Versatile Sour Cream Spread

This recipe is very versatile. You can start out using it as a sandwich spread, then with one simple addition turn it into a dip or salad dressing. It's delicious no matter how you serve it.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup thick sour cream
• 4 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (1/2 of an 8 oz block, softened)
• 1 Tbsp. brine from jar of olives
• 1/2 cup salad olives with pimentos, chopped and well drained
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped or 1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
• 1 Tbsp. minced onion
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 3 Tbsp. fresh dill weed, chopped (or 1 tsp. dried dill weed)

If serving as a dip, thin with 1/4 cup buttermilk.

If using as a salad dressing, thin with 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

In a small bowl blend the mayonnaise and cream cheese with the sour cream. Add the 1 Tbsp. brine from a jar of olives along with the chopped olives and pimentos, parsley flakes, minced onion, garlic powder, and dill weed.

Stir until thoroughly mixed, then spoon into a container which has a tight-fitting lid.

Chill for 4 hours or overnight to allow flavors to mingle.

Serve as a spread with party rye (or pumpernickel breads) or a variety of crackers.

Serve as a dip with any fresh crudites or chips.

Serve as a salad dressing over tossed or mixed fresh salad of choice.

If made ahead of time, it will keep very well in the refrigerator for 2 days before using. It might keep longer than that, but it never stuck around longer. I'd make it up, and it'd disappear before I knew it was gone almost. I quickly learned to double the recipe. A bunch of teenagers is like a herd of locusts almost. Wonderful hungry munching locusts. At least this is fairly healthy food.

Source: This is an old family traditional spread, dip, and salad dressing. We almost always had the ingredients on hand and it works for so many foods in so many different ways. We had an herb garden and parsley and dill were the herbs that we grew all the time as they were our favorites. I'd plant just one little seedling of dill in my flower garden because I loved the ferny look of it with anything and everything.

It'd grow, bloom, go to seed, and start dozens of little new plants. I'd move as many as I could use, then start giving them away. Never had as good luck with parsley, but went to a lot of trouble sometimes to keep it going. It didn't always like where I wanted it to grow. :-) It had a mind of its own, I guess.

By Julia from Boca Raton, FL