The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

Last weekend, a rare thing happened. I was grateful it was football season. This is because my daughter, who usually reserves most of her weekend time for her boyfriend, Lee, got ditched by the guy in favor of the Ravens or the Packers or whoever it was roughhousing on TV that afternoon. Lee announced his intention to occupy the couch for at least seven hours, which meant that Elizabeth (who tolerates football but only for about fifteen minutes at a time) was free to go shoe shopping with me.

I actually like to watch football sometimes, but not when I have the option of a mother/daughter retail rendezvous in NYC. We left Lee curled up on the sofa with a cold beer and a hot pizza.

When Elizabeth and I returned several hours later (Elizabeth with a pair of caramel colored high heeled boots, me with a pair of black flats on hold at Bloomingdale’s) Lee was in the same position we’d left him in. The only change in the scene was that the beer and pizza had vanished and Lee’s abdomen had expanded slightly.

I can see that both my daughter and I are going to have to make some commitment to watching football. Our respective men will be on the couch for weeks, and there’s just so much shoe shopping a girl can do (or so I’m told).  I intend to make it a little more interesting by amping up the game food. There’s just so much pizza a guy can eat (or so I’m told). I’m gonna watch a game on Sunday, dammit, and I’m making bean dip.

Then I’m going back to Bloomingdale’s for those black flats.

Football Bean Dip

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup jarred salsa

1 cup shredded Mexican-style cheese

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about ten minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, salt and pepper and cook for one minute. Add the beans and cook for a few minutes, crushing the beans with a fork as they cook. They should end up fairly smooth but somewhat chunky.

2. Spread the bean mixture evenly in an 8 or 9-inch square baking pan. Cover the beans with the sour cream, and cover that with the salsa, spreading it evenly over the sour cream. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top.Cover the pan with foil.

3. Bake the dip for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional ten minutes, until the cheese on top is hot and bubbly. Sprinkle the top with cilantro, if using. Let the dip cool for five minutes, then serve with chips.

Tags: bean dip recipe, bloomingdale's shoes, ESPN, Packers, Ravens football

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Beside Myself, Let Me (Not) Entertain You. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.