Baked Spicy Corn and Crab Dip

How has this year already flown by?  Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is this week!  What?!?!?!  I'm still unsure about the best Thanksgiving dinner week preparation method.  Do I clean a little and fix one or two dishes that can be frozen each day, or do I wait until the day before and go full speed?  The procrastination version requires only one massive kitchen cleanup whereas the spread it out method require cleaning every single day for the whole freaking week.  Thoughts?

 

This year, on top of the normal stress that comes along with hosting a holiday meal, my children are out of school the entire week and my husband is out of town on business.  This means that in between chopping, scrubbing and dusting I am yelling things like, "if you fart on his face one more time you will lose your screen time for tomorrow!!!" and "do I need to show you how to blow your nose again?!  It is NOT ok to wipe snot on the sofa or your brother...or the wall!!"  In an attempt to keep my sanity and actually get something cooked, I have waived my white flag today and my monkeys are currently entering hour two of video games.  Don't judge.

 

One of my favorite hot appetizers is this baked spicy corn and crab dip.  I tried a spicy crab dip recipe from the Food Network Magazine a couple of years ago and thought it was tasty but was missing something.  After tinkering with it for a while, adding a bit of this and leaving out a couple of ingredients (who really has sherry laying around their kitchen anyway) my Baked Spicy Corn and Crab Dip was born.

 

2 T butter

1 shallot thinly chopped

2 cans of corn kernels drained and rinsed

1 jalapeno seeded and diced

3 t Cholula hot sauce

salt and pepper

8 ounces lump crabmeat

1 ½ C grated monterey jack cheese

¾ cup of sour cream

1 cup of crushed Ritz cracker crumbs

½ C grated white cheddar

2 T chives (fresh or dried)

2 t Old Bay

 

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Saute the shallot for a minute or two. Add the corn and jalapeno and cook until they start to soften, about 3-4 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Put the corn mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the crabmeat, 1 C of monterey jack, ¼ cup of the cheddar, sour cream, old bay, cholula and half of the cracker crumbs. Mix until well combined.

3. Pout into a shallow dish. Mix the leftover cracker crumbs, cheeses and chives together and sprinkle of the top of the dish.

4. At this point you can either cover with foil and freeze (I have never left it frozen for more than two weeks) or cook. If you are cooking it now, preheat your oven to 375 and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is browning and the edges are boiling. If you are freezing it, thaw for one day ahead of time and follow the same cooking instructions. Serve with Ritz crackers.