Frank’s Dip

Back in my undergraduate days, I used to hang out with this guy named Frank. He was an all-around cool person, and whenever there was a party, he would make “Frank’s Dip.”

I learned, years later, that it wasn’t all that complicated or secret a recipe; it may, in fact, have originated on the back of a Hormel chili can.

At any rate, I found it on the Internet, and I will now share it with you:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
1 (4oz) can chopped green chiles (or jalepenos if you ARE CRAZY)
1 can Hormel chili*
shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese to cover

Spread softened cream cheese in bottom of an 11×7-inch glass baking dish; spread green chiles on top of that (people like it better if you’ve run them through a blender first); spread can of Hormel chili on top of that; and sprinkle package of shredded cheese over the top. You can prepare this several hours ahead and refrigerate, if you wish. When you’re about ready to serve, bake in 350° oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is melted & bubbly.

Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

* 1) Any brand will do. 2) When no chili was available, people have made this dip with a thin layer of [ideally refried] beans and another thin layer of salsa. It works just fine that way. But I like the chili version better.

A word of warning: this stuff is addictive. Don’t just make one batch.

Summer citrus and chicken salad

I love my CSA, and I will try to find good recipes for all these veggies I’m getting and post the results. 

Last week, Geeky Alpaca and I made a super tasty salad, using the fresh greens included in our CSA box (mesclun, they called it), as well as some pea greens.  I think, not counting marinating the chicken, we spent about 20 minutes on the whole thing.

First, I took two old oranges that were starting to get squishy–still tasty, but the consistency was a bit off–and marinated a large chicken breast for a day in the juice from 1.5 of them.  

The other half orange was held back to make dressing.  I got about 1/4 cup of juice from it, added an equal amount of honey, and threw in some spicy brown mustard until I liked the taste and consistency of the mix (I’d guess it was between 1.5 and 2Tbsp)–admittedly a bastardization of this recipe.  It was spicy and sweet, all at once, and I loved it.

Next, I put a little bit of olive oil and an even smaller bit of basil-infused olive oil on a nonstick pan, heated it, and threw the chicken on there.  I then liberally sprinkled each side with dried basil and more gently added dried tarragon and powdered cayenne.  I cut the chicken into bite-size pieces while it cooked, and when it had a minute or so to go, I drizzled a tiny bit of the dressing onto it.

While I was doing all of this, Geeky Alpaca washed and cut the greens (and some other vegetables, for other meals) into bite-size pieces.  He also pulled out and drained a can of mandarin oranges.  

Onto the plate went the greens, the mandarin oranges, the chicken, and the dressing, and the result was fantastic.  There might be things one could add to make it even more exciting–almond slices, dried cranberries, some kind of fancy cheese–but it was quite tasty on its own.

Getting started

I hate to leave the blog empty.  I’ll add real content soon.  :)