When I was kid, my mom had one rule that was never broken: Always be prepared to feed people.
Both my mother and grandmother have, at one time in their lives, owned their own catering business. My grandmother starting hers at the age of 13 (yes, the women in my family are bad mama jamas). Not only did they enjoy good food, they loved to party. So, needless to say, our house was the party house and it was never without fine wine, a strong cocktail and finger lickin’ good food.
One of my mother’s old party pleasers was Cheesy Spinach Dip. I loved this dip. I loved it to the point that I might have been known to stick my fingers in it so that it was deemed “contaminated,” only to hide in my room to eat the whole bowl by myself (yep, I was THAT kid). Now a grown up, obviously I can make it any time I like. Which I do. A. Lot.
To start, dice one can of water chestnuts and about half of a red onion. Put this, thawed chopped spinach, sour cream, mayo and cheddar cheese in a large bowl.
Bonus Tip: the recipe calls for 16 oz. package of sour cream and 16 oz of mayo. Instead of racking your brain trying to figure out what that is in cups to get the right amount of mayo, use your sour cream container to measure it out (thank my mom for that tip!).
Finally, add the vegetable dry soup mix. This is really the hero of the dip. It is pitch perfect on the amount of tang needed to get everyone addicted.
Mix it all up and let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours. Now let’s talk presentation.
With all the beautiful squash to be found this time of year, I couldn’t resist making a squash serving bowl. I got to work cutting off the top and scooping out the squash guts.
An ice cream scoop made this so incredibly easy.
Next, I took a plastic cup and cut off enough of the top so that it would fit into the squash. This made a nice little container to hold the dip and protected it from getting a squashy taste.
I slipped that bad boy into the squash, filled it up with dip and was good to go!
Before I forget, for those of you who don’t know what a bad mama jama is, take a listen to this Stevie Wonder classic sung by Carl Carlton (his curl is smokin’ hot). I highly recommend playing it while making your dip. Enjoy!
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