Roy Roberts' Arkansas Hot Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

Two 8-oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
6 oz. crumbled blue cheese
One bottle of blue cheese dressing
Two cups shredded cheddar cheese
One 16-oz jar of high-quality hot salsa
4 tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce

Preheat oven or smoker to 350 degrees F.  Mix all ingredients except for one ½ cup of the cheddar cheese.  Place mixed ingredients into a baking dish, sprinkle top with remaining half cup of cheese, and bake for 30 minutes until bubbling.

Serve with corn chips and celery sticks.

Tip of the Week:

Since the football season coincides with the cold and flu season, always keep sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizing lotion on hand for your guests.  Also, since there is always a lot of shaking of hands at a tailgate, if you are serving ribs or other finger foods, I like to have an extra stock of vinyl food-handlers’ gloves on hand to distribute to my guests.  Not only is this more healthful, it keeps your hands from getting messy right before the big game.

Roy's Conch Chowder With Spicy Sausage Garnish Serves 12

• 4 pounds conch, trimmed, chopped, tenderized
• 3 pounds spicy sausage, for garnish
• 6 large onions, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 chili peppers, seeded and finely chopped
• 3 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
• 3 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
• 6 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 6 potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 4 cups freshly shucked corn (or 2 lbs. frozen super sweet corn)
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 oz lime juice
• Hot sauce to taste
• Black pepper to taste

Place conch in a bowl with lime juice and 2 tablespoons hot sauce, set aside to marinate.

In a large stock pot heat oil, add celery and carrots and cook over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Add onions and peppers and continue cooking until all are lightly browned. Add garlic and cook for two more minutes.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, bay leaves and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Potatoes should be tender.

While simmering, grill sausage until well cooked. Cool, cut into 1/4 inch dice.

Remove and discard bay leaf, add corn and conch and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Chowder is ready to be served. Ladle into bowl, garnish with cubed sausage.

Depending on the moisture content of the tomatoes and how thick of a chowder you like, you may thin the chowder by adding more tomato/clamato juice.