Buffalo Chicken Dip {and a Margarita Fruit Dip!}

I have made this dip four times in the past month.  My kids shovel it back with nacho chips, and it tastes great in a wrap with some avocado slices.  

Buffalo Chicken Dip.

We made it at a Pampered Chef party I hosted earlier this summer.  It's no secret that I love their products, and hosting a party is a great way to check more of their items off of my wish-list for free...or super cheap.  Plus, it's an excuse to eat and drink with friends.  Win win.

We took turns chopping, shredding, measuring, and stirring.

The next generation of home cooks was there too.  I love these girls.

Half a cup of hot sauce went into this dip!

And cheese.  Lots of melty cheese.

We also made a Margarita Fruit Dip.  With tequila.

You can have that recipe too.  You're welcome.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2-3 boneless chicken breasts (I use 3)

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup Ranch dressing (Renée's Buttermilk Ranch is my favourite)*

1/3-1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (depending on how hot you like it!)

1 1/3 cups shredded cheddar (or Tex Mex, or Monterey Jack... or any combination)

Cook and finely chop chicken.  I season and steam mine in my new Pampered Chef RockCrok.  Use whatever preferred method you have for moist and tender chicken that will be easy to chop into small pieces.  You don't want to break a chip trying to scoop up large a piece of chicken.  

Mash the cream cheese.  Add the Ranch dressing and whisk together.  Stir in the hot sauce and shredded cheese, combine well.  Microwave for two minutes to melt the cheeses.  Add the chopped chicken, stir, and microwave for one more minute.  Stir and serve with nacho chips.

*I've tried this with blue cheese dressing too...delicious!

Margarita Fruit Dip

I tub (250 g) of spreadable cream cheese

1 fresh orange

1 fresh lime

2 tbsp tequila (optional)

1/4 cup of icing sugar

1/2 cup whipped cream or cool whip

Zest and juice the citrus fruits.  Process the cream cheese, icing sugar, fruit juices and tequila until smooth.  Stir in one tablespoon each of orange and lime zest, then fold in whipped cream.  Serve with strawberries, pineapple, or any other fresh fruit.

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Kentucky Weekend

A while back I mentioned some dear friends that were moving to the United States, Kentucky to be precise.  A couple of weekends ago we went on a road trip to visit them at their new home.  It was a ten hour drive, and we arrived very late Friday night, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of visiting in two days!

We caught a fiery sunset while driving through Ohio.

Bright and early the next morning we were shooing kids out of the Cracker Barrel gift shop so we could have breakfast.  Biscuits instead of toast, gravy instead of jam... and grits, which got mixed reactions.  It looked like cream of wheat, but it sure didn't taste like it!  The hash brown casserole was amazing and I'm searching for a good copy cat recipe so I can make it at home.

Heading into Louisville for shopping, we noticed horses on display everywhere.  Must be a Kentucky Derby thing.  Which we've been coerced into returning for next spring, by the way.

I managed to snap a few decent shots from inside the car.

Oversize chess sets and a trip to Cinnabon kept the kids from complaining while we shopped for unbelievably inexpensive back to school stuff.

Got my Trader Joe's fix!

Some basketball.

A fire.  And FIREFLIES!  There were hundreds blinking around the property.  I couldn't capture them on camera but it was amazing.  I haven't seen fireflies since I was a kid and never so many as we saw that night.

A round of golf and a swim in the country club pool got the boys going Sunday morning.

An early dinner on the Indiana side of the river so we could admire Louisville.

 

We tried on new words, like y'all and all y'all.

And then began the long drive home.  Our car load of boys found this to be hysterical.  I wonder if the good people of Ohio know what a shart is?

It was an amazing weekend y'all.

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Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

These Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars are amazing.  They are incredibly lemony, with  lemon in the shortbread crust, lemon in the cheesecake layer, and lemon in the blueberry mixture.  Perfectly tart, sweet and creamy, with a wonderful burst of blueberries.

A dear friend arrived bright and early on a Saturday morning with fresh lemons, blueberries, and coffee... and we got to work.

Lemons were zested.

Blueberry's were cooked.

The kids got in on the action.

And discovered that drinking lemon juice is not at all like drinking lemonade.

 We drank coffee, dirtied dishes, washed them and dirtied them again.  We talked about hockey, school, soccer, the weather... and how much we'd miss a mutual friend who would soon be leaving us with her upcoming move to the US.  We sampled the cooling blueberry sauce and decided it would be great on ice-cream or pancakes or waffles... and sampled it again just to be sure.  We plopped it onto the creamy cheesecake layer and let loose our inner artists to create decorative swirls.

 Kids wandered in and out of the kitchen while we waited on the oven.  It was a long 40 minutes.

But oh so worth it.  Lemon heaven.

We didn't wait for them to cool.

Seriously, you need to make these.

Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

Crust

1 1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 heaping tbsp lemon zest

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

Filling

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 - 250g blocks cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 tbsp vanilla 

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment.

Combine 1 tbsp lemon zest with 1/2 cup granulated sugar and rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers to infuse the sugar with lemon.  Beat butter with the granulated sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl on medium speed until creamy.  Beat in flour and salt until combined.  Press dough into bottom of prepared pan and bake until edges are golden, 25 - 30 minutes.

Combine blueberries with brown sugar, 2 tbsp lemon zest, and lemon juice in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until berries are just soft, 5 - 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Combine 1 tbsp lemon zest with 1/2 cup granulated sugar and rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers to infuse the sugar with lemon.  Strain the sugar to remove the zest.  Beat cream cheese with the lemon infused sugar and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed until smooth.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. 

Scrape cream cheese mixture onto warm crust and smooth top.  Dollop blueberry mixture randomly over top of cream cheese layer.  Gently pull a knife tip through the top to create swirls.

Bake in centre of oven until filling is set, about 40 min.  Cool.  Enjoy.

 

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