Anyway, the recipe in question does not favor anyone who doesn't cook a lot, nor does it favor anyone who is used to following typical recipes. It also doesn't sound like it favors anyone with good taste, or taste buds at all.
Enough suspense. Here it is, verbatim, no edits, no alterations:
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Artichoke Dip
1 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
1 8oz pk cream cheese
1 tall can artichoke hearts (I am not sure the ounces).
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (powdered)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (I don't really measure this).
Garlic salt to taste
Dill to taste
1 loaf of fresh bread cut up per batch. (You can buy the baguettes at Albertsons bakery and they will slice them for you)
This will make one batch. I made two batches for the luncheon.
Mix mayo, sour cream, cream cheese together.
Chop up artichoke hearts. If whole in fours (You can find quarters at Albertson's which means less chopping).
Add artichokes to above ingredients.
Add Cheese and seasoning.
Put in un-greased baking dish add more fresh mozzarella cheese and seasoning to top. Cover with foil.
Bake 30 minutes on 400 or uncover and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until golden.
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I made sure to separate the recipe from my comments with the stars and to change the font so that there would be no mistaking anything in the recipe for my words. All the parenthetical statements in the ingredients were included by the author. As for the comments about Albertsons, this person is not an employee or representative of said chain. It is likely that they used to work for them, because CVS bought part of that company a few years ago. For that, I may be able to overlook that residual pseudo company loyalty. As a former Albertsons employee (sorry...associate), I can speak from experience, they were very forceful about encouraging their employees (mm-hm...sorry, again...associates - the shock-therapy sessions are very persuasive, and persistent) to be loyal to the stores, even to the detriment of their personal budgetary challenges.
I question the logic of any recipe that involves baking the dish including instructions to season "to taste". Are you supposed to know it's properly seasoned by tasting it raw? Or do they expect you to season it according to a gut feeling for what your taste buds will approve of, and then check it when it's done baking, and adjust as necessary? This presents a bit of a challenge, because the instructions tell you to put the dill and garlic salt (my comment on that to follow...) on top of the casserole with the cheese. Did the author not consider that the seasoning might not need to be "to taste" if they mixed it in to the dip? It's amazing what a little integration will do for seasoning a dish! I'd hate to try this person's lasagna or stroganoff. I bet they make an OK sandwich, though. Except for tuna, egg, or chicken salad...those would probably be a lump of protein with the mustard and mayo globbed on top, and sprinkled with salt and assorted spices. And why would you use garlic salt? Fresh garlic is not hard or expensive to acquire, or prepare, and taste a whole lot better that garlic salt. And on that vein, why would anyone choose to use powdered parmesan cheese? I guess if you were out of cheese, and you had some packets left over from the last pizza delivery, you could substitute in a pinch. I can't fault anyone for emergency substitutions. That would just be rude.
Ii is also left to the assumption of the attempted cook that the cream cheese should be softened first, but no effort to inform them. Why waste time doing anyone any favors? I mean, what did this recipe-leeching mooch do for the person who wrote it? And it is inexcusable to not give the can size for the artichoke hearts. I am sure their co-worker would have been fine waiting a day to get the recipe in order to get it accurately, and not so vague.
Now, the baking instructions: can you tell me what size of baking dish? I have at least three completely differently-sized baking dishes. It would be nice to know ahead of time which one I need to make sure is clean and ready to go. And if someone followed these instructions, as written, and decided to bake theirs uncovered, they would bake it for 40-45 minutes, uncovered. That "or" is very poorly placed.
Finally, "this will make one batch". Really? One batch? You don't say. How many batches does any recipe make? By definition, any recipe followed as-written will produce one batch of whatever is being made! That's what a batch is. What most people need to know is How big is the batch?
Phew I feel better.
