queso friday

in preparation for Chick Nite at CS's, I went online this morning to check out queso dips, hoping to try something new. FYI, there is A LOT of dispute about what constitutes an awesome queso. Camp #1 declares that good old-fashioned Velveeta with a can of Rotel is the real deal, give or take a can of chiles, while Camp #2 denounces fake cheese product and strives to make a winning combo by using various shredded cheeses, sour cream, cream cheese, cream of mushroom/cheese soup, so on and so on. I took all of this knowledge - and pressure... what does the way I make queso say about me?! - to our local Kroger, and ended up concocting the following:

Ingredients:
1 bunch shallot
1tsp-1tbsp minced garlic (to your preference)
2tbsp cooking butter

1 chicken bouillon cube
1 can original Rotel
about 1/4c of whole milk (I eyeballed it)
3/4 small box of Velveeta
almost an entire 8oz package of Pepper Jack cheese, shredded

I melted the butter, and sauteed the shallots until they were almost done. Regular onions would be fine, I'm sure, but I'm not a super onion-y kind of girl. Then I added a dollop of minced garlic to the mix, and cooked another minute or two. I added the whole can of Rotel, waited a couple of minutes, added the crumbled up chicken bouillon cube, and then added the milk. I let the whole thing cook and blend a bit. Now, the chunks of tomato from the Rotel were pretty big, and I'm not a big chunky tomato eater, so at this point I threw everything in the blender and pulsed it a bit. Then, back in the saucepan on low heat. I cut up about 3/4 of the box of Velveeta and shredded the Pepper Jack, and began adding alternating handfulls of cheese at a time, letting it melt as I went. The result is a spicy, yummy queso that I'm pretty proud of. We'll see how well it reheats later...





musical bonus for the day: if you are not aware of the origin of my user name you can click here to see one of mine and M's favorite bands live in concert, singing about a great girl who battles evil robots... (*disclaimer: if you watch the whole clip, be prepared for some language*) 'yoshimi' is from this album:



which is one of my favorite. albums. ever.

as I type, I can look across into the library and see some wall art M made from this cover, way before he met me. sigh. star-crossed lovers, indeed.