Justa’s Cheesy Bread

A long, long time ago, in a dark and enchanted forest, a young girl took some leftover party dip and turned it into a grilled cheese sandwich.  And it was awesome.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

While in all reality, the girl may not have been so young at the time but the dip was in fact, freshly made and leftover from the day before.  The leftover dip was a recipe she had dug out from days long ago.  From her days of ill-repute.  A recipe that she and her best friend used to make when they catered parties.  Many parties.  Many parties that involved the words kegs, bands and live music.  Many parties that contributed to a period of an *almost* mis-spent youth via too much loud music, big hair and black spandex.  The girls’ parents worried about the girls for years.  An almost mis-spent youth that still hangs and decorates her home office walls to this day because they were just too much damn fun.  WAY too much damn fun.

Over time, this little head-banger has adapted and changed and modified this recipe in a dozen different ways.

It can be used as a dip for veggies.

Stuffed in to veggies.

A cold spread on crackers.

Spread between two pieces of buttered bread and grilled.

Or spread on pieces of cut bread and broiled/baked as an appetizer.

And there’s probably more I can’t recall or even though of yet.

The bottom line, if you start with the basics, it’s extremely versatile and damn near indestructible.

I mentioned Cheesy Bread before and since I made it again tonight to go with our Meatless Thursday I figured I better get around to posting about it, especially since it was so prominently featured in the photos alongside the Flamethrowers.

Start with these four ingredients then let your inner wild-child run free.

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 whole tomato, diced and seeded

From this starting point you can add;

• bacon bits
• cooked sausage
• ham
• onions
• garlic
• green peppers
• red peppers
• shredded or finely diced carrots
• finely diced artichoke hearts
• herbs such as basil, pasley, cilantro
• any variety of spices you prefer
• or whatever else you can think of…or might be laying around in your fridge or pantry

The reason I stick with Tomatoes as one of the main ingredients is because even after being seeded they lend a little bit of moisture to the mixture making it more dippable and/or spreadable and also give it awesome flavor with most everything else you toss in.  Today I chose diced Black Olives and roasted Poblano Chile’s since I was already cooking them for the Flamethrowers.

Combine the cream cheese, sour cream and cheddar.

Fold together.

I roasted the chile (1/2 of an old Poblano that was floating around the crisper drawer) according to this post.

Diced the tomato, chile and black olives.

Add the veggies to the cream cheese mixture.

Then fold carefully so the veggies don’t get all mangled and mushed up.  Give a taste test and season with salt and pepper.

Now…you can either use this a dip or a stuffing or a spread.  Tonight I went with a spread over some day old bread I purchased last week and held in the freezer.

I baked mine at 375° for 10 minutes then rotated my pan and baked for another 5 minutes.  If you want a little more caramelization then bake a little longer.  I only wanted the bread to be crispy on the outside and the cheesy mixture to be warm and gooey.

This is how it was served alongside the Flamethrowers.

This is a different picture as I was trying to guage sunlight and camera settings.  I like this photo better although neither photo affected the taste.  They all tasted awesome.