If you have a party to go to, bring this. Everyone will love it. And it's easy to make.
(Disclaimer: to me, anything short of making a souffle is "easy," because I'm a total weirdo who relishes challenges. Also, cooking is mostly a series of instructions and rules, and I'm really good at following instructions and rules. I apologize if I underestimate the difficulty of a recipe for less experienced cooks... but believe me, you can do it! Everything I've learned, I've taught myself, and if I can do it, you can too!)
Now, back to being the most popular person at your family party and winning everyone over with your delicious spinach artichoke dip.
Step 1: Ingredients. (Original recipe from here, but modified). 1 8oz. package of cream cheese softened for 30 seconds in the microwave, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup parmesan (plus 1/2 cup for the top), 1/4 cup romano, about five or six cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of basil, 1 can artichoke hearts, and 1 thawed package of frozen spinach.
Step 2: Preheat oven to 350. Grease a baking dish with PAM or butter. Now, take all of your garlic. The original recipe calls for one measly clove. However, the ingredients in this recipe are kind of bland. Without the garlic and basil, it's pretty much just cream cheese and sour cream, which are not very exciting.
Do you know how to get the garlic out of the clove? You could stand there for five minutes peeling it off, or I could teach you an easy trick.
Put your garlic clove on its side. I usually the side of a large knife for the next part, but my aunt had this metal thing in her kitchen, which was perfect. Take the knife (or metal thing) and press down on the garlic clove, hard. You'll hear kind of a cracking sound. Now, just peel the papery stuff off. Easy!
Step 3: Open your can of artichokes. Drain the liquid into the sink. Now, you have to chop them. It looks gross, but they're so good in the recipe that it's worth it.
I told you that it wasn't pretty.
Step 4: Put your cream cheese in a large bowl. I recommend beating it with a mixer until it's smooth, instead of just stirring it. Then, add the sour cream, garlic, basil, cheese, and some salt and pepper. Now, you can stir in the artichokes and spinach. Because I'm not a huge spinach fan, I only used about half the package.
Step 5: Spread it in a baking dish. I know, it's uneven. Modern Family was on and I was rushing to get done.
Sprinkle the extra 1/2 cup of cheese on top. You can actually just put it in the fridge and take it to the dinner party like this, and put it in your host's oven for fifteen minutes when you get there. Or, you can put it in the oven for about fifteen minutes now. It is done when the cheese on top is brown and bubbly.
So, I put the oven on for five more minutes on Thanksgiving Day, then went to get my jacket upstairs, and the wild beasts had already devoured a quarter of my dip in the five seconds that I was gone.
If you want to be the most popular and beloved holiday guest this season, make this. Trust me.
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