Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Mexican Food Appetizers

It's not JUST chips and salsa. . . How about Layered Bean Dip with chips or Chili-Cheese Dip with chips? Everytime I make chili-cheese dip I am reminded of a time (back in the 80s) when my kids were young and we'd get together with friends for evenings of Trivial Pursuit or Pictionary. There were several families that got together frequently and as "the women folk" would start discussing whose house we were going to gather at and what we were going to fix for munchies, the question would come up "who's bringing the chili cheese dip?" It was such a standard dish that the question was never "should we have chili cheese dip?" Then as the kids grew, it was one of the "standard" fare when they would have pool parties. Many, many times I would have to run to the store to get the ingredients to make yet another batch! It still remains my son's favorite dip. I still make it in my original, avacado green crock pot (yes, it DOES date back to the year that crock pots first hit the market -- sometime in the early 70s) Do I have your interest yet?

Chili-Cheese Dip
In a crock pot or slow cooker, place 2 cans of chili beans (whatever brand you like--I use Dennisons usually) and 1 lb of Velveeta cheese, cubed. Heat, stirring frequently until cheese is melted and mixture is heated through. Ladle into a bowl and serve as a dip with tortilla chips and/or corn chips OR spread the chips on a plate and ladle the chili-cheese over as you would for nachos. If served as nachos, you can top with salsa, olives, chopped green onions, sour cream or whatever else you like on nachos.


LAYERED BEAN DIP
1 - 32 oz can refried beans
1 - 4oz can diced green chilies (do not drain)
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 ½ cups sour cream
1 - 16 oz bottle taco sauce
4 to 6 green onions, sliced
3 cups lettuce, shredded fine
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 can black olives, sliced
Tortilla chips
In a bowl, mix refried beans, green chilies and taco seasoning mix. Spread mixture onto a 12 inch round serving platter. Spread the sour cream over the beans and then pour the taco sauce over the sour cream. Arrange the green onions evenly over the sour cream, spread lettuce over green onions, and then top with the cheddar cheese and black olives. Serve with tortilla chips.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am starving now looking at all these wonderful recipes! AGAIN I can not stress how much I love your blog. I am showing my husband how awesome this is right now. We both love to cook, but I personally need some inspiration in the kitchen. Mexican is my favorite. Thank You!

Brenda Yarborough said...

Starr,
Thank you so much! I enjoy cooking, collect cookbooks and recipes and have plenty to share. . . just need to keep myself focused on adding to this blog.

Margaret McCarthy Hunt said...

you could really be a bad influence on my life...the manicotti sounds fab...i know the bean dip is...did i say i love refried beans!!