Charleston Cheese Dip

On New Year's Eve, I was looking at Mommy's Kitchen's blog.  She had listed a cheese dip named the Charleston cheese dip.  The name alone intrigued me because Charleston, South Carolina is on my list of favorite places to visit.  My mother-in-law was born there and would spend summers there while growing up.

Two months after I married my Hubby, we traveled with my mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law to Charleston.  We stayed in a beach house on Folly Beach with Hubby's grandma.  I quickly got to know the family during that week.  I met Hubby's family who live down there.  Most of all, I feel in love with Charleston.  It is a beautiful city rich in history.

Since then, I have been down there 3 more times.  The boys have been there 2 of the times.  Once when the Wee One was only 2 months old and the Imaginative One was 2 years old.  The other time was almost 3 years ago.  One of our not so good memories from that trip was the Wee One sticking his finger in the drain of the shower.  Fortunately my in-laws were also visiting Charleston that week and were down the road.  My sister-in-law came down and checked over his cut finger and determined the cut was not deep enough to warrant a visit to the ER.

Another memory from that trip was the Imaginative One's fear of the ocean.  His cousin, 22 months older, told him that there were jelly fish in the ocean.  The Imaginative One refused to get into the ocean again because he was afraid he was going to get stung by jelly fish.  So aggravating!  One day he and I went over to the beach and were playing by these concrete barriers.  He gets up and had dog poop all over him.  Visitors were allowed to have dogs on the beach as long as they cleaned up after them.  This visitor just covered the poop with sand.  That was disgusting to clean up.

[caption id="attachment_1785" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Folly Beach, Charleston, South Carolina"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1786" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The shower drain the Wee One got his finger stuck in."][/caption]

Anyway, back to the recipe.  I was looking at Mommy's Kitchen's blog entry and saw Charleston Cheese Dip and decided I would make it for New Year's Eve.  It was easy to whip up and delicious to boot.  I didn't have any monterey jack cheese so I just used extra sharp cheddar cheese instead.  Since we don't really like really spicy foods around here, I did not use any of the cayenne pepper.  Plus I don't think we even have any in the house.

Charleston Cheese Dip

Mommy's Kitchen

Stars of the recipe:

• 1/2 c. mayonnaise


• 1 - 8oz package cream cheese, softened


• 1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese


• 1/2 c. grated Monterey jack cheese


• 2 green onions, finely chopped


• Dash of cayenne pepper


• 8 Ritz crackers, crushed


• 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Steps:

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


2. 
   
   In a medium bowl, mix the mayonnaise, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Monterey jack cheese, green onions and cayenne pepper.


3. 
   
   Transfer the mixture to a shallow baking dish.


4. 
   
   Top mixture with cracker crumbs and bake for 15 minutes, or until heated through.


5. 
   
   Remove the pan from the oven and top with the bacon.


6. 
   
   Serve immediately with corn chips, bagel chips or crackers.

This post is linked up to Ingredient Spotlight.