you’re spice averse, just lower the amount of jalapeno pepper.  This makes a lot of glaze. You can store the excess in the fridge to use as a dipping sauce for many different foods. 🙂

You know the drill… git to cookin’

Sticky Spicy Sweet Thai Wings

  • 1 4 lb bag frozen chicken wings, thawed
  • 8 ounces apricot preserves
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • juice and zest from one small lime
  • juice and zest from one small orange
  • 2 tablespoons red curry paste
  • 1/3 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons finely minced jalapeno
  1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a large baking sheet with non stick foil (you could also use regular foil but spray it with cooking spray… as much fat as wings render, they still stick to the pan).
  2. Place the wings in a single layer on the baking sheet.
  3. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then drain off all of the rendered fat or your wings won’t crisp at all, they’ll just steam in their own fat.
  4. Continue baking at 400 until wings are cooked through. If they haven’t browned enough for you, turn your broiler on high and put the pan under the broiler until they are of desired brownness. Watch closely so they don’t burn.
  5. As the wings cook, make your sauce. In a medium non stick pot, combine all the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn while the preserves melt. Once it is smooth, turn the heat to medium and continue boiling, stirring very frequently to prevent sticking. Turn the heat off about ten minutes before you take the wings out of the oven to let the sauce cool and thicken. it will look thin hot, but will thicken nicely as it cools.
  6. Put your cooked wings in a large heatproof bowl and pour the desired amount of sauce over them. Toss to coat. Garnish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.

 

But Yet I Love Him Anyway

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Baked Garlic Parmesan Wings

I love my husband dearly. He is the most wonderful man on Earth in my eyes. He is gentle, kind, loving, funny, has a level of intelligence that puts me to shame and is damned cute too.

Yet, if the Lord had wanted to pick someone more different than myself in the area of food tastes, he couldn’t have found such a man.

I love mushrooms. He says “Ick. Fungus.”

I love sushi. His fish better be baked or fried and with the rice on the side with gravy.

I love milk chocolate. He doesn’t much like sweets (so he says…until I bake) but his chocolate needs to be dark, preferably with orange.

I love steak. He prefers chicken or a hamburger.

I want my hamburger medium rare. His has to be no less than medium well.

I love brussell sprouts and hate carrots. He hates brussell sprouts and loves carrots.

I like ribs. He hates them.

I love fruit and veggies. Other than canned vegetables, getting him to eat fresh fruits or veggies is nigh near impossible.

Years of motherhood and never getting a hot meal has made me almost prefer room temp food. His food must be hot enough to scorch off your taste buds.

But the worst…. the absolute worst (well, other than the not liking sweets thing. That one is hard to handle.) is that my husband, my best friend, the man I will spend eternity with, will not eat chicken wings. Not even one bite. Says there isn’t enough meat on them. I’ve tried to show him the error of his ways with plump juicy wings but he still won’t try them.

Not even these wings I made tonight. Crispy, buttery, redolent of garlic and Parmesan cheese. Simple, easy, yet filled with flavor.

He.Wouldn’t.Even.Try.ONE.

Yet I love him anyway. In spite of these major flaws. Go figure. (Love you darlin’!! <3 )

So please. Make me happy. Make these wings. Eat them. Drip buttery garlicky goodness on yourself. And pity my husband. And pity me… knowing that I had to eat more wings than was good for me due to my husbands stubbornness and poor poor food choices. Sad. So so sad.

*Wipes grease from chin and sobs a garlic scented sob* Continue reading →

Dip Because I’m A Dip

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Hard to take a decent picture of dip. I mean, it's DIP... 😛

When I was a kid, people who were ditzy were called dips or dippy. I have no idea if that was a regional thing or just that the people I knew were strange. Please don’t answer that. But suffice it to say that I fell squarely into the dippy category.

Thus the title of this post. I mean, this dip has chicken, cheese, bacon and green onions in it too but titling this “Dip for the chicken” or “dip for the bacon” just didn’t make much sense to me. I can be a bit chicken at times (like when eating liver is involved) but I am not related to pork products in any way. Hmmm, I’ve been known to be piggy. As for cheese, we all know I can be cheesy but “Dip for the cheese” just sounds stupid.

Fine, I admit it!! I couldn’t think of a good post title and this is all just a coverup to make it sound planned! It was “Dip-Gate”! A vast right wing conspiracy!! Erhmmmm, sorry, I think I was channeling Hilary Clinton. *Shudders* Now THERE’S a frightening thought.

Sigh. I really need to get out more.

Moving on.

Still have a couple of big holidays coming up. You may have heard of them. And they tend to be big eating holidays too. Not like Columbus Day… or Groundhog Day. Personally, I don’t go overboard on yummy foods for those two.

In my family, it has become a tradition to have our big meal on Christmas Eve. It has also become a tradition that the meal is mainly appetizers and finger foods. Mind you, with my kids and hubby that still means enough food to feed a small country but still… appetizers.

