Keys to a Good Party

I'll confess New Year's was the first football game I watched all season. That sort of thing doesn't stop me from getting into the game, however. It's a bit ridiculous. If everybody else wasn't screaming at various fumbles/sack/interceptions, I would be embarassed. Somehow, the Huskers were able to squeak out a win, apparently the first bowl win in a decade.

The real draw of this party was (of course) the food. Jim (the host) is a food broker--so he sells food to grocers, restaurants, convenience stores, etc. There's almost no point to bringing your food to a gathering with the McKains. For a summer concert featuring Three Dog Night and the Doobie Brothers a few years ago, the McKains brought beenie weenies (3 dogs) and white asparagus (the doobies).

We weren't classy enough for this cheese plate that included gorgonzola, two kinds of cheese I can't recall, pears and a "bad piece of cheddar."

Nobody was too classy for the soup: red beans and rice, chili and chicken noodle. My dad specifically instructed my mother to not leave without the recipe for the red beans and rice. (I'll see if can get it to you soon.)

But the winner of the party was the spinach artichoke dip (unfortunately, the photo didn't turn out). But trust me on this you must make this for the Super Bowl and/or any other occasion.

Spinach Artichoke Dip: Canned artichoke hearts Frozen spinach mayonaise sour cream
(updated) lemon juice garlic powder onion powder salt and pepper a lot of parmasan cheese As I mentioned previously, Jim works as a food broker, thus has access to bulk amounts of food. He's also a great cook. So his methodology was to throw all this together until it looked good. You should try to do the same. I don't think you're going to mess up with any of the listed ingredients.

Drain and coarsely chop the artichokes. Dethaw the spinach and squeeze out all the water you can. Mix together with the mayo, sour cream, garlic and onion powder and a bit of salt and pepper until you have a gooey consistency. Jim used slightly more mayo than sour cream. If you mix them a bit at a time, this should work out. Finally, you should add more grated parmasan cheese than you could ever imagine to be necessary until you come to a good, chunky consistency. Serve with tortilla chips or pita bread, hot or cold. To serve warm, heat in oven for 5 minutes on 350. Jim also recommended serving this with baked fish.