Welcome to Tasty Tuesdays!

I’m so glad you’re here! Tuesdays will be dedicated to dishing on fun foods that are easy and delish!

Photo Credit Maribeth Schmidt for all of the food photos. You can see her photography site Here:

No rules on this yet, (Freedom, baby! Which kind of mirrors my eating habits at times).  Some recipes may be healthy, some may be a little on the indulgent side, but all will be easy and tasty! This is a judgement free zone, so whether you cook 7 nights a week or you never cook at all, these will be great additions to your go to list! To be up front with you, I am not even close to a professionally trained chef. But I love to try food that I think will have mass appeal.

Keeping it real, we may encounter a few epicurean miracles, and a couple duds… but I promise you we will always have fun! And my talented friend Maribeth Schmidt will be providing great photos and as we have been cooking in her house for these shots, her kids have been excellent foodies taste testing for you, dear reader, a sacrifice they were willing to make!

So for this first week, I am giving you my easiest recipe of all, and my number one requested party food, good ‘ole fashioned “Chip Dip”!  Every member of my household knows how to make this, and has made it in a pinch. When my kids were toddlers, I would let them hold the mixer (with my hand over theirs) while we blended it. Then they would sit by the bowl and double dip their chip over and over till the chip disintegrated… memories of those times with them make me smile because they just loved the dip so much! (I don’t think they double dip anymore).  So lets get to it. Here is what you will need.

1 bar of cream cheese, softened

1 16 oz tub of sour cream

1 packet dry onion soup mix

chopped chives (optional)

chips for dipping, can also use crisp veggies or pretzels

In a medium bowl, with a hand mixer, blend the softened cream cheese with the sour cream till smooth. Allowing the cream cheese to soften will help it combine smoother and fluffier with the cream cheese. Voila!

This is the base of your dip. This base can be used for all sorts of different dips. For our good ole fashioned “chip dip” we are adding in a packet of onion soup mix. Empty the contents of one packet in your dip base, and with a sturdy spoon, stir until it looks evenly mixed. Once it is mixed, it is imperative that you take a “tasty tester”, grab a nice big chip or carrot or whatever you have handy and give it a taste. On a side note, my husband suggests a heartier chip if you like to load it up with dip. This is a little thicker dip because of the cream cheese.

Now put your dip in the perfect dish for your occasion. Going to a picnic? One of those inexpensive plastic bowls with a snap on lid work great. Garnish with chopped chives if desired. Store it covered in the refrigerator or cooler until you are ready to serve.

The dishes we used below we found at Kroger. They were not expensive, and its kind of fun to have some cute, bright dishes to help celebrate your delicious food!

Notice how beautiful the fresh veggies look alongside the dip! Perfect for bbq’s, potlucks, tailgates, bowl games, kids sleepovers with pizza, showers, sloppy joe night, just about anytime! Trivia time, I believe in England, potato chips are called “crisps”.

The chopped green scallions really make it appetizing!

If you are interested in keeping it low calorie, you could use the reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream, and if you really want to cut the calories, you could use the fat free options. Also, you could eliminate the chips and only offer the fresh veggies with the dip.

When we made this the other day, I honestly went for the carrots and snow peas! They just looked so appetizing!

A little more Chip Dip Trivia you can drop when you serve it up: Chips are the number one snack food in the USA. Americans eat 1.2 billions pounds of chips yearly (according to a study by Fox News). There are many claims to how they were invented, one story says it was by a restaurant chef named George Crum, at Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York, who was trying to create a super thin sliced, over cooked potato dish for a picky customer, so well cooked they could not be soggy. They came out extra crispy. He added salt, and served them up. They caught on! After that, they began serving potato chips in a bowl at every table, and the customers loved it! So potato chips were sort of an accidental discovery! I love stuff like that!

I do believe the thing that sets this recipe apart from the competition is the cream cheese.

I purchased one of those little preassembled veggie platters in the veggie department for this photo shoot, and it really was perfect with the dip!

When I entertain, I put this chip dip out as an appetizer with a fruit platter while prepping/finishing the main course, and people of every age and stage go for it. I know this may sound a little silly, but I love foods where we scoop out of a community bowl like the dip bowl. Something kind of heart warming to see hungry people in community enjoying a tasty treat together, almost symbolic as they come to the bowl for nourishment of food and relationship. I guess that is a little like the concept of fondue. It brings people together. I’m a little on the corny side, I know.

It is so nice to include such pretty and colorful foods, isn’t it?

Well friends, this is the kind of quick and easy recipe you can use year round. I hope you enjoy it, and seeing all your hungry visitors enjoy the fruits of your labor (which is pretty simple, really!) If you have kids, this is a great dish to teach them how to make. No heat needed. Life long skill. Pretty easy assembly. And it tastes great!

Have a great week! I will be back Friday for another Fashion Friday installment.

Love Always,

Amy

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house  and eat with him… the people who give you their food will give you their heart.”  Cesar Chavez