Halloween, the Day After

This year, as in years past, I invited people over to carve pumpkins, with the sole purpose of hoarding all of the pumpkin seeds to roast.  Well, that and drink cocktails.  This year it was hot apple cider.  The first year that we did this, back in college, it was Smirnoff Ice and Beer tinted orange with food coloring.  Festive and classy, I know.  



Now that it's the first of November, and I'm pretty sure most people aren't going to be roasting any more pumpkin seeds, I won't even bother posting the roasting pictures.  Instead I'm going to talk about my friend Aldis's awesome Halloween party, and the dip that I took to it.  I don't have any pictures of the dip - I'm pretty sure that means that I'm kicked out of the blogosphere, or whatever fancy name the internets have come up with.  

Aldis's Halloween party was festive, with Halloween themed Beer Pong (which I have only played 3 times in my life, apparently I'm not very cool), and a bubbling brew dubbed "Riot punch."  This morning I was not enjoying the Riot punch, I'm convinced the secret ingredient was Dimetap. Heather ended up winning the costume contest, hooray!


So I decided to try this dip out, and it made quite a bit of dip, so if I was just making it for a small get together, I'd half the recipe.  This time around, I have plenty of leftovers to take to work!  Hooray!  Having good snacks at work tends to make the day better in my opinion. 


Enough of my ramblings, here's the recipe for the dip that I took to the party.  

Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Slather
     From The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 - 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained
0.5 c. julienned oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. low-fat soup cream
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 c. shredded Swiss, or Gruyere cheese
Dash (or more if you're feeling frisky) cayenne pepper
0.25 c. pine nuts
French bread or vegetables for serving

• Preheat the oven to 400F.  Butter or grease a shallow casserole dish.
• Combine artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, sour cream, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, garlic and mustard in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.  Process until coarsely chopped.   Mix in the Swiss/Gruyere cheese and cayenne.  
• Turn mixture into the casserole dish, spread evenly and top with pine nuts.  Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Serve hot.