Terry's Hot Mexican Dip

Hey look, I still exist--and whoa, so does this blog! Sort of. Yeah, I know; I am a horrible updater. Let's not talk about it.

Anyway, here's a quick, super yummy (and embarrassingly easy) dip that I made tonight. I got several requests for the recipe, so I figured I may as well post it. Please forgive the poor quality photo; my brother is the photographer of the family, plus I was in a hurry, plus I'm tired (excuses, excuses, I know).

Terry's Hot Mexican Dip

- 1 cup sour cream

- 3 oz. cream cheese

- 16 oz. can refried beans

- 1/2 cup Picante sauce

- 2 tsp. chili powder

- 1/2 tsp. cumin

- 2 cups cheese

Blend together all ingredients except cheese.

Spray individual ramekins or one large casserole dish with non-stick spray.

Layer dip with 1 cup each cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

See? I told you. Embarrassingly easy. Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies

How very convenient that I've recommenced my recipe blogging on the eve of Vintage Recipe Thursday (which, at the moment, is a whole 4 minutes away). This recipe is credited to my grandmother and is the one that my family has always used for our Christmas cookies. They're simple, they're yummy, and, best of all, they're fun to decorate.

circa 1995

This year (err, I guess it's last year now), due to extreme busy-ness, the only traditional Christmas baking I did was to make cinnamon rolls (which is a recipe for another Thursday); I completely failed to make Christmas cookies. However, I did make these sugar cookies back in November, due to a sudden patriotic whim on Election Day. The goal was to decorate the cookies with red, white and blue frosting...but...as I have yet to succeed in keeping red food coloring from turning pink, I made an executive decision that a temporary alteration in our national colors was in order. Pink's pretty, right? :)

Gramma Dunwoody's Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk

4 tsp. baking powder

5 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. vanilla

1. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar.

2. Add vanilla and beaten eggs.

3. In smaller bowl, sift flour and baking powder.

4. Add milk and flour mixture alternately to butter/sugar mixture.

5. Roll dough on floured surface.

6. Cut with fun cookie cutters (or, if you don't have cookie cutters, use the rim of a cup/wine glass).

7. Bake at 400 degrees, about 6-7 minutes.

8. Allow cookies to cool before frosting.

Icing

1 box powdered sugar (approximately 3 3/14 cups)

2/3 stick melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

3-4 tbsp. milk

Mix all ingredients together. Add food coloring as desired.

Spread icing onto cookies.

Happy baking! :)

15 Bean Soup

Hey look, I'm back! Again. Hopefully this isn't going to become my standard greeting for these posts; hopefully I'm going to start doing better about posting more frequently. You'd think that with the amount of time I spend in my kitchen I could have a post up nearly every day, but...clearly that hasn't been the case. Yet. I guess part of the problem is that a lot of the time when I'm baking/cooking, I'm in too much of a hurry to take pictures--and, mediocre though my photography skills are, I still like to have at least one photo to accompany these recipes.

But, excuses aside, here (finally) is the recipe for the 15 Bean Soup that I made waaaaay back in the year 2010. I'm pretty sure I made this during my VIA baking spree...and I know that for some [highly intelligent] reason I decided to make this in the middle of the night. [Brilliant, I know.] Actually, the majority of my baking that month occurred in the wee small hours of the morning (accompanied, incidentally, by my Frank Sinatra Pandora station); I didn't sleep much in October.

But I digress; enough of my rambling. Here's the recipe, which was a huge hit with my coworkers (and our milkman, actually). I mostly followed the recipe on the package, but I did add my own little twist to it...

15 Bean Soup

20 oz. package 15 Bean Soup (I used Hurst's)

1 lb. sausage, cooked

15 oz. can stewed or diced tomatoes

1 tsp chili powder

Juice of 1 lemon

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 packet VIA Ready-Brew coffee (I used Italian Roast)

1. Soak beans in 2 quarts of water overnight, or at least 8 hours.

2. Drain the water. Add 2 quarts of water and sausage.

3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 2 1/2 hours.

4. After simmering, add onion, tomatoes, chili powder, lemon, garlic, and VIA Ready-Brew.

5. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

6. Add contents of ham packet (included in the soup package) 1-2 minutes before cooking is completed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I also made homemade French bread to go with this, which (I think) worked quite nicely.

Enjoy!