Foodie Friday: Hot Crab Dip

Merry Christmas from my crew to yours ! Hope everyone's celebrations were full of love and family .My absolute favorite part of Christmas is the 3 F's ...Family , Friends, and Food!!!! My family celebrates Christmas with the extended family on Christmas Eve during the day. We do an appetizer and sweets kinda thing in hope that no ones appetite will be spoiled before dinner. As for me, I stuffed my face with all of the appetizers and skipped out on dinner :) If I had my way every meal would consist of a mix match of bite sized goodies . This year mom and I went with some old favorites as well as a few new recipes. My mom's Double Tomato Bruchetta is always a big hit so we had to throw that in the mix along with barbecue meatballs,hot crab dip, and mini ham sammies. The crab dip and bruschetta were the only two that had real recipes . The rest were kind of just thrown together ( thats generally how I cook lol). To be honest , even the dip was an experiment.The crab dip was a combo of a few recipes that I gathered .I used the sophisticated culinary approach of  "pick n choose" and mixed the two recipes together, luckily it was a successful experiment ;)

Ingredients:

8 oz lump crab

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup mayo

1/2 large yellow onion chopped

1/2 cup chopped green onion

1 red bell pepper chopped

1/2 can artichoke hearts ( cut into small pieces)

1/2 teaspoon. garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon tumeric

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1.In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except the Parmesan cheese. I was able to mix with a spoon because my cream cheese was really soft but if not a hand mixer would work well 

2.Spray a square baking dish 8x8 and pour mixture into the pan. sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top

 ( we had a large crowd so I doubled the recipe and used a 9x13)

3. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes then broil the top for just a few minutes until the top gets browned just a little bit 

4. I served with a sliced baguette as well as pita chips

Thank you for checking out this week's Foodie Friday post. If you try any of these recipes be sure to leave me a comment and let me know how you like it:)

Christmas Cheer .. Cookies and DIY gifts

CHRISTMAS COOKIE EXTRAVAGANZA:

This years cookie tins were filled with Cranberry Bliss Bar copy cats ( I wish Starbucks sold them all year long!), Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies,Lemon Ricotta Cookies, and Mint Oreo cookie balls.The Recipe for Starbucks Copy Cat Cranberry Bliss Bars can be found here . They turned out so good! The only thing I would recommend is using some sort of triangle cookie cutter to help you achieve uniform sizes.

These Chocolate Chip Cookies use a package of instant vanilla pudding which keeps the cookies light and airy. I used red and green chips just to keep with the Christmas theme.

These are quite possibly the best cookie/candy combo I've ever tried! Simplicity, Oreos, Chocolate and Cream Cheese.....nuff said!


Ingredients: 
15 regular Oreos
15 mint Oreos
1 package of softened cream cheese (8 oz)
2 packages of melting chocolates -2 flavors
( I used dark -mint chocolate and candy cane white chocolate )

Instructions:
1.Crush Oreos in a food processor of by placing them in a ziplock bag and crushing with a rolling pin.
2. Mix the cream cheese with the Oreo crumbs
3. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls
4. Place balls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer for an hour
5.Melt which ever type of chocolate you will you use for dipping. Dip the tops of the balls in chocolate
6. Refreeze for 30 minutes
7. Melt the second type of chocolate and place in a piping bag . If you don't have one you can pour the melted chocolate into a zip lock bag and cut off one of the corners
8. Drizzle tops of Oreo balls with chocolate
9. Keep in freezer until ready to serve

                             

The recipe for my cousin Nicole's delicious Lemon Ricotta Cookies an be found on my Foodie Friday post from a few weeks ago. My family just loves these!

My mom and I tackled four types of cookies and 2 days of baking and we've got 17 tins all ready to roll :) I hope all of you have been enjoying the holiday season! What is your favorite tradition?

Hope ya'll have a great holiday!