Day 30: The End????

This is how my last evening of cooking began...Beautiful flowers and an amazing card from my wonderful and supportive husband. This is just as much his victory as it is mine. I could not have done it without him.

Tonight, on day 30, it is all about Paul and I and what we most love to eat. Our favorite thing in the whole world is appetizers. I picked 4 of our favorites to celebrate the last night of the challenge. You will see a theme of sour cream, cream cheese and mayo. Paul and I both hate mayo but in these appetizers it is so well disguised it is easy to pretend that it is not there. I did cut each recipe in half except one to keep us from consuming 6000 calories this evening because we could easily, without question, take down a full recipe of each in one sitting.

I will give the recipes for them all and rate each separately. Enjoy!

BLT Dip
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
Tomato, diced
white bread

Step 1: Mix first 4 ingredients together and chill at least 2 hours
Step 2: Toast white bread and slice into large cubes
Step 3: Dip bread in dip. Duh.
Taco Dip
1/2 cup sour cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 envelope taco seasoning
lettuce, shredded
tomato, diced
black olives, sliced
Mexican blend cheese, shredded
Tortilla chips

Step 1: Mix cream cheese, sour cream and taco seasoning together. Let meld overnight.
Step 2: Take out cream cheese mixture 30 minutes before assembling to soften
Step 3: Spread mixture on platter. Top with lettuce, tomato, olive and cheese
Step 4: Serve with tortilla chips

Note: You can add a layer of refined beans, salsa, guacamole, etc. This is just the Jeske family's favorite combo of goods.
Dog Food Burgers, Shit on a Shingle or to be PC, Hamburger Snacks
1 lb hamburger meat(80%)
1 lb Bob Evans Original Pork Sausage Roll
1 lb Velveeta, cubed
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
Cocktail ryes ( 1 package)

Step 1: Brown meat and sausage together; drain.
Step 2: Add cubed Velveeta to the meat and melt over Med. heat.
Step 3: Remove from heat and stir in all spices
Step 4: Using a spoon, scoop meat mixture onto cocktail ryes.
Step 5: Bake prepared ryes at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Note: I lay half a batch on cookie sheet covered in wax paper and put it in the freezer. Once frozen, I put them in freezer bags and save for another time. Straight from freezer, cook for 15-18 minutes under a watchful eye.

Vegetable Pizza
2 8oz cream cheese
1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup miracle whip
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon dill
Cheddar cheese
2 tubes Crescent rolls
Veggies: We do broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, tomato(halved cherry tomatoes)

Step 1: Mix first 6 ingredients and let chill overnight.
Step 2: Roll out crescents on cookie sheet and press to seal seams. Bake as directed. Let cool completely.
Step 3: Spread mixture evenly over cooled dough. It is easier to spread if mixture is soft(remove from fridge ahead of time).
Step 4: Top with fresh veggies. I cut all my veggies very small and treat the entire process like a work of art. Carefully placing the veggies so that each piece of pizza will have a sampling of each veggie.
Step 5: top with cheese and cut into squares

Kitchen Play by Play: I broke all my let meld overnight rules because I decided this morning to make tonight appetizer night, so today's prep was a little longer than usual. The taco dip, blt dip and veggie pizza spread are all super simple and took a combined total of like 8 minutes. The Dog Food Burgers, our name of choice, took about 15 minutes total to prepare. You all already know how I feel about cutting ingredients for tacos so that took a while because I make sure the lettuce is completely dry before placing it on the dip. So total time for these three from start to finish would probably be about 25-30 minutes.

Why no picture of the veggie pizza you ask??? That would be because the frickin Jewel tried to kill me and my family on the last night of this challenge. As I began to roll out the Jewel brand crescents, I felt what seemed to be rocks in the dough. Upon further inspection, I realized there were about 20 little "rocks" throughout the dough. I marched the whole cookie sheet to my next door neighbor's house because she is a supervisor at Jewel and asked her what she thought they were. She was as perplexed as I was but gave me the phone number for the Jewel before I left. I called my mother next and asked her if she thought they used rock salt in crescent dough and she asked what the hell I was talking about. When I informed her of my near death experience, she told me to taste it. If it was salt, I'd know. Like an idiot, I listened. It burnt, really tingled,my tongue and did not taste like salt at all. When I told mom it burned she said, " it may be poison." Thanks, thanks a lot mom. Now these damn crescent rolls have almost killed me twice!!! Clearly I am fine as it has been 4 hours and I am still functioning. I have now decided that these " death crystals" are one of two things. 1) Shards of plastic from god knows what or 2) a packet of silicone that comes in purses and shoes with the big bold letters DO NOT EAT. Given the tingling sensation, I'm going to guess it was the latter.

I called the # on the back of the package. I wasn't going to deal with the Bartlett Jewel employees, I was going straight to the top with this or so I thought. Turns out, the higher ups call you back about stuff like this after all your information has been reviewed. Oh, they better call back or I will have my lawyer(Heather) handle this matter and present the evidence(see below). Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself. It did not photograph well.
(It is not supposed to be this thin but I was on a hunt for the crystals of death)

So long story short...no veggie pizza tonight, Sorry.

The Verdict:
Nicole-
Taco Dip-It never disappoints. The worst part of tonight's taco dip is that it was only half a batch. I give it a 5.
Dog Food Burgers-Super cheesy tonight so an automatic 5.
BLT Dip- Too many tomatoes for me, but great flavor overall. I give it a 4.

Paul-
Taco Dip-gives it a 5. No comment necessary...It's taco dip
Dog Food Burgers- 5.
BLT Dip-4.5.

Austin- No need to separate. If it's a dip, he LOVES it. And the dog food burgers he didn't even want in the oven. He just ate the cooked mix straight up!

**I will post my final thoughts on this challenge and the final dollar amount spent over the course of the next few days!!!