Pinterest Beer Dip

Of course I have a Pinterest account.  Actually, I was a little late to the Pinterest party; a friend of mine looked at me like I was nuts and told me I would love it.  I kinda do.  But other times I feel a little overwhelmed.  I already have over a thousand recipes clipped and saved, a dozen or so cookbooks… do I really need to be "pinning" recipes online? Well, no.  But then I find things like "beer dip", and get really excited.  

My husband and I planned to have a Super Bowl party this year.  (Yes, I'm that behind on my blogging.)  Unfortunately, after ordering 50 wings and buying ingredients for three kinds of dip (plus dippers), the snow came.  Up until that point it had been a mild winter.  It was like the climate suddenly realized it was missing its chance, and dumped snow on us for 24 hours.  So much snow.  So the only people that made it to our place were our neighbors.  BUT!  That is not the point.  The point is, I tried out the beer dip recipe, as well as two others, also from Pinterest.  I thought this was most interesting, so I photographed it and made notes.  Wouldn't you know, it was the one we liked least.  It wasn't bad, it just needed quite a bit of tweaking.  I present below the recipe as I made it.

Beer Dip (adapted from ladybehindthecurtain)
2 bricks of cream cheese, softened
1 C beer
1 envelope ranch dressing seasoning
1/2 tsp beef bouillon granules
hefty pinch dill seed
small pinch crushed red pepper flakes
pepper to taste
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 C shredded cheese

In a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, beer, and ranch.  Stir in the bouillon, dill seed, red pepper flakes, and pepper.  Thicken by sprinkling over a thin layer of corn starch and stirring that in.  I use it to absorb some of the excess liquid without giving much flavor, and you want to sprinkle rather than just drop it in, or else you wind up with a clump of starch, and that's just yucky.  Stir in the cheese and chill until serving.  Serve with pretzels, veggies, or chicken wings.

First things first: if you follow the link to the original recipe, you'll see that only the beer, cheeses and ranch seasoning were called for.  You'll also see that I've tripled the amount of beer a half recipe would call for.  Because I wanted to taste BEER!  And I wanted more flavor.  I do agree with the author that it is plenty salty, and deliciously so, but otherwise, I think we have rather different palates.  Not a problem-- it takes all sorts to make a world-- but I needed to tweak things for myself.

My husband and I also agreed that we were not fans of the chunks of cheese in the dip.  I didn't care for the texture of it, and my husband found the flavor difficult as well.  Maybe less of it would be better, or finer shredded (microplane?), or even melted into part of the cream cheese.  But I think we might just cut it out next time. We wanted beer dip, with beer flavor; we didn't really need cheese.

Finally, thanks, Lady Behind the Curtain.  I would not have come up with this on my own.  

Sometimes, less is more: Mac and Cheese

My mother-in-law sent my husband and I some pasta shaped like little UNL "N"s.  As a [former] Husker, I was very excited.  So excited that I planned great things for them, and got quite upset with my husband for suggesting that I could just serve them as a side with some other dish I was making.  No, I had big plans-- I was going to make a delicious, amazing, bursting-with-flavor, ultimate-comfort-food macaroni and cheese casserole.  Big Red Mac and Cheese!

I'll be honest up front; the following recipe was not quite as awesome as I had hoped.  I was trying to do too much, I think, and things just got lost in the shuffle.  At the end, I'll discuss a little more what I will do next time to improve.  This is not the ultimate Big Red Mac and Cheese.  But it was an experimental starting point.  And I think, ultimately, I'm better served by learning what I've done wrong.  For those reasons, rather than typing out the recipe in the typical format, I'll go through it in an almost stream-of-conciousness manner.  Hope that works for you.

Big Red Mac and Cheese Trial 1

I began with onions and the most boldly flavored meat I could think of: chorizo (which also happens to be reddish in color; seemed perfect to me).  I sautéed them together in a bit of bacon fat (more flavor!), then pulled out the sausage and set it aside.  I used the now chorizo-flavored bacon fat to make a roux (add flour), then gradually added cream and milk.  Finally, I melted in sharp cheddar, then seasoned with salt, lots of pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and paprika for color.  I combined the pasta and chorizo in a greased casserole dish.  I topped the casserole with breadcrumbs and more paprika and cheddar, then baked everything until it was warm throughout and crusty on top.

So, on the surface, this seems like a great plan.  As I write it out, I still find myself wondering if it isn't just the greatest idea I've ever had.  Well, here's the rub.  The onion and chorizo thing didn't work quite as well as I'd have thought.  I think the biggest flaw was that I didn't really want the chorizo flavor throughout the dish like that.  It just sort of overwhelmed everything.  I think next time I'll sauté it up separately (I wanted it to have a nice browned surface-- yay Maillard reactions), and omit the onions.  I like onions, but I think my mistake here is that I was trying to pack in too much flavor, which meant that nothing popped out on the tongue.  I also think that a milder cheese, for the same reason, would be a good choice.  I would still top the casserole with sharp cheddar and crumbs, but I'd use more cheese-- a good thick layer of it, rather than a sprinkling-- and possibly a lighter application of seasoned breadcrumbs.  That way, I'd have a mellow, familiar, comforting flavor throughout, topped with gooey sharp cheddar with a nice crust of its own, heightened by crusty breadcrumbs, and flavorful, toasted chorizo every few bites.  I think it would also be nice to use a wider dish, not a casserole, giving me a better pasta-to-crust ratio.  Finally, for the sake of my husband, who is not a fan, I would cut back on the paprika.  (But not totally omit it-- goodness no!)  I'd probably mix it with the breadcrumbs and just leave it at that. 

So, moral of the story: as my husband says, KISS-- Keep It Simple Stupid.  You don't need to go nuts and pack in flavor at every turn to make a tasty dish.