Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

My friend Peggy posted this recipe for Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip on my facebook wall a few weeks ago.  She knows me well - anything cranberry, and I'm all over it!  I finally got a chance to make this last weekend, and it is amazing! All the flavors just combine to make your mouth happy...

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 12-oz package fresh cranberries (3 cups)
• 1/4 cup green onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 small jalapeno pepper
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 t cumin
• 2 T lemon juice (or lime)
• dash salt
• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese

Directions:

1. Coarsely chop cranberries in Ninja or food processor and place in medium bowl
2. Chop onions, cilantro, and jalapeno and add to cranberries
3. Mix in sugar, cumin, lime juice, and salt
4. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight
5. When you're ready to serve: soften cream cheese and spread it on a plate, serving platter, or the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish; spread cranberry mixture evenly over the top.
6. Serve with Ritz (type) crackers, Wheat Thins, or tortilla chips

  I cut the sugar down significantly from the original recipe - from 1-1/4 cups to just 2/3 cup.  I think it could be cut down a tiny bit more, but then I like the tartness of the cranberries, so it's probably a good balance.  I used lime juice, because I had a lime I needed to use and no lemons.  It all worked together really well.

We tried it with Wheat Thins, tortilla chips, and the Ritz type crackers, and it tastes good with all of them - but the Ritz type are the best.  Everyone who tasted this thought it was great - my husband who does not like cilantro, my friend Peggy who sent me the recipe and doesn't even like cranberries, my son who - well, I expected him to like it!  I never would have thought to mix these particular ingredients together, but the combination really is magic.  I will be making this again!!  I don't expect it will last long...

Mojito!

There's a recipe for a frozen Mojito in my Ninja cookbook.  I grew mint this summer just so I could make Mojitos, but I hadn't thought to make them in the Ninja.  I've been making them like this - without all the fancy stuff: (and I just remembered I should have bought club soda when I went shopping yesterday)

Anyway tonight I tried the Ninja recipe - only I mixed it up and then put it into the freezer to get/stay all slushy, like the Cranberry Daiquiri Slush I've been making this summer.

Frozen Mojito 

Ingredients 

• 2 Limes, Juiced 
• 10-12 Mint Leaves 
• 2 OZ. Simple Syrup* 
• 6 OZ. White Rum 
• 2 Cups Ice cubes 

Instructions 

1. Add all ingredients into the pitcher and use long pulses until well blended. 
2. Serve in 2 tall rocks glasses, garnish with mint. 

*Combine 4 Tbsp Sugar and 4 Tbsp Water in saucepan on warm stove until sugar dissolves.

I'm not sure how I'm going to serve it up - probably need that club soda to mix with the slush...

I did taste it, once it had frozen and I scraped it from the glass dish I had it in originally and put it into a plastic container with a lid - less worry that it will get knocked out of the freezer and shatter on the tile floor making a huge mess and not allowing me to enjoy my mojito!  It tasted quite good.  I think I'm going to enjoy this quite a bit!
 

Related articles

• Cranberry Daiquiri Slush (recipes.alwaysbcmom.com)

Ninja Recipes

My Ninja came with a small recipe book.  I was cleaning the house up, straightening things, organizing clutter, putting things away, etc.  And now I don't know where the book went.  I know it's around here somewhere.

Thankfully, all the recipes are also available online - Ninja Kitchen Recipes - so I can still find them.

We Ninja'd Some Salsa Today!

A while back I found this recipe for the world's easiest ice cream, which I still haven't tried, but I'm going to. I shared the link on Facebook, and one of my friends said she wanted one of those Ninjas. Ninjas? What? So I went back to the recipe and checked out the Ninja, read the reviews, and decided I wanted one, too.  I've been toying with buying a Vita-Mix for the last several years at the State Fair, but I'm just too cheap to get one.  Some of the people who reviewed this said they liked the Ninja better than the Vita-Mix, and my brother who has a Vita-Mix said they mostly use it for smoothies and ice cream - and they do use it several times a month, but not as often as they could.  So, when I weighed the cost and the potential use, I figured $40 (w/ shipping) for the Ninja (with an extra pitcher and extra 2-cup bowl, found new on ebay) was a lot better than $450 for the Vita-Mix.

My Ninja came in the mail yesterday, and I just had to try it today. First Cory and I crushed ice and made some iced coffee - yum! And then I made some salsa!

Fresh Ninja Salsa

Ingredients:

• 4 Roma tomatoes, cut in 4 pieces
• 1/4 small onion
• 2 hot peppers, split and deseeded
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• pinch of oregano
• pinch of cumin

Directions:

Add all ingredients to the bowl. Use short pulses, about 3 times or until desired consistency is reached.

Serve with tortilla chips. Makes about 2-1/2 cups.

I pretty much followed the recipe in the book that came with my Ninja - except I used two hot peppers (because Cory wanted them) instead of 1, I didn't use the 1/2 tsp. sugar, and I didn't have a lime so I used lemon juice - cut a small half and didn't squeeze all of the juice out. Also, the recipe called for cilantro, which would have been so good in this, but I didn't have any. Even without it, this salsa was amazing - and so easy!

• Print this recipe

Related articles by Zemanta

• Taking the Ninja Master Prep Pro out for a spin (cnet.com)