Thanksgiving will be comin’ round the mountain in just a few days now you know, folks. I just can’t wait. It’s always such an enjoyable day. I love enjoyable days. Days spent eating delicious food, and visiting with wonderful family members. Looking forward to it!
Today for me, was one of “those” days. You know about them, don’t you? Not the really enjoyable kind. The kind you just try and plow through while you wonder how many things are going to go wrong!
A few months ago my cute TeenNephewJayDee told me, “Aunt Jamie, everything you cook is like perfect, and everybody like LOVES everything you make because it is like ALWAYS so good.”
Wow. What a cute and thoughtful boy. I wonder what he would think if he were to have witnessed the “like” perfection going on in my kitchen this morning.
This morning my goal was to make and photo this fabulous Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip….just for you all.
Ten minutes into the project, I had burned both of my hands on some hot and fiery jalapeno pepper seeds.
Then….I filled my blender up with cranberries. (While running to the sink every 30 seconds to pour water over my burned hands) Trying to get the cranberries to break up in the bottom of the blender, I stuck a wooden spoon down into the cranberries and chopped the thing to bits. At this point I spent a good 5 minutes contemplating the pros and cons of inflicting wood poisoning on my family. My blender can grind things up pretty fine you know.
Then…. I poured the CranberryWoodChipDelight down the disposal.
My sink wasn’t that impressed with the concoction and chose to get all clogged, and plunger needy. Nice.
Right at that same moment….
another form of plumbing….
in a separate room…..(white porcelain piece of work with a lid)
got all plunger needy.
Don’t hold that picture in your mind for too long…this is a food blog you know.
It was a plunger happy, hands on fire, wood chips in my teeth kind of morning. And right on a day I was going to not drink any Diet Coke, too. Let me just say, Diet Coke doesn’t taste that great if you’ve got wood chips in your teeth. Perfect. Just perfect.
But lucky for us….this Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip is super fabulous! My TeenNephewJayDee would give it the “like” perfect thumbs up. It’s got a little bit of a spicy kick to it. If spicy-kick isn’t your cup of tea, no worries. Just leave the jalapeno out. Then you would also most definitely not burn your hands with it’s venomous seeds. Double bonus!
1. Put your cranberries in a food processor. I used my mini chopper (one batch of CranberryWoodChipDelight was enough for me. The blender and I aren’t speaking to each other at this point….) You could also, just chop them up.
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces. Careful of the seeds now. Throw on a pair of rubber gloves or something, please. The seeds are the hot part of the pepper. If you don’t like a lot of heat on the old pallet, just leave the jalapeno out.
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The sugar needs some time to soak in to the cranberries and break up their bitter taste.
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.
Ingredients
- 1ย 12 oz package fresh cranberries
- 1/4 C green onion, chopped
- 1/4 C cilantro, chopped
- 1 small jalapeno pepper
- 1 1/4 C sugar
- 1/4 t cumin
- 2 T lemon juice
- dash salt
- 2ย 8 oz packages cream cheese
- ย
Instructions
1. Put your cranberries in a food processor. I used my mini chopper. You could also, just chop them up.
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces. Careful of the seeds now. Throw on a pair of rubber gloves or something, please. The seeds are the hot part of the pepper. If you don't like a lot of heat on the old pallet, just leave the jalapeno out.
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The sugar needs some time to soak in to the cranberries and break up their bitter taste.ย ย
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.
Recipe from Heather Peterson
I’m wondering if stewed cranberries would result in the same yummy taste? I already have all of the ingredients, and I would probably omit the pepper.
Pam,
I would stick with fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe.
~Jamie
This recipe is amazing!!! The ingredients sound so strange put the combination of flavors is amazing! This is a must try!!!
A co-worker brought this in to the office for a holiday treat. It is awesome! I’m picking up the ingredients to make for a party this weekend!
No fresh or frozen cranberries available today so I am going to have to rehydrate freeze dried cranberries. Hope it works!
Gotta ask, why not pop the stemmed jalapeno into the chopper (with the cranberries going in on top) instead of chopping it by hand? I do this when I make my spicy “fauxmento” cheese and it works pretty well. If you want less heat, stem the pepper and pop out the core with the handle of a spoon. Most of the heat is in the seeds.
This has become a traditional holiday dish for me to make. I love it! Thanks for keeping the recipe online so my Pinterest pin still works. ๐
Jamie, You had me cracking up this morning, almost spit my coffee on my computer monitor ! I have done the exact same thing except with frozen bananas I planned to put into banana bread…except I was in such a hurry that I didn’t notice I had chopped up my wooden spoon. One of my guest asked me if the toothpicks in the bread were complimentary ! lol They still kid me about that. I am making this gorgeous dip for a family reunion tonight. I cannot get enough cranberries, I love them ! Thank you for the good laugh and the amazing recipe. Blessings ~
A little different twist on this. We spoon the cranberry mixture over an 8 oz cream cheese, set cracker assortment out with it and let guests spread it on crackers. I have been preparing this at Christmas time for 2 years now and everyone loves. Makes it easier when you just put the dip over the cream cheese brick.