Hot Cheesy Corn Dip

Corn is in season and I certainly have been enjoying it! In addition to trying out new recipes with corn I have also been making some old favourites and one that I cannot stop making over and over again is this hot cheesy corn dip adapted from Emeril Lagass's recipe! Since I was making the dip anyways I figured that I would take the opportunity to update the 5 year old photo on this recipe with some new ones. This dip is super easy to make, you simply char some corn to bring out its natural sweetness, combine it with a few other vegetables along with plenty of cheese and bake it until it is all melted, bubbling and golden brown. In addition to being easy to make, this dip is addictively good; there is just something magical about how the sweet corn works with the savoury cheese and mayonnaise in this hot dip! The only real problem that I have with this dip is that it disappears far too quickly!

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Buffalo Chicken Dip

It has been far too long since I last made a hot cheesy dip and I was getting cravings. With the long holiday weekend coming up it was the perfect time for a trial run of a new dip and I had just the idea, a buffalo chicken wing dip. The idea was to incorporate all of the flavours from your standard chicken wing pub fare into a hot cheesy dip. I started with your standard cheese dip ingredients including cream cheese and mayonnaise, though I cut back on the mayo by replacing a lot of it with sour cream. Next up was some chicken and hot sauce for the main flavours of the chicken wings followed by some blue cheese as wings are often served with a blue cheese dip. I finished the dip off with some cheddar cheese to give the dip a nice melted cheesy topping. The only decision left was what to serve with the dip for dipping and the obvious answer was the celery and carrot sticks that are commonly served with chicken wings. (Chips and crackers work as well!)

This buffalo chicken wing dip is so addictively good! Melted cheese along with chicken, hot sauce and the zing of the blue cheese is such an amazing combination of flavours! Even with the carrots and the celery sticks, this dip is not the healthiest snack around but it is ok to indulge every once in a while. It would probably be ok to go with light cream cheese and sour cream if you prefer.

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Chorizo Queso Fundido

With all of the cookies and other sweets during the holidays it is always nice to change things up a bit and go with something savoury! You can never go wrong with a hot cheese dip whether you are throwing a party or just wtching the game and I knew exactly which hot cheese dip that I wanted to try at my next party. I came across this chorizo queso fundido on Smells Like Home a while ago and I have been wanting to make it ever since. I mean just look at the ingredients, with all of that melted cheese, spicy chorizo and even a hit of tequila it was bound to be awesaomely addictive! I did make one important change to the recipe be using fresh Mexican style chorizo rather than cured Spanish style chorizo as I have really been into it lately and I knew that it would work well in the dip. This chorizo queso fundido is definitely a keeper and it will dissapper faster than you can blink so eat your share while still in the kitchen or better yet hide out in a locked room; you didn't really want hear any more about aunt Thema's warts anyways.

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Crispy Baked Onion Rings

With all of the experimenting that I have been doing with crispy baked vegetable fries lately, such as the eggplant parmesan fries and the portobello mushroom fries, I cannot believe that I did not think of using one of the most obvious vegetables, onions! I mean onion rings are so addictively good and they are the one upgrade that I pretty much always take if it is available when ordering out. My initial thought was to take the same recipe that I had been using for the other vegetables, where I dredge them in flour, dip them in egg and then coat them in panko bread crumbs, and although it worked and they tasted great, it was not all that easy to coat both the insides and outsides of the onion rings with just two eggs! I am all about easy recipes and the first recipe was just not easy enough so I put my thinking cap on and eventually I found myself thinking about fish and chips where the fish is dipped not in egg but in a batter and I had my solution! Using the batter it was super easy to coat the onions rings, the bread crumbs stayed on and the baked onions rings tasted fantastic! Now I can enjoy onion rings whenever I want at home!

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Crispy Baked Eggplant Fries with Marinara Dipping Sauce (aka Eggplant Parmesan Fries!)

