By Wendy Monro

The holidays are just around the corner. I know. I am sorry. You know it is true and you need to come to terms with this fact. I don’t know how this seems to sneak up on us every year but I am starting to get used to it. Luckily, I love the holidays. Soon, it will be Halloween. Then, we will celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Finally, we will round it off with my birthday in January. It’s the same every year.

We love to entertain at my house. Claud and I are an amazing team in the kitchen. I love to cook with Claud. I am a huge fan of appetizers. Even when we go out to eat, I often order a few appetizers rather than an entre. Sometimes I’ll get a cup of soup and a cheese plate. Other times, I like to order lettuce wraps or a quesadilla. Many times the appetizer is a meal in itself even if I only order one. At home, I am usually in charge of the appetizers while Claud handles most of the main meal.

When we throw a party, I make plenty of appetizers. It makes me nervous that my guests will fill up on the pre dinner food, but I just cannot help it. I have so much fun with the snacks. Claud loves smoked salmon so I usually put out a platter of smoked salmon with lemon and freshly ground pepper. Sometimes, we will make a soup. A little while ago, when we were in England, we made potato leek soup as an appetizer for Claud’s dad’s eightieth birthday party. It was absolutely delicious. Everyone wanted more and we ran out. That’s when you know something is really tasty. Years ago, we made the most delicious corn chowder for our anniversary party. I need to find that recipe again. I remember it was really time consuming but well worth it in the end.

One thing I know for sure is that people like dips. I make a great seven layer Mexican dip with beans, sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and salsa. This is so good with tortilla chips. I like to make homemade hummus. It’s fun to play with the flavors. Cucumber and cilantro is really good. I also like roasted red pepper hummus. When I was about twelve years old, I found a recipe in one of my mom’s cookbooks for a curry dip. I made it for one of her party’s. It was so good. I still make it today. I add curry powder to sour cream. Then, I throw in garlic salt, mustard, lemon, salt and pepper. It tastes so good with vegetables or plain Lays potato chips. Sometimes I just make this for myself and eat it with carrots.

Daphne has been teaching art classes and on Saturday’s she has a private lesson here at our house. The mother of the student likes to stay here while her son is with Daphne. I usually sit and talk with her while she waits. This week, I decided to make us an appetizer to enjoy while we chatted. I am working on a few new dip ideas for the upcoming holidays. I have never made a blue cheese dip. Blue cheese dip would taste so good with some spicy chicken wings, chips or vegetables. I decided to throw together what I thought would make a good dip and to serve it with vegetables. This definitely is not a low fat dip. That’s why I chose vegetables over chips this time. I think I could make this less fattening if I substituted low fat sour cream and cream cheese. I didn’t do that this time because that is not what I had on hand. I had to go with what was in my refrigerator.

I grabbed my food processor and threw in some good creamy blue cheese. I bought this the day before. I thought I would just eat this with crackers but this new idea changed everything. I tossed in some sour cream and cream cheese. Then, I added vinegar for tanginess. Next, I sprinkled in onion powder, salt and pepper. I blended this together and that was that. I chilled the dip until she arrived.

It was so easy. The result was a creamy and tasty blue cheese dip. I cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes. We sat outside and enjoyed our appetizer. We finished it all while we talked about our kids and enjoyed the lovely Fall weather.

Blue Cheese Dip:

Time: five minutes

1 cup creamy blue cheese

cup sour cream

cup cream cheese

1 tablespoon vinegar

teaspoon onion powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon scallions, chopped for garnish

Combine all of these ingredients into a food processor and mix well. Garnish with scallions. Serve with