Blue Cheese Dressing

The Best Blue Cheese Dressing

I have been a fan of Blue Cheese Dressing my entire life so, believe me when I say this recipe is amazing. It just doesn’t come this good in a bottle and many online recipes just can’t be trusted. Some bloggers get you in the vicinity of a decent dressing but there always seems to be something missing. Am I right? Well, not here, no sir/mam. I’ve got the best recipe right here and it’s great on salads, used as a dip with veggies or chicken wings.

Smooth or Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing

These days you can buy blue cheese already crumbled and ready to go. If you’re buying it by the brick, however, you’ll have to break it down and crumble it with your hands or slice it with a knife. If you’re going for a chunky recipe, just eye ball the pieces and prep them to your preference and size. If you prefer a creamy dressing, just break down the blue cheese to a size your blender or hand mixer can handle because that’s the only way you’re going to get a creamy Blue Cheese Dressing with out mixing for hours by hand.

Blue Cheese Dressing or Dip

Last week I filmed my version of Buffalo Chicken Wings and I paired that recipe with this Blue Cheese Dressing. The two recipes together are sensational. So good in fact that I bought more wings and ingredients to make the dressing again, yesterday. I used every last bit, of the dressing I filmed, on salads I ate for lunch, all week long. So I highly recommend both of these recipes.

Blue Cheese Dressing Ingredients:

6 – 8 oz Blue Cheese
1 cup Butter Milk
1 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Mayonaise
1/3 cup White Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Sugar, maybe more
Salt and Pepper to taste

Just mix all of the ingredients together, to make your Blue Cheese Dressing, and be sure to watch the video tutorial.

Crab Dip

The Best Crab Dip

This Crab Dip is great to serve at home, parties or barbecues and it can easily be made, in advance, and kept refrigerated until needed. One of the best things about this dip is that it can be served hot or cold and either way is absolutely delicious. I show you how to prepare both and there’s only a few ingredients so, don’t worry about breaking the bank with grocery shopping.

Crab Meat for Crab Dip

For this Crab Dip recipe, I’m using real crab meat and I get it from a refrigerated can. If you want to save money, this is one way to do it. I bought this 16 oz. can for $13 bucks, which may sound expensive but consider the alternative. A pound of Crab legs is going to cost more for practically half the meat weight because of the shells. This can is solid meat. Savings can be taken a step further, however, if you’re willing to use imitation crab but, in all honesty, it won’t even be close to the same recipe and it absolutely won’t taste the same. If that’s all you have available, though, just make my Seafood and Crab recipe, instead. It’s really good and it’s great served as a dip with crackers.

Hot Baked Crab Dip with Parmesan and a sliced toasted French Baguette.

Cold or Hot Baked Crab Dip

To serve this Crab Dip cold, all you half to do is mix the ingredients and serve. Marinating the ingredients in your refrigerator for a half an hour or over night will improve the flavor but it isn’t necessary. Plus the ingredients are already cold so, it’s really something you can just play by ear.

For a hot baked dip, I just top it off, in an oven safe baking dish, with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and bake in the oven until it’s warm. If I’m serving the dip with a sliced baguette, I usually just toasted the pieces along with the baking of the dip.

If you you’re looking for other dip recipes, check out my Clam Dip, Broccoli and Cheese Dip, Spinach and Artichoke Dip and my Jalapeno Popper Dip recipes. FYI, if you drop the sour cream out of this Crab Dip recipe and add a package of wonton wrappers, it makes an excellent filling for fried Crab Rangoon’s.

Crab Dip video tutorial by poormansgourmet.

Crab Dip Ingredients:

1 8oz pkg Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Sour Cream
8 oz Crab Meat, canned claw
1 Jalapeno, diced
1 Green Onion, diced
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Sugar
1 pinch of Salt
1 pinch Blackened Seasoning
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated

Be sure to follow the instructions in the Crab Dip video tutorial and I’ll show exactly how to make it. This dish can be served cold immediately or marinated in the refrigerator for more flavor. If you’d like to serve this recipe warm, bake it in the oven at 350° Fahrenheit for 8 minutes, then serve.

Turkey Brine

The Best Holiday Turkey Brine

If you like your poultry tender and succulent, then you need to add this Turkey Brine to your things to do list this holiday season. A good brine will add so much moisture and flavor to your roasted bird, you’ll never again cook it with out one. This recipe adds a light yet fruity bouquet to the pallet that really compliments the Turkey. There’s a few other ingredients that might surprise you but overall, I really think you’ll be pleased with the results.

Does a Turkey Brine Really Help?

A Turkey Brine is more about the salt than anything. All of the flavors help but the salt goes through and through, constantly repeating. This helps the bird retain water and since water has memory, all of those ingredients that season the water also season the bird. So, a brine absolutely makes all of the difference in the world. Unless you don’t like a crispy skin, basting isn’t even necessary. And don’t feel like you have to add all of these ingredients. Technically, the salt is enough but feel free to play with it a bit and find your own ingredients and write your own recipe. You can even refer to my Tin can Chicken Brine recipe if you’d like.

Turkey Brine Ingredients:

1 gal water
2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar
2 cups Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Table Salt
2 tbsp Black Pepper
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Clove
5 Garlic Cloves, crushed
5 Bay Leaves, dry or fresh
2 Sprigs Rosemary
Peel from 2 large Oranges
3 to 4 lbs Ice

1 Turkey

Be sure to follow the instructions in the Turkey Brine video tutorial and continue with the Roasted Turkey and Gravy recipe, coming up next.

UPDATE:

I have since used this recipe with some substitutions and one particular additive that yielded better results in both the flavor and juiciness of the bird. The Turkey I brined and roasted was barley over 19 lbs and, for some reason, cooked way faster than I expected.

I exchanged the orange peel for lemon, the salt for it’s weight in pickling salt and I added in approximately 1 dozen Allspice seeds. What a difference it made. I also crushed, ground and sprinkled allspice powder over the skin of the turkey, before roasting. I stuffed the bird with Parsley only and a full cube of butter, then baked with a lid at 275° F. To my surprise, the bird was fully cooked in under 3 hours. It should’ve taken twice that long; according to the experts. 20 to 25 minutes per lbs. The outside of the bird was perfectly cooked with an even golden brown tone. I didn’t roast at a higher temp before hand, rotate the turkey of baste either. One of the Best Turkey’s I have ever made.