Monday, August 31, 2009

Stealing Recipes

At what point does a recipe become your own? I'm not talking about something original you've created all mad scientist-like in your kitchen laBORatory. No, I mean in situations where you think, "Ooh, I'll try this", only to realize that you're missing some ingredients and you have to decide: Scrap It vs. Substitutions.

As part of my great recipe clean-up and creation of the 'Recipes to Try' binder, I've been making some new things and marking them up in the binder... x-ing them out if they're flops, or writing 'good' next to the ones we like. If I've made substitutions I note that as well.

One day, for an after school snack...(full disclosure here - I HATE the after school snack because it's a mighty pain in the ass. I'm usually like 'grab an apple' and the girls are all 'wait, you didn't make us a four-course spread of frosted deliciousness?')... SO! One day, I decided to make this recipe I'd put in the binder; a Pampered Chef recipe that came with their 'My Safe Cutter' called Butterscotch Dip.

Butterscotch Dip by Pampered Chef

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. butterscotch ice cream topping
1 T packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla

Combine all ingredients in 1-Qt. Batter Bowl*; mix with Bamboo Spoon until smooth. Chill. Serve with apples, strawberries, pears, bananas, etc., sliced with My Safe Cutter.

Yield: 1 1/4 cups.


* I find it annoying that they've always got their products called out in a recipe.

Only, I realized too late that I didn't have butterscotch ice cream topping...but I DID have caramel and what's better with apples than caramel, right? Right. And THEN, since I was feeling the caramel apple thing, I thought PECANS! Chopped pecans would be great with this...AND pecans add protein, don't they? I chopped some pecans (direct from a tree, not purchased in a store, because the purchased ones have a peanut warning) and left them 'on the side' since E2 doesn't always like pecans in stuff.

Caramel Apple Dip by Nancy

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. caramel ice cream topping
1 T packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
1/4 C. chopped pecans


Combine first four ingredients in bowl; mix until smooth. Stir in pecans. Chill. Serve with apple slices.

Yield: 1 1/4 cups.


They LOVED it. The four of us ate three apples and there was dip left over...and since we all liked the pecans we finally tossed them into the dip and mixed it all together.

I made my version again Saturday night when we went over to a backyard party at a friend's house, and it got RAVE reviews.

So my question - is it now MY recipe, or is it a Pampered Chef recipe that I changed?

3 comments:

Glenda said...

Mmmmmm!! My taste buds say "try it!", but my gut says "oh, you will pay if you do" ;-). That darn cream cheese . . . or maybe it's my darn older body ;-).

Unknown said...

I'd say it's yours.

Anonymous said...

I would say it was your recipe!! Sounds great!