Taco Dip

I have not posted in my blog for a week, and my excuse is so pathetic: I could not for the life of me decide whether or not I wanted to share the next two recipes.  I kept going back and forth.  It has nothing to do with how delicious they were, because they were great; this one in particular was so great that I made it twice within a week.  It's because of the untimely-ness of the recipes.  Okay, here's the deal: they are  Halloween recipes.  Halloween. As in, October.  And today it's December and so far from Halloween that it's not funny.  I'm having a Christmas party tonight, for God's sake.

I've learned my lesson; I should have bumped this to the front of my recipe list and shared it at Halloween time, even though my rule is to strictly go in the oder in which I have made things.  Because when my next post is spider cookies, I will crush your Christmas spirit and disgust you with my poor planning.  Sorry.

The good news is, you can actually customize this for any holiday.  In fact I will probably be making it for tonight's Christmas craft party.  Even though the official name of it is graveyard taco dip, it doesn't have to be a graveyard!  You create the graveyard with cookie cutter cut-outs of tortillas; they get baked and crisp up and you can stand them up and make a graveyard (I made ghosts, cats, pumpkins, etcetera).  However for Christmas, you could easily make ornaments, trees, stockings, and so on.  It's really about what cookie cutters you have!  And I luckily got a box of 100 for my shower with cutters for basically every holiday, so let the taco dip reign continue!

Now let's talk about the dip itself, because it is so good.  I made it for a mini Halloween party that I had here, and then again for our work pot luck lunch; I even brought the rest of it in to my grad class and we polished it off that night.  Everyone loves it because there is so much goodness to love.  There's a layer of refried beans,  then a layer with a sour cream and taco seasoning. The third layer is my favorite: it's a super cool, creamy and delicious mixture of mashed avocado, garlic, and Greek yogurt (the original recipe called for mayonnaise and I refuse).  I could eat that layer by itself with a spoon, I swear.  The fourth layer is salsa, and then I added my own fifth layer of shredded cheese.  You can finalize the deal with some chopped scallions to make it look like grass, but if you aren't making a graveyard, it won't matter if you skip them.  This is such an easy dip to put together, but it's just so delicious.  Serve it with tortilla chip and encourage people to eat the homemade tortilla chip decorations too.

Happy Hallowchristmas!


Recipe:

taco dip
from Chickabug

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans
2 cups sour cream
1 package taco seasoning
2 avocados, mashed
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 bunch scallions, chopped
2 large tortillas for decoration

Instructions:

1) In a small bowl, mix the taco seasoning and sour cream.  In another small bowl, mix the mashed avocados, minced garlic, and mayonnaise.

2) In a small Pyrex dish or plate, layer the beans, sour cream mixture, avocado mixture, salsa, and cheese.  Sprinkle the scallions on top.

3) Chill at least an hour, or until ready to serve.  The dip can be made a day ahead and kept, covered, in the refrigerator.

4) To make the tombstones or other holiday decorations, cut the shapes you want out of tortillas.  Place the cut-out shapes on a parchment paper-lined cookie tray and bake at 350 degrees until the tortillas are nice and brown.  Add the shapes to the dip just before serving.