Party Foods #14 - Sausage Dip

     Back when my friend Amie Moran was getting married, the two of us sat down and went through all kinds of recipes for hors d' oeuvres and appetizers. That was the type of food they had decided they wanted at their wedding reception, but they most definitely did not want it to look like a high school graduation open house! Other considerations that came into play were, she wanted us to attend the ceremony, so a lot of last minute assembling was out of the question. How to get the most bang for our buck. While they were appetizer type foods, they actually also needed to be filling. We wanted a couple of things that were relatively 'new' at the time.
    We went through my personal recipe file, which was rather limited in that section at the time. We talked about things she had had elsewhere and had liked. And we went through my hanging "gonna try this someday" file.
    That last file gave us some good ideas. Turned out that I had several similar recipes for certain dishes. We went over the variations, and came up with our own version. Yes, we were going to be brave and experiment with them on her close family and friends.
    The cool part was, that both of the things we came up with our own recipes for, were total hits!!! :-D  One of them was the bruschetta, which I've previously posted about.
    The other, was a sausage dip. Originally, we had planned to serve it in phyllo dough cups. I had never worked with the stuff before. And my attempts at making the cups did not produce something I wanted to serve at her reception! Bother! So instead, Brian headed to GFS and picked up box's of several types of crackers, and we gave her back the phyllo dough. The irony was, the crackers cost more than the dough had. We charged her nothing. Wasn't her fault I couldn't get a grip on what I had promised to make for her.
    For her wedding, we served two varieties of the dip - 'normal' and 'zesty hot'. I only made the 'normal' variety for Christmas.

    This week I have been doing the postings about the snackie foods we made for Christmas, due to how how it is New Years and lots of people either attend parties which they are suppose to take "snackie foods" to, or, they make that type of foods to eat while watching the football game on New Years Day. The foods we made were: Fresh Vegetable Pizza, Bacon Cheese Ball, Spinach dip with Pumpernickel, Shrimp Dip, "Italian" Meatballs in Parmesan Sauce and Sausage Dip. This is the last posting about those items. At the bottom of this posting, you will find links to the other "party type foods" I have previously posted about.

    First step - I browned up the sausage in my greased electric skillet, breaking the meat into very small pieces.
   You can use a skillet on the stove if you prefer to.

      (this time I had done up two packages of the sausage)

   When thourally browned, dump onto a cookie sheet lined with three (3) layers of paper towel.   

    Re grease the skillet and melt the butter. Add the green onions.

    Cook till the onions are quite tender.
   
   Add the mushrooms and salt and pepper.

    Add the cream cheese,

     (confession time here - I hadn't correctly calculated how much cream cheese I was going to need for everything, so I only had 8 oz. for this. Which is the amount for a single recipe. But I was making a double recipe. And had thus used double the amount of the other ingredients. It turned out "okay". Maybe "good" even. But not "awesome", like it does when you use the right amounts of everything.. .  Live and learn!)

    breaking it up and smooshing it down. When everything is quite blended

     add the already cooked sausage.

     Sprinkle that with the flour.

     then blend everything together thourally.

     I put it into a crock-pot, set on low.

   
     If it thickens up too much, you can add a little bit of milk, blend it in, and add a bit more if needed. ( <--- BONUS TIP there) Then enjoy!

    This is great served with crackers! I'm betting it would also be good served in a pastry shell. o;-p

    And now for the actual recipe -
       Sausage Dip
          recipe by Amie Moran and Cheryl B.

  (Single batch)
   1 lb. Bob Evans(R) roll Sausage
        either 'regular' or the 'spicy hot' variety - your choice
   2 Tablespoons Butter
   6 Green Onion stems, cut fine
   1 small can Mushrooms, drained and chopped fine
   1/2 teaspoon Salt
   1/2 teaspoon Pepper
    8 oz. Cream Cheese
    4 Tablespoons Flour

   Brown sausage in greased electric skillet, breaking meat into very small pieces. When thourally browned, dump onto a cookie sheet lined with three (3) layers of paper towel.
   Re-grease skillet and melt butter. Add green onion stems and cook till quite tender. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Add cream cheese, breakingit up and smooshing it down. When everything is quite blended, add already cooked sausage. Sprinkle with flour and then blend everything together thourally.

   Good served with crackers!
   Could be served in phyllo dough cups.
  
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You might also enjoy these postings: 

~ "Party Foods" -
   - #1 - Bean Salsa (also known as "Rugby dip")
   - #2 - 'Polish roses' and Pickle Wraps
   - #3 - Garden Fresh Bruschette
   - #4 - Deviled Eggs
   - #5 - Chocolate Covered Strawberries
   - #6 - Improvised Chili Based Dip Recipe 
   - #7 - Bacon Cheese Ball
   - #8 - My version of Fruit Pizzas
   - #9 - Brownie Cups
   - #10 - My version of Veggie Pizza
   - #11 - My rendition of Spinach Dip   - #12 - Shrimp Dip
   - #13 - 'Italian' Meatballs in Parmesan Sauce

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:

  ~ "Simply Delish Sunday('s)", are hosted by KB and Whitesnakes, at 'KB and Whitesnakes Home' (http://kbandwhitesnakeshome.blogspot.com)
 ~ "Creative Monday's", are hosted by Clair Justine, at 'Clairejustineoxox' (http://clairejustineoxox.blogspot.com/), and Judy, at 'Judy-H-JS Thoughts' (http://judyh-jsthoughts.blogspot.com/)
  ~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven'  (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)'  (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
  ~  "Kitchen Tip Tuesday('s)", hosted by Tammy, at 'Tammy's Recipes'  (http://www.tammysrecipes.com/). 
 ~ "Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits", hosted by Susan, at 'Permanent Posies / Creative Chaos' (http://permanentposies.com/)
 ~ "Totally Tasty Tuesdays", are hosted by Mandy, at 'Mandy's Recipe Box' (http://www.mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace'  (http://www.blessedwithgrace.net/).
  ~ "Foodie Wednesday('s)", are hosted by Bibi, at 'Daily Organized Chaos' (http://www.dailyorganizedchaos.com/). 
   ~ "These Chicks Cooked Link Party", hosted by Katie L, at 'This Chick Cooks' (http://thischickcooks.blogspot.com)
 ~ "Full Plate Thursday('s)", are hosted by Miz Helen, at 'Miz Helen's Country Cottage' (http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/).   ~ "Foodie Friday('s)", are hosted by "Gollum" (aka: Michael), at 'Designs by Gollum' (http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/)     
 
LATE add on - 1/25/12 - 
Terri, at 'The Freshman Cook', "Super Bowl Eats and Treats Party!!"
(http://www.thefreshmancook.blogspot.com/2012/01/super-bowl-eats-treats-blog-party.html)