Special Day: Clam Dip

Word on the street is that it's Super Bowl Sunday. My family has never been much into sports, but I recall Super Bowl Sunday as a time for bunches of snack food and hilarious commercials. Both of which I still look forward to. In addition, I'm super excited for the 7th annual Puppy Bowl. If you haven't heard of it and you love dogs, you must check it out.

Back to bunches of snack food. In my family, a holiday is not complete without Auntie Vera's clam dip. It's at every Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday, you name it! I know it sounds weird - "clam dip." I remember the first Christmas I had with my husband in which he first encountered the famous bowl of clumpy, creamy goodness. He respectfully declined, and the rest of us were all too happy to have more for ourselves. The following year, he gave it a try, and now he's hooked. Drat!

Auntie Vera's Clam Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 tub of whipped cream cheese*
• Miracle Whip**
• 1 or 2 cans of chopped clams***
• Reserved clam juice from the cans
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Paprika
• Ridged potato chips****

Start by combining the cream cheese with 2 scoops of Miracle Whip in a large bowl with a spatula. You need to mix it well so the two ingredients combine into a smooth consistency. Then pour in a couple splashes of the clam juice, and mix till combined. Then add a couple splashes of Worcestershire, and mix well. Now you need to taste it - the rest is completely up to you. It's usually at this point where I add significantly more clam juice and another scoop of Miracle Whip. Mix it well and taste it again. Again, I'm probably going to add another splash or two of clam juice. Once you have the taste that you want, fold in the clams.

Put your dip in a pretty bowl and sprinkle with Paprika. I don't use a fancy type of Paprika, as it's just for a bit of color.

Enjoy! If you try this, please let me know what you think!

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* My genius Auntie Vicki let me in on a secret in which she uses the "whipped" version of cream cheese. You can use a block of cream cheese, but it needs to be at room temperature and you'll need a hand-mixer. That's just too much darn work if you ask me.

** I loves me some Miracle Whip. For you haters out there, I really wouldn't recommend mayo for this recipe since you need the sweet tang (heh, tang...) of the Miracle Whip as opposed to whatever mayo tastes like.

*** Completely depends on how much you love clams. Some people don't like the chewiness of clams and opt for the minced versions

**** Now you must have chips with ridges to hold up to this badass dip. If you go cheap, you're going to end up with broken chips and people stickin' their fingers in your lovely dip. It will be like the Christmas of 1997 all over again!