Cream Cheese, Tabasco Sauce, and Popcorn Shrimp Dip

My wife, Cara, and I were preparing a variety of snacks to set out on the deck for some friends who were going to drop by one evening, when I remembered a snack I used to crave for days on end one summer years ago. Pushing back a cold Fat Tire I was drinking at the time, I rummaged through the kitchen fridge to see if I had the ingredients for it.  All that I needed was here; chipotle flavored cream cheese, popcorn shrimp, tobasco sauce, grape tomatoes, and paprika. I had Club Crackers and Triskets in the cabinet, so I was set to go. Geez, this dip went back to the 80's, but if it was good then, it surely had to be good today.

I set up the ingredients - still a few hours before our friends were to arrive so plenty of time to chill the dip before our gathering. The dip is so good it's a wonder I dropped the idea of it so many years ago, and the original recipe is so simple that it's just not worth fooling with.

Ingredients:

16 oz. softened chipotle flavored cream cheese.

1 cup popcorn shrimp or crab meat, chopped.

Dash of paprika

1 cup grape tomatoes, chopped.

Splash of Tabasco sauce

Dash of Parsley

Stir the cream cheese until soft.  Mix in the popcorn shrimp or crab meat and grape tomatoes.  Splash in a little tobasco sauce (be careful, too much will ruin the flavor) and the paprika and blend well.  Pour contents into a serving dish and sprinkle with parsley.

Chill for about 2 hours. Serve with Club Crackers or Triskets, or your own favorite cracker.

As expected the dip was a success.  We sat around on the deck with the Cream Cheese dip, a spinach dip, and a hot cheddar cheese dip, a bucket of crackers, and the Fat Tire.  The conversation flowed till around midnight.

Give it a try and see what you think.