Miss Park’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip

My dear friend Courtney is one of the best cooks I know. Every time our group of friends has a get-together, Courtney turns out a top-notch food that keeps our mouths watering and our minds wondering how does she do it. Her family is Italian (you know how I love those Italian folk) and cooking in her family is not done simply to provide something to eat; it is a bonding activity that the various generations of women in her family do together on a daily basis. Doesn’t the sound of that make you want to head back to the old country and cook all day with your grandmother? (Or is that just me and my weird fascination for Italians?)

A couple years back, Courtney brought a spinach and artichoke dip to one of our gatherings and to say I fell in love with the dish is an understatement. I quickly requested the recipe and have spent years trying to master the craft to the perfect S&A Dip. I think I’m pretty close, as I make this almost every time I host, and for the most part, there is never a drop left. In fact, I made the dip this past weekend and periodically found people, alone, hovering over it in my kitchen, hoping no one would catch them having a moment with the dip. Quite humorous.

So anyways, I mentioned I made the dip last weekend at our cookout and Miss Park kindly obliged to my sharing it with all your blogosphere friends. Here we go:

 Ingredients:
-    Spinach (Miss Park suggests frozen, shredded)
-    2 cans of artichokes – quartered, non-seasoned
-    ½ Red Pepper chopped
-    ¾ white onion chopped
-    1 packet of Knors veggie spice
-    16 oz of cream cheese
-    16 oz of sour cream
-    Mayo – I use about 3 tablespoons
-    2 bags of shredded mozzarella cheese
-    1 bag of shredded Parmesan cheese
-    You can also add shredded carrots if you’re feeling fancy

Directions:

Combine 2 bags of mozzarella cheese, sour cream, mayo, cream cheese and Knors spice packet

Stir in red pepper, onion, spinach and artichokes

Use stand-mixer or food processor to really blend together ingredients

Layout in a casserole dish

Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese as top layer. Cover with tinfoil and bake in oven at 400 degrees for 35-45 minutes

And taaaaa-daa. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing, Miss Courtney, and thanks for traveling

 home to celebrate my birthday!