Football Dip

Over the past three weeks, my life has been full of TOO MUCH FOOTBALL!!! It seems neverending, but hopefully it will end soon. There is one thing that makes football better, though: Queso!

Queso is a challenge for me because I have been trying for the past two years to make my queso taste like the queso you can get at restaurants in Texas. I started with the traditional Velveeta/Rotel combo, progressed to adding my own salsa instead of Rotel, then attempted to make the dip completely from scratch using Homesick Texan's recipe. I was never very happy with my results, as it was never as good as Texas queso. I think I would have been happy with the Homesick Texan recipe (the taste was amazing), but I could never find the right cheese that would melt the right way so my dip was always the wrong consistency. I developed a theory that all restaurants use some kind of secret cheese (Velveeta) that melts perfectly every time.

A few months ago, Jamie and I uncovered a secret on the back of the Jimmy Dean sausage label:

Jamie really wanted me to make it for him, so I did, and we were very pleasantly surprised with the results. It's still no Trudy's, but it is definitely a step above the traditional Velveeta/Rotel. The recipe calls for 2 lbs. of sausage and Velveeta, but I have no idea what I would do with that much queso, so I scaled down the recipe a bit:

Sausage Queso Dip

You need:

1/2 lb. Jimmy Dean Sausage
1/2 lb. Velveeta 2% milk cheese
1/2 can of Rotel
about 1/4 cup of salsa
about 1/4 cup of green onions

Do this:

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat, until it is no longer pink. Add the Rotel, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cheese and salsa, and cook until melted. Sprinkle green onions over the top, and serve.

Now you have a yummy football snack, and football is much more tolerable!!! 

Also - I must confess that I made this dip twice this weekend, and the first time I skipped out on the green onions. Big mistake - they add great fresh flavor that makes the dip much better!