Make your fellow travelers happy by allowing them to plunge into finger foods.
By Janet Groene, F47166
September 2020
Who says you shouldn’t eat with your fingers? In RV travel and camping, it’s a rite of life to grab a drumstick, a hotdog, a hush puppy, or French fries and eat with your fingers.
The fun part of serving finger foods is the camaraderie of a communal pot and the wicked good taste of an apple wedge plunged into a bowl of caramel syrup, or a tortilla chip scooping up a molten mix of cheese and refried beans. If you are social distancing, though, serve dips in individual containers, such as small clear plastic cups or bathroom-size paper cups. Individual servings also could be set up for the dippers.
Make it a meal, a dessert, or a snack. Your dip can be sized for the family, for a campground potluck, or just for you. Make it sweet or savory, hot or cold. Dip companions can include crackers, cookies, chips, corn dogs, fish sticks, vegetables, fruit, or skewered meat.
Many dips begin with cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, or grated cheese. All are excellent travelers, as they keep well in the refrigerator. (Watch the “use-by” dates.) For long-term provisioning and the emergency pantry, good choices for dipping include dried fruits, Vienna sausages, woven wheat crackers, canned baby corn, and baby carrots.
Many excellent dips and salsas are available in jars or cans, but making your own allows you to control the salt and sugar content, the heat of the spices, and the fat content. Base ingredients for most dips — such as cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese — are available in regular, low-fat, and no-fat versions.
Bagel, Schmear, And Lox Dip
8-ounce package cream cheese
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
½ cup sour cream
Salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
3-ounce package smoked salmon,finely diced
Soften the cream cheese at room temperature or for a few seconds in a microwave oven. Stir in the lemon juice, zest, and sour cream. Season to taste. Add the onion and salmon. Keep the mixture cold, but return it to room temperature for easier dipping. Serve with crisp bagel chips or rye crackers. Makes 2 cups.
Chicken Dinner Dip
10-ounce can chunk chicken
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup grated dry cheese such as Parmesan
Small can diced chilies, drained (optional)
Drain the juice from the chicken into a saucepan and add the soup, whisking until smooth. Add the chicken, breaking it up. Add the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. Heat but do not boil. Stir in the cheese and the drained chilies, if used. Serve as a dip with scoopers. Makes 2½ cups.
Slow Cooker Big Dipper
The spiciness can be controlled by using hot, medium, or mild diced tomatoes and sausages.
4 blocks cream cheese, 8 ounces each
1 can seasoned diced tomatoes, such as Rotel
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with onion and green pepper
8-ounce package fully cooked sausage patties or links, finely chopped
1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
Cook everything in a slow cooker for two hours on low heat. Stir and serve with sturdy dippers and scoopers. Makes 6 cups.
Mexican Street Corn Dip
1 package frozen corn nibblers (small lengths of corn on the cob)
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon lime zest
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon dried cilantro
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4-ounce can diced green chilies, well drained
4-ounce jar diced pimientos, drained
Cook the nibblers according to the package directions. Mix the remaining ingredients and serve as a dip for the warm nibblers. Makes 1½ cups.
Alternate method: Cook and drain 3 cups of whole-kernel corn, fold the corn into the dip, and scoop up with tortilla chips.
Creamy Pizza Dip
1 pint sour cream
1 can condensed cream of tomato soup
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon mixed Italian seasoning
1 cup finely chopped pepperoni
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Whisk together the sour cream, soup, and seasonings. Fold in the pepperoni and cheese. Dip in with bread sticks, chunks of garlic bread, or pretzel sticks. Makes 5 cups.
Lime Dip For Fish
8-ounce brick cream cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 to 2 tablespoons minced red onion
2 tablespoons limeade concentrate, thawed
Mix well and serve with warm fish sticks; fish kebabs; or cooked, deveined, tail-on shrimp. If the dip is too thick, thin it with dry white wine or water. Makes 1½ cups.
Kicky Razzberry Dip
1 pint dry-style cottage cheese
½ cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup roasted raspberry chipotle sauce
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup finely minced cilantro
Mix everything together and chill. Serve with corn chips, scoopable or regular tortilla chips, waffle potato chips, carrot sticks, or celery sticks. Makes 2½ cups.
Tiramisu Dip
Daring and different, this adult dessert is a fun dip for four to six.
1 teaspoon powdered coffee
1 packet instant French vanilla pudding
1 cup milk
1½ cups whipped topping, thawed
1/3 cup Marsala wine
1 package ladyfingers
In a bowl, stir the coffee into the dry pudding mix. Briskly whisk in the milk to dissolve the powders. When it begins to thicken, fold in the whipped topping and wine. Chill. Use the ladyfingers as dippers. Large ladyfingers call for double dipping, so it’s best to serve this dip in individual cups. Makes 2½ cups.
Easy Ways To Add Zip To Your Dip
Pureed baby foods are available in countless colors and flavors. Buy commercial hummus or guacamole, and then make it your own by adding a squeeze of strained beets or pureed carrots. Baby foods are bland, so season to taste.- Don’t overlook dry seasonings such as dukkah, Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt, or McCormick Salad Supreme to perk up raw vegetables. And remember cinnamon sugar for dipping apple wedges.
- A simple and time-honored dip duo for bread: olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Go beyond the old classic of onion soup mix and sour cream. Try other dry seasoning-mix packets, such as ranch, Italian, salsa, or taco. These featherweight ingredients take up no room. Add to sour cream or cottage cheese to taste.
- Use caramel ice cream sauce or honey to thin peanut butter or cream cheese, and serve as a dip for fruit.
- Use marshmallow cream, jelly, honey, or maple syrup to thin peanut butter and serve as a dip with celery scoopers.
- Use bits of frozen bread dough to make monkey bread or pull-part bread to use as dippers.
