Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Because I have nothing crafty to share this evening, I thought I'd share my Spinach-Artichoke dip instead. Well, truth be told, it is Artichoke dip to which I add spinach. The spinach is totally optional, but it does make it look real purty. Like this, straight out of the oven last night:



This is stinkin' easy. You will need:

2 cans artichoke hearts (NOT the marinated stuff)
1 C Mayo
1 C Parmesan cheese
Frozen or canned spinach (1 or 2 boxes frozen OR half a bag of frozen OR two small cans OR ...whatever)
garlic powder to taste
paprika

Drain the artichoke hearts and either (1) dump them into a food processor and, um, process them, or (2) chop them up by hand. I have taken to doing (2) because I am tired of retrieving the food processor from the bowels of its storage cave, assembling it, whirling it for less than 10 seconds, then having to wash it and put it away. A rough chop is fine.

Dump the chopped artichoke parts into a large bowl

Now that you can see how much artichoke you have volume-wise, decide how much spinach you really want. This can be spinach dip with artichoke instead of the other way around, if you want. No problem!

If using frozen spinach, nuke it or cook until it is no longer frozen (you do not need to really cook it thru), and DRAIN THOROUGHLY. You need to get all that water out of there, or you will have soup instead of dip.

If using canned spinach, you still need to drain out all the liquid.

Dump the spinach into the bowl with the artichoke pieces.

Add mayo and Parmesan. Season with garlic powder to your liking. I never measure this stuff, but I have left it out because I forgot it. Don't do that.

Mix it all up until thoroughly blended, and dump it into a pretty, sprayed-to-keep-stuff-from-sticking baking dish. Level out the top, and sprinkle it with paprika. It's aaaaallll about presentation, people.

Bake at 350 F - the universal baking temp - until bubbly ... I think about 30-40 minutes. I always get lulled into a coma smelling it bake, and then I forget about it and overdo it a little. This is a VERY forgiving concoction.

Let it cool a little bit before you dig in. I just take a cracker and scoop up the goodness.


M-m-m-m-m!

If you have any left over, it refrigerates well. I just cover mine with plastic wrap so I can pop it into the microwave the next day and call it 'lunch'.

Once you make it the first time, you will make your own adjustments on subsequent preparations, and there WILL be subsequent preparations! The original original version had something else along with the mayo, but I forget, and this is just fine, so I don't care.

Go forth and make this some time, then let me know what you think of it, and if you change it up, please share with us what you did so WE can try it, too!

Happy 2010, and thanks for stopping by!