Rosie's Appetizers.

I was in a bit of a spicy mood today, so I decided to make some appetizers to go along with my frame of mind. Remember the queso dip I'm fond of making? I wanted to make the queso but with a twist.

Here's my mise en place. Velveeta (Never thought Velveeta would pass these lips.), cream cheese, Rotel tomatoes with chilis, chili powder, cayenne, cumin, tabasco sauce, and leftover bacon from breakfast. Imagine that - leftover bacon. Who'd a thunk?

I cubed the cheeses and melted them in the microwave.

Added, oh ... maybe half a can of Rotel tomatoes and chilis.

Then some Tabasco sauce.

Chili powder, cayenne, and cumin.

Bacon goes in.

Reheat and fill a little Tostito cup with the dip. Adjust flavorings to taste, if necessary. Mine needed no adjusting. Click on the above picture. You can see all the flavors. Just like Aunt Sandy. Whoot!

Earlier, I had made a nice salsa with fresh tomatoes and red and green jalapenoes from my garden, chopped red onion, cilantro, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.

Scoop a bit of salsa. I like it hot. Then I decided to try something a little different. If you've been paying attention, and you better since you will be tested on this later, I had some leftover meatballs from my spaghetti dish last night.

I filled a Tostito scoop with a meatball, topped with my queso cheese dip, nuked, then added some cold salsa.

This made a very nice appetizer. If I were doing the meatballs just for the appetizer and not for the spaghetti, I'd make them a bit smaller so they'd fit in the scoop and not fall out. You'd want them bite-size, say, if you were serving them as appetizers at a party. These were GOOOOOOD. Mr. Hawthorne made me put everything away so he'd stop eating.