Eight-Layer Dip

Since I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, and the Superbowl was a long time ago, I thought I'd post my eight-layer dip recipe.  I meant to post it the weekend of the superbowl when I made it, but time ran away from me.  Also, this blog has kind of landed on the back burner after my reading and book blogging.  But life is still good.  The food's great!  Anyways, here's the recipe now.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups shredded lettuce (I typically just grab one bag of shredded lettuce from the store)
• 1 9-oz can bean dip (in the chip aisle)
• 1/4 cup picante or taco sauce (I get this ingredient in a weird and obscure way explained later)
• 1 6-oz avocado dip (or if you're me, fresh guacamole from the store works)
• 1 8-oz sour cream
• 1 cup shredded cheddar or taco cheese (just pick your favorite cheese and use it)
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 2 tbsp sliced pitted ripe olives (or a whole small can if you like olives - I do!)
• 2/3 cup chopped, seeded tomato (basically a medium tomato because the more the merrier, right?)
• chips (well duh!)

Preparation:

1. Arrange lettuce on a serving platter.  My serving platter looks like a 2.2 qt pyrex dish (because I'm hip like that).  If you'd rather use a 3 qt dish, double the recipe.  
2. Combine bean dip and picante sauce.  Now personally, I don't use picante sauce (because Jared dislikes picante sauce).  So how do I come up with a 1/4 cup of taco sauce when I've never seen taco sauce at stores?  I buy the tack seasoning packets and mix in the amount of water on the package directions.  Then I use 1/4 cup of that mixture for my taco sauce.  And guess what?  It works!  (Note: if you use too much water in your weird taco sauce mixture, the bottom of your serving platter can get a little moist.)  Now back to the preparation spread bean dip/picante sauce over lettuce.
3. Layer the avocado dip on top of the bean/picante dip.
4. Layer the sour cream on top of the avocado dip.
5. Top with cheese, green onions, and olives.  If you're me, then the sour cream is hidden after all the cheese, onions, and olives that get dumped on the dip.
6. Cover and chill for 4-24 hours.  Why?  Because I said so.
7. Before serving, chop the tomato and sprinkle it on top of the dip (now everything's hidden by tomatoes - if you prepare this dip like me).
8. Eat with chips.  Try to eat more than your husband who maybe likes the dip a little more than you'd like (because it's gone before you know it).

Baked Potato Soup

I thought I'd let everyone know about one of my favorite soups of all time to cook.  It is baked potato soup, and it's super delicious.  The recipe I've listed below will feed two people and a little bit of left overs.  Double it if you plan on feeding a family with it.  Also, it goes well with rolls.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices bacon
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1/3 cup flour
• 3.5 cups milk
• 2 large potatoes (The 5 lb bag of potatoes I buy usually consists of small potatoes in which case I use around 5 potatoes)
• 2 green onions (The green onions this season have been tiny, so I've been using 3 - depends on if you enjoy onions)
• 5/8 cup cheese (I'm a definite cheese person, so I tend to dump about a cup of cheese in the soup)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.2 tsp pepper

Preparation:

1. Bake the potatoes.  If you're not sure how to do that, read on.  I typically clean my potatoes and fork them (stab them with a fork a couple of times).  I place them in a 400 degree preheated oven and cook them for 45-60 minutes.  45 minutes will give you chunkier potatoes, while 60 minutes will give you mushier potatoes (your soup will resemble mashed potatoes).
2. If you have a husband who likes to cook bacon, then give him bacon duty while you prepare the soup.  Otherwise, you're going to want to cook the bacon and crumble it before you start the soup (unless you're really good at multi-tasking).
3. Once the potatoes are done, you can start the soup.  If you're not good at multi-tasking, then peel and chop the potatoes before beginning the soup.  Also, chop the green onions.  I will peel the potatoes and chop the onions as I cook the soup.  But I have an advantage:  I don't feel the potatoes burn me as I peel them (they're hot).
4. Melt margarine in a pot.  I typically set the burner to medium-low and will gradually move it up to medium while cooking.  Note:  the hotter it is, the more likely you are to burn the soup.
5. Whisk in flour until smooth.
6. Stir in milk whisking constantly until thickened.  I've noticed that the milk doesn't thicken too much. But give it a couple of minutes and verify that the milk has turned warm before moving onto the next step.
7. Stir in potatoes and onions.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently (this is where I use medium heat).  Reduce heat and simmer for ten minutes.  You'll actually get to enjoy the bubbles come up and pop because they make an awesome popping noise (or maybe I'm just weird).
8. Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, salt and pepper.  Stir frequently until cheese melts.
9. Enjoy the soup!!

Time

My last day at work was yesterday.  It was fairly uneventful except when I sliced my thumb open.  Yes, imagine me trying to recycle paper by trying to remove the spiral binder from my notebook.  The metal spiral sliced down my thumb.  I must be super accident-prone because I still can't believe it happened.  And the cut is deep enough that I can feel it tingle...

I have an interview on Monday.  I'm excited and hoping for the best.  I'll let you know what happens in the future.

I asked for a lot of book recommendations from friends and placed about fifteen holds at my library.  I have eight books at home with me now waiting to be read.  I also opened a GoodReads account and received some book recommendations that way.  Let's just say, I know how I'll be occupying my free time in the next couple of weeks.

I made an eight layer dip for the football games today.  Jared appreciates my cooking.  I'll be making home-made baked macaroni and cheese tonight as well.  One of the nice things with having a lot of free time is being able to cook homemade meals.  I've missed those...