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
Can we make this the night before? I know you said to sit at least 4 hrs but i wonder if letting it sit to long make it bad?
Melinda,
Yes, you can make it the night before. Just don’t pour the cranberry mixture over the top of the cream cheese until you are ready to serve.
Good luck!
~Jamie
My niece makes this every thanksgiving and Christmas and it is sooo good, it doesn’t last long. This stuff is very addicting, once you start eating it you can’t stop. Just be careful when eating it because it is taste sooo good, THAT YOUR TOUNGE WILL SLAP YOUR BRAINS OUT. Thanks for posting, been looking for this recipie for two years. LOVE IT, LOVE IT. As suggested, use plastic gloves when cleaning the jalapeรฑo peppers, if you don’t you’ll be sorry. The burn from the pepper seeds is excruciating.
Freeze your cranberries before you chop them. That helps a lot.
Jamie dearest, you make me laugh at your commentaries…BUT I love your recipes. have never been disappointed…
Using IceCubes applied directly to the burns or ice slush for 20 sec or as long as you can stand the cold really does help faster than cool tap water,works for pepper burns as well as heat burns.
I’m sorry you burned your hands. latex gloves protect those lovely hands.
I’m going to make this for our Thanksgiving get-together this week and then again at Christmas if everyone likes it. I see that you can serve it with tortilla chips, Ritz crackers or Wheat Thins. What is everyone’s concensus about what is best to serve with it? Just want to know ahead of time.
Thank you Jamie! I cant wait to make this. I got everything tonight! <3
This dip is delicious and enjoyed by guests. The relish was also a great addition to our leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches last year. I also used goat cheese instead of cream cheese which was good. Looking forward to make it again this holiday season!
Love this recipe!! I made it for a potluck at my work (a winery) and it was huge!! Everyone loved it! I would suggest draining it though mine leaked a lot. FYI It is perfect with a semi sweet or off dry wine!
Mmm, I love homemade garlona bars. I actually just picked up some Pecans from the store and plan on making a big batch tomorrow.I don’t know where the recipe is that I usually use so I’ll have to give yours a try!