my fake food blog

The Super Bowl was a couple of weeks ago, and I celebrated in the best way I knew how: by making dips.

Oh, also, watching Beyonce. And the football game.

And how does one best enjoy a fantastic dip? By singing 1996’s platinum hit by Freak Nasty, Da Dip. (That song actually went platinum. Google it.)

In case you forgot the lyrical genius, it goes a little something like this:

I put my hand upon your hip. When I dip, you dip, we dip.

THIS IS WHAT IS IN MY HEAD EVERY TIME I MAKE DIPS.

Also, sidenote, do you know the lyrics for this song? Cause I’m pretty sure it’s about sexy times. So I’m pretty surprised that I was allowed to dance at middle school dances to it. But…let’s be honest. In the scheme of sexy time song lyrics, it’s pretty mild. My future fake children will most certainly not be allowed to listen to the radio. Because songs these days are more explicit than a sex ed class. This point is perfectly illustrated by musical phenoms CDZA in this amazing video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgigpC-xAB8

Anyways. Dips. I took these two dips to my friend Emily’s Super Bowl party a few weeks back (yeah…I’m THAT behind on my blogging). I wanted to bring something football-ish, so I went for a buffalo chicken dip. And then I had to balance the supremely unhealthy buffalo chicken dip with something healthy but still delicious, so I also made roasted eggplant spread which is all vegetables.

Emily outdid herself on the spread. Her crostini selection was out of this world. (Carrot harissa crostini with crème fraiche? Yeah. That was REAL.) The best part about it all was that there were 5 people at the party and when you divided the number of snacks by the number of people, there were 1.5 snacks per person.

Seems like a perfect way to celebrate Freak Nasty. I mean the Super Bowl. I mean, what?

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Buffalo Chicken Dip, from YumSugar

• 2 8-ounce packages of reduced-fat cream cheese
• ¾ cup cayenne pepper sauce | I used Frank’s RedHot. Also, for milder flavor, reduce the cayenne pepper sauce to 1/2 cup.
• ½ cup ranch dressing or bleu cheese dressing | I used blue! Or rather, bleu!
• 1 ¼  to 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and chopped (3 to 4 chicken breast halves or about 3 cups chopped)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese or mozzarella | I used cheddar.
• Tortilla chips, crackers, or vegetables, for serving | Tortilla chips, pita chips, celery sticks and cucumber slices work great here.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray a 1 ½-quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine cream cheese, pepper sauce, and ranch dressing in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted.

Stir in chicken and about half of the cheddar cheese. Stir until combined.

Spoon into prepared dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake 15 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.

Serve warm with tortilla chips, crackers, or vegetables.

This dip reheats really well, or is even great cold.

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Roasted Eggplant Spread from Barefoot Contessa Family Style and FoodNetwork.com

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.

Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.