After the recent extraordinary success of the crispy baked portobello mushroom fries I was thinking about what other vegetables could be turned into fries and with the abundance of cheap eggplant these days, it seemed like the perfect candidate to try next! I was a bit worried about using eggplant to make fries as eggplant can have a lot of moisture, and no one want soggy fries, but given how addictively good roasted eggplant is, I just have to give it a shot! Once again the recipe for the eggplant fries is extremely quick and easy! You really just need to slice the eggplant, coat it up in the breadcrumbs, parmesan and seasonings and bake it until crispy. (There is really no excuse for reaching for that bag of chips all the way at the back of the cupboard!) As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about as the eggplant fries came out perfectly crispy and golden brown and as you can see from the photos, I have made several batches already! Snacking just got so much better!

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Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper Burgers

With grilling season here I have been thinking about burgers a lot more and this idea for jalapeno popper burgers has been haunting my dreams all winter! The basic idea behind these burgers was to include all of the flavours of jalapeno poppers, which I am totally addicted to, and serve them up in burger form. Jalapeno poppers are jalapenos that are stuffed with cream cheese and/or cheddar that are coated in bread crumbs and fried until crispy and golden brown. Stuffing the burgers with cream cheese seemed like the natural place to start but that left the question about how to incorporate the jalapenos. I was thinking about mixing them right into the cream cheese but raw jalapenos are crispier than I wanted so I decided to roast or grill them first to tenderize them and add a nice smokiness.

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Buffalo Chicken Chili

I am always on the lookout for new ways to enjoy the totally addictive buffalo chicken flavours and so when I came across the idea for a buffalo chicken chili on Blog is the New Black I pinned it immediately! I could not resist the idea of a using the buffalo chicken flavours in a bowl of chili and it was sounding like pure comfort food in a bowl! This buffalo chicken chili starts out with a base of onions and plenty of carrots and celery which is appropriate given that buffalo wing are often served with carrot and celery sticks. From there the chili is seasoned with garlic, cumin, paprika and of course plenty of your favourite hot sauce. I chose to go with beer for the liquid and then I bulked the chili up with some tomatoes and white beans. I have to say that this chili is good and you will definitely find yourself going back for seconds which is ok as it is fairly healthy! I server the chili topped with crumbled blue cheese with a side of corn chips, carrots and celery sticks along with a blue cheese sauce for dipping.

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Bacon Wrapped Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers

A little while ago I came across a recipe for bacon wrapped buffalo chicken jalapeno poppers on Copy Kat Recipes that sounded so good! Unfortunately I was all snacked out after the big football game so I very reluctantly set the recipe aside for another time. Although I resisted making them for a while, over the weekend I broke down and made them using some leftover cooked shredded chicken from the freezer. I did not really stand a chance, I mean this recipe combines two irresistible snacks, jalapeno poppers and buffalo chicken wings, into one and then wraps them up in bacon and I just had to find out how amazing the combination was!

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Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins

I have had the idea to do buffalo chicken stuffed potato skins for a long time now and what better time to pull out the skins than for the the big football game? The basic idea was to stuff some potato skins with chicken in a buffalo hot sauce along with cheese and baked them until the cheese melts and gets all nice and bubbly. I mean you really cannot got wrong with spicy buffalo chicken covered in melted cheese right?

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Bacon Guacamole

I already have a few hot melted cheese dips planned for the upcoming Super Bowl party but I also want to include something a little on the healthier side and guacamole is perfect party food! The basic guacamole is pretty darn irresistible but I cannot help but tinker with it by adding different things with an example being the blue cheese guacamole that I made not too long ago. This time however I was thinking about a bacon guacamole; if bacon and avocado go great together in sandwiches, and they do, then why not add bacon to guacamole?

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Taco Dip

With the big football game quickly approaching I have been getting some snack recipes together for the party. The burger dip that I made last week got me thinking about hot cheesy dips and one my favourites has to be this taco dip! Since I last made this dip I have learned a few things and I was just itching to make it again and apply what I had learned. The first thing that I wanted to change was to make it in a wider dish since I had discovered that it works really well for hot cheesy dips when I made the pizza dip. The burger dip that I made last week taught me that topping a hot dip with fresh ingredients makes it even better, as hard as that is to believe! If any dip deserves to be topped with fresh ingredients it is this taco dip as tacos are commonly filled with fresh ingredients!

