Shrimp and/or Crab Dip

While I was walking through the grocery store hungry - a big no no, I know - I saw that they were having a sale on cans of crab meat and tiny shrimp, and that made me wonder if they had the tiny shrimp in the freezer section because that way, it's not preserved with a bunch of crap. Sure enough, I found an even better deal - and opted not to get a can of crab meat to go with it.

Why was my hungry self interested in shrimp? You might ask. Well, when my aunt Sheila was still alive, she used to make an excellent crab and shrimp dip. This ran through my mind and then refused to leave as I stared, salivating, at the 14oz package of small shrimp for about 1.50. I bought two packages, and opted to forego the crab meat because there are no cans of it that aren't filled with preservatives.

Once upon a time ago, when I asked my aunt for the recipe, she said literally this: "A package of cream cheese, a container of sour cream, a can of tiny shrimp, a can of crab, and season to taste." Sounds like my kind of recipe!

For this dip, I actually had a bunch of cream cheese that needed to be used up, so I used 2 8oz packages, and then scooped out an approximately equal amount of sour cream - I buy it in 5lb containers, lol - and then used my mixer to blend them until smooth. To that I added:

- a splash of pickle juice
- a couple generous shakes of garlic powder (note I use and recommend organic ingredients, especially spices!)
- A couple of even more generous shakes of onion powder
- Realsalt to taste. All spices to taste really, lol!

I blended this up and tasted the results. It tastes pretty darn close to ranch dressing at this point, and mmmmmmm..... I could have eaten this by the spoon!

Since I hadn't thawed my frozen shrimp, I took the time to rinse it in warm/hot water until thawed, and squeezed the excess water out of it with my hand as I tossed the shrimp in the dip. Once all the shrimp was in the bowl, I mixed it with my mixer until the shrimp was pretty evenly incorporated.

Then I grabbed a bag of organic blue corn tortilla chips to taste test the results. At first, I found the shrimp to be too fishy and was disappointed. However, after letting what was left after my boys attacked it sit in the fridge overnight, it tasted MUCH better and more like I remember my aunt's tasting like.

I pulled out a wrap - flour tortilla, whatever - and loaded that up with lettuce. Then I slathered my shrimp dip over that and wrapped it up to enjoy for breakfast. Mmm... Pretty tasty!

Enjoy and have a happy day :-)