"Dip"

Lulu Paste
Holiday Gift of Recipes, 2005

3 egg yolks I used whole eggs
3 Tsp. sugar I used 3 Tbsp.
3 Tbsp. vinegar
1 green pepper, diced
1 pimento, diced I used red bell pepper
1 small onion, diced
8 oz cream cheese

Bring egg yolks, sugar and vinegar to a boil. Dice pimento, green peppers, and small onion and mix with cream cheese. Mix with dressing and beat well. Refrigerate. Spread on crackers or use as a dip.
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Around the holidays, my mother-in-law always makes 'dip', a family tradition. She briefly explained the recipe to me at one time but I wasn't able to track it down. The ingredients were too generic - Google wasn't leading me to it. I could have asked for the recipe but this is a special family recipe and she might think that I was going to start making it all of the time. Lo and behold, Christmas of 2005, the local weekly newspaper included a small recipe booklet, courtesy of the local Christian bookstore, and there was the 'dip' recipe.

However, something looked off right away. 3 Tsp. ??? Three teaspoons are a tablespoon. This didn't make sense and seemed like too little sugar. So I Googled other Lulu Paste recipes (armed with the name, I could now find several versions) and decided that it should be 3 tablespoons and I also noticed that many people use whole eggs so I did too (I didn't want to waste the whites). I doubled the recipe and used 4 large eggs and 1 jumbo egg.

The flavor was right but my results were looser than my mother-in-law's version so I probably should have just used the yolks, fewer whole eggs or I could have added more cream cheese. I need to play around with it. While the looser version is easier to eat as a dip(MIL's version is definitely a 'paste' and you need a sturdy chip to dip into it), I wanted an exact replica. And no, I won't make it all of the time but God forbid something happens to my mother-in-law, I would like to still be able to make my husband's favorite family recipes, most of which come from his grandmother and she's not talking at all. Come to think of it this dip recipe is the only special recipe my MIL makes. There was her peanut butter frosting recipe, which she willingly gave me, but of course, we won't be making that any more with my son's peanut allergy.

I was saving this for Dispensing Happiness's next Block Party since the them is comfort food but I ran out of other things to post. I'll still contribute this, if I remember, but I need to come up with a cocktail.

Blast From The Past: Dill Dip from June 2006. I whip this up on the fly all of the time for my son. I usually leave out the grated onion. I send it in his lunch with small carrot strips but knowing him, he probably just eats the dip with his finger.

Question of the Day*: What are some of your special family recipes (not the entire recipes, just the names)?

*Forgive me if I start repeating Questions of the Day. I can't remember what I've asked before. I should have kept a list of them somewhere.