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Bacon Double Cheese Burger Dip

The Super Bowl is quickly approaching and that means that it is time to start dusting off some recipes for snacking! I am a big fan of hot melted cheese dips and I had an idea for a new one, a bacon double cheese burger dip that has all of the flavours of a bacon double cheese burger. Beef is the main part of a burger so I started out there and I added some ingredients that I commonly add to burgers including onions, garlic and worcestershire sauce. Next up was the bacon and then the cheese and I included both cheddar for the flavour and mozzarella for the stringy melted goodness. I went with the standard hot melted cheese dip ingredients including the cream cheese, mayonnaise and sour cream to form the base of the dip. One final touch was the addition of ketchup as it is a pretty standard condiment used in burgers. All of the ingredients are then mixed together and baked until the cheeses all melt and start to brown and get all bubbly.

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Pizza Dip

Over the last while I have slowly been trying to free up some space in my freezer and I recently came across some pizza sauce that I had left over after making a pizza a while back. As soon as I stumbled upon it I remembered thinking that I had wanted to use it to make a hot cheesy pizza dip when I put it in the freezer. Once I had that thought there was no turning back and I was already dreaming up recipes for the dip.

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Artichoke Bread

With the big game day approaching I have been thinking about snacks more. Last weekend I got the chance to try making an artichoke bread that has been on my mind for a while. The artichoke bread is essentially an artichoke dip that is baked on bread until the crust of the bread perfectly light and crispy, the dip is nice and warm, the cheesy topping is melted and golden brown. For the artichoke topping I decided to start with my favorite hot spinach and artichoke dip and I removed the spinach and tweaked it a bit. (You could of course leave the spinach in for a slightly healthier version.) For the bread I used a loaf of Italian style bread that I cut it in half lengthwise and then scooped out a bit of the center to provide room for more filling. The next challenge was baking the bread for long enough to heat up the artichoke dip so that all of the cheese in it melted without the crust of the bread burning. I decided that the best way to go about it was to cover the bread in foil while it warmed up and then to remove the foil near the end to let the cheese on top melt and turn golden brown. The artichoke bread turned out amazingly well! I used a nice fresh loaf of Italian bread so while the crust was light and crispy the inside was nice and soft and moist. The warm artichoke dip with the melted cheesy topping was so good and the fact the it was in the perfectly cooked bread made it even better!

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Hot Caramelized Onion Dip

When entertaining over the holidays it is a good idea to have some tasty appetizers on hand. Although the holiday cookies are always welcome it is also nice to have something savoury and it is hard to go wrong with a melted cheesy dip! A while ago I made a hot sweet onion dip that was so good! The sweet onion went surprisingly well with the melted cheese! While I was enjoying the hot sweet onion dip I thought, why not caramelize the onions first? I had to try the caramelized onion version of the dip so I filed the idea away for later and now was the time to finally try it. Properly caramelizing onions can take a bit of patience as it takes several hours to slowly cook them down until they have turned a nice golden brown colour but the final result is so worth the effort. After cooking for all of that time the onions that started out pretty pungent mellow out and in fact become quite sweet. These sweet caramelized onions worked amazingly well in the savoury, creamy dip covered in melted cheesy goodness! I enjoyed the hot caramelized onion dip on a sliced fresh whole grain baguette but chips or even vegetables would also make for some great dipping pleasure.

Hot Caramelized Onion Dip

(makes 4 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
4 large sweet onions (sliced)
1/2 cup water
4 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano (grated)
pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onions and water and cook until completely tender and caramelized and golden, about 40-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, adding more water as needed.
2. Mix everything and place it in a baking dish.
3. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until the top is nice and browned, about 30-50 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Hot Sweet Onion Dip
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Hot Cheesy Spinach and Crab Dip
Reuben Dip
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Kolokythokeftedes (Zucchini and Feta Balls)

When I went to Greece on vacation last year, at one of the restaurants we went to we decided to skip having a main course and we ordered a bunch of mezes or appetizers to share. Among the appetizers were of course some of the classics including tzatziki (a Greek cucumber salad), melitzanosalata (a Greek roasted eggplant salad) and a few others. The one that really caught my attention however was the zucchini balls otherwise know as kolokythokeftedes. They were like meatballs only made with zucchini along with some herbs and feta. They were perfectly round, golden brown, slightly crispy on the outside and warm, soft, moist and tasty on the inside. The zucchini balls were so good and luckily I got to have a lot of them as many at the table passed on them when they heard that they were made with zucchini.

