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:)

Foodie Friday: Double Tomato Bruschetta , Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms , Pumpkin Perfection Bars

First of all , I must confess...I hardly cooked at all this week but with Thanksgiving fast approaching I figured I'd share some of my favorite go-to appetizer recipes. These are actually a few that we took to Thanksgiving at my Aunt's last year. I made two batches of each appetizer and they were gone in no time and we have requests for them again this year. Hopefully your family will love them as much as mine did.

Ingredients

6 Roma Tomatoes -Chopped

1/2 Cup Sundried Tomatoes

3 Cloves Minced Garlic

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 Cup Fresh Basil-Chopped

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 French Bread Baguette

Instructions

1.Preheat the oven on broil setting

2. In a large bowl combine tomato,sundried-tomato,garlic,olive oil,vinegar,salt,pepper,and basil. Allow the mixture to set for 10 minutes to allow flavors to combine and marinate.

3.cut baguette into 3/4 inch slices and arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet

4.Divide the tomato mixture evenly and spread on top of the baguette slices

5. Top slices with Mozzarella cheese

6. Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted

Ingredients

24 Medium Mushrooms

1/4 Cup Green Onions -Chopped

1 Clove of Garlic-Minced

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1/4 Cup of Cream Cheese-Softened

1/3 Cup Dried Breadcrumbs

3 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese

Ground Italian Sausage-1 Package

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions

1.Remove the stems from mushrooms and chop up about 1 cup of the stems

2.Brown the sausage in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil

3. when sausage is almost browned add in the mushroom stems, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and cook on med-high heat for 2-3 minutes 

4.Remove from heat and stir in cream cheese and breadcrumbs

5. Spoon the mixture into mushroom caps, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil

6.place on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 15 minutes until mushrooms are soft and heated through

It wouldn't be my kind of Foodie Friday without at least having one dessert. Even though I had no time to cook dinners this week I somehow found the time to make a sweet treat ;) Blame it on Linzi at Little Gem , her baked goods always send me into a dessert craving lol These Pumpkin bars are a perfect fall dessert and it has a total of 6 ingredients and 4 steps so it's a good last minute treat.

Ingredients

2 Cups Sugar

1/2 Cup Oil

4 Eggs

16 Ounces of Pumpkin

2 Cups Bisquick

2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

1 Can Cream Cheese Frosting

Instructions

1. Cream Together oil,eggs, and sugar

2.Add Pumpkin, Bisquick, and Cinnamon

3.Bake for 350 for 20-25 Minutes in a long glass pan

4. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting and cut into bars

Try out these recipes and let me know what you think! If you tweak the recipe a little bit let me know what you did to make it even better :) Feel free to share the link on your page (please credit my blog and foodie fridays)