One of the things we all enjoy is dips. Not so much the ubiquitous kinds like cold french onion dip with chips (I save that for maybe a twice a year craving and TV) but more substantial ones. Preferably with meat. Lots of meat. Or cheese. Lots of cheese. Or even better, with both.

You’ve all probably heard of Buffalo Chicken Dip by now, even if you haven’t tried it. Hot cheesy dip that is SUPPOSED to taste like buffalo wings. Too often however, tasty as it is, it bears no resemblance to wings. With that in mind, I had no qualms keeping the same basic idea and taking it even farther down the path away from “Wingdom”. Ha!! You thought I was going to say that I had created one that tasted exactly like a scoopable buffalo wing. Admit it… you did, you did you did..

Oh heck no. As much as I love wings, I kinda like that the dips aren’t perfectly like them. But being me, as usual, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. So try MY version of Buffalo Chicken Dip. Hot, gooey, cheesy, chickeny (yes, that is now a word) bacony (hey; spell check didn’t say anything. I guess bacony really IS a word!), oniony (damn; not a word. Stoopid spell check.) and oh so yummy with tostitos or celery (if you’re feeling strangely healthful which is a waste of time with this dip) or off of your fingers. You may want to let it cool before you try that last one though. Just sayin’. I will not be held liable for burned fingertips :-p

Newly Revised Deluxe Version Of Buffalo Chicken Dip

  • 2 10 ounce cans chicken, well drained
  • 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing
  • 1/2 to 3/4 (if you’re brave) cup hot sauce (I use Franks Red Hot)
  • 1 3 ounce package bacon bits (yes, you could make your own bacon but this is meant to be easy, not work)
  • 3 cups cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup blue cheese (I’d put more if I could but no one else in the family likes blue cheese, the boogerheads)
  • 3 green onions, thinly sliced
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, hot sauce and dressing.
  3. Stir in the chicken, breaking up any large chunks (but don’t mush the crap out of it; leave some pieces), the bacon, the green onions and 2 cups of the cheddar cheese.
  4. Spoon into a lightly greased 2 quart baking dish or 9 inch pie plate.
  5. Top with the rest of the cheddar cheese, the blue cheese (and some extra green onions if you want)
  6. Bake at 350 until lightly browned around the edges and bubbly, about 20 minutes.
  7. Serve with veggies of tostitos or fingertips.

Barely Brie-thing

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Hehehe… I crack me up.When I went in the fridge today, I noticed the small wheel of Brie I got a few days ago. It was in the reduced section then so I said cuss words to myself as I tried to figure out how to use it before it was… *said in a melodramatic tone of voice*… TOO LATE (images of green cheese and the Brie giving birth to alien life forms took place in my mind). I almost left it then because that idea was kind of cool but it DID cost five bucks so I pulled it out of the fridge. Sigh… maybe next time.

I decided on a cheese dip cause any excuse to melt cheese is high on my list of good food. Especially when it’s something I can add bacon to… which I did. Lots of it. Because bacon is NOT liver thus I love it. So far it has been a hit if the half empty pan is any indication. I served it with Tostitos mini rounds but I think it would also be fantastic spread on baguette slices.

HOT MELTY BRIE & BACON DIP

  1. 1 12.25 ounce round brie (I used Alouette brand baby brie)
  2. 8 ounces muenster cheese
  3. 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan/Romano mix ( the fresh shredded kind in the deli area not the dry grated kind in the pasta aisle)
  4. 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella
  5. 8 ounces cream cheese
  6. 1/4 cup diced green and/or red peppers
  7. 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
  8. 1 lb. low sodium bacon, cooked until crisp, cooled and crumbled
  9. 1/2 cup sour cream
  10. 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • Preheat your oven to 375. Put  the bacon in a foil lined pan (foil lined because I hate washing greasy pans) and cook until nice and crispy, about 20 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, cut your Brie and Muenster cheeses into 1/2 inch cubes.
  • Dice the green peppers into 1/4 inch (more or less; doesn’t have to be perfect, just be sure it’s small) pieces.  Put into a small bowl with about a teaspoon of the bacon grease (you heard me… bacon grease.) Stir together then put into the microwave for 2 minutes on high power.
  • Mix together the mozzarella, muenster, brie, cream cheese, Parmesan  and sour cream. Add in the bacon, red pepper flakes if using, green onions and the green peppers.
  • Put in a 2 quart casserole (or a deep souffle dish or any pretty baking dish) and put in the 400 degree oven until bubbly and the top is nicely browned.
  • Serve with chips, veggie sticks or baguette slices.
  • NOTE- This makes a LARGE pan of dip so if you’re not feeding a large family (or the county) you may want to cut this in half 😛

Five minutes after setting it out. WAITAMINNIT! Where's MINE!?