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Jalapeno Poppers

Recently I made a jalapeno popper dip that I really enjoyed and I was craving more. This time though I was thinking that making actual jalapeno poppers was the way to go. In theory jalapeno poppers sound pretty easy; just stuff some jalapenos with cheese, bread them and fry them. I have had jalapeno poppers before where the jalapenos were still crispy and barely even cooked and I wanted mine to be soft and fully cooked so I decided to roast them up a bit first. After roasting the jalapenos I removed the loose skin to ensure that it did not interfere with the texture of the poppers. The soft roasted jalapenos were much more difficult to work with but it was well worth the extra effort. The jalapeno poppers turned out great! They were nice and crispy and golden brown on the outside and soft and warm and gooey on the inside with just the right amount of chili heat! I used a combination of cream cheese and cheddar cheese stuffing in the jalapeno poppers and the cheese melted nicely when the poppers were fried. Roasting the jalapeno peppers was the way to go as it added a ton of flavour to the poppers. The only problem was that the poppers disappeared much to quickly and now I need to make some more.

Jalapeno Poppers

(2 appetizer sized servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
12 jalapeno Poppers
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
2 ounces cheddar cheese (grated)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
oil for frying

Directions:
1. Roast the jalapeno peppers in a preheated 450F oven until browned on all sides.
2. Place in a bowl sealed with plastic wrap and let cool.
3. Squeeze the skins off of the peppers.
4. Slice a slit down one side of the pepper and scoop out the seeds.
5. Mix the cream cheese and cheddar cheese in a bowl.
6. Stuff the pepper with the cheese.
7. Dredge the pepper in the flour, dip them in the egg and dredge them in the bread crumbs.
8. Fry in oil until golden brown.

Similar Recipes:
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Get the Game Day Party Food cookbook for more tailgating recipes!

Jalapeno Popper Dip

I had been coming across this recipe for jalapeno popper dip on sites like Big Red Kitchen for a while and I had just been itching to try it. I really like jalapeno poppers and this dip has all of the elements that make jalapeno poppers so good, from the jalapenos to the cream cheese and cheddar cheese to the crunchy bread crumb crust. With the temex kick that I have been on lately it was the perfect time to try this dip out. The jalapeno popper dip was easy to make and the results were great! I increased the amount of jalapenos and added some fresh jalapenos for even more jalapeno flavour and heat. The dip was nice and warm and gooey and oh so tasty! I really enjoyed the spicy cheesy dip and its crunchy topping and I will definitely be making it again. I served the jalapeno popper dip with lime tortilla chips for dipping.

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Reuben Dip

Over the last week I had been enjoying the leftover corned beef in the form of reuben sandwiches. I made sure to save one serving of the corned beef for the weekend because there was one more recipe that I wanted to try with it. I had come across a recipe for a reuben dip a while ago and I just knew that I would have to make it. It has all of the great flavours of a reuben sandwich in the form of a dip! I tweaked the recipe a bit and added some cream cheese as it the base of all of my favorite hot cheesy dips. I also decided to serve it with some toasted rye bread which was the one component of a reuben sandwich that was missing. The reuben dip was amazingly good! It was nice and warm and ooey and gooey and stringy and addictively tasty. I have never seen a bowl of dip disappear so quickly! I ran out of toasted rye before the dip and the dip was eagerly finished off with a spoon. I will definitely be making this again.

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Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

It seems that I may be a little addicted to hot cheesy dips. Last week I made a hot sweet onion dip and while I was looking for recipes for it I came across some recipes for hot spinach and artichoke dip. This new dip filled with cheese, cream cheese and mayonnaise sounded so good that I had to try it right away. But, with both spinach and artichokes in it, it is just a little bit healthier. ;) One of the things that I liked about this recipe was that I would get to use artichokes again and I had been looking forward to doing so. The last time I used fresh artichokes and this time I got to try canned ones. This dip is super easy to make; you just mix all of the ingredients and bake until bubbling and golden brown on top. The spinach and artichoke dip was amazing! It was warm and cheesy and full of flavour! The big chunks of artichokes were nice and went well with the spinach in the dip. The chili sauce that I added left a nice after taste of heat that I enjoyed. I served the dip with some whole grain crackers.

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