From my pantry – Karen’s pizza party dip

Last month, I underwent a complete shoulder replacement. Afterwards, I had to keep my right arm completely immobilized. My arm was in a sling day and night for at least one month. Note, that this is my right side and I am right handed. Our eldest daughter Karen faithfully drove out to our house every Sunday morning for a welcome visit. She made a delicious and easy pizza dip, one for Gary and I and one for her husband Jody and herself to enjoy. She printed out her recipe and I wrote with a very squiggly left-handed writing a description of her recipe for this column. I think that this recipe will be a great one to make for a Christmas or New Years get together with family or friends. One recipe will make 2 X 9″ pie plates or a 9″ X 13″ casserole dish. I want to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish you all good health, peace and happiness in the coming year, 2015. I will be starting the New Year nearly bionic with a new right knee and a new right shoulder. If I keep this up I will be working until I’m 105 at my store, Sharyn’s Pantry. I hope to be back to work early in the New Year. See you then!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2- 8 oz. packages of room temperature cream cheese ( you can use low fat or regular )
• 1 cup of dairy sour cream at room temperature
• 1 /2 tsp granulated garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning ( Karen used rubbed oregano instead and I think this is better )
• 2 cups pizza sauce
• 2 tbsp. dried cilantro 
• 2- 8oz packages of fresh mushrooms, chopped  
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 sweet green bell peppers, cored, seeded and diced
• 3 cups of mozzarella cheese, grated sliced pepperoni, cut into 1/4’s to go further as a final topping for the dip. Karen used a package of pepperoni already sliced.

Method


Using an electric hand mixer, combine the room temperature cream cheese, sour cream, garlic powder and oregano together until nice and smooth and creamy. Spread this over the bottom of a 9″ X 13″ baking dish OR you can use 2 X 9″ pyrex pie plates as Karen did.

-Top the above mixture with the pizza sauce.

-Sprinkle this with the cilantro, chopped fresh mushrooms, diced onion and green pepper.

-Evenly sprinkle this with the grated mozzarella cheese and finally the pepperoni slices. Karen cut the slices of pepperoni into 1/4’s to make them go further.

-Bake the dip in a pre-heated 350 degree F. oven for 30 minutes.

-Serve this immediately. You can also keep the dip warm in an insulated carry bag and reheat it if you are taking it to a party.

-You can serve this with veggies or nacho chips or crackers. Enjoy!