Full disclosure: I don’t actually care about football. I’m sorry, I just don’t. Maybe if they ran down the field for percentages off at Nordstrom I’d be more interested but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I mean, I’m happy when I hear the Patriots won, I just don’t want to spend three hours of my life watching whatever it is that happens to get them to this victory. I will, however, throw down in the kitchen and keep the football-ready foods coming so I guess I’m at least half a New Englander.

This hot spinach and artichoke dip is perfect for football Sundays or any type of gathering – it’s warm, cheesy and served over fresh baguette slices. Many years ago, I had this at a party in San Diego and asked the hostess for the recipe. She said, “It’s easy, 1 cup of everything in the oven for 1 hour.”Not the most descriptive person in the world but this recipe actually is that easy.

I’ve since added spinach to the original recipe which I think makes the dip much better but if you’ve already got more muscles than Popeye and don’t need the leafy green stuff, you can always take it back out. Also, the last time I made this I accidentally bought whole leaf spinach instead of chopped spinach so I had to take the finished dip for a spin through the food processor and it came out so much better. I highly suggest learning from my happy accident and putting it all through the processor first if you have one. This creates very small bits of spinach and looks a lot more like what you’d be served in a restaurant.

You can easily lighten this recipe up without taking away from the finished product. I always use light mayo and sour cream versus the full fat stuff. Also, while I almost never advocate using anything but fresh parmesan, in this one instance you can save some money by going with the bottled stuff, you honestly can’t tell the difference once it’s cooked.

See how much prettier this looks after being processed? Definitely worth the extra step.

You can serve this with crackers, but it’s best over freshly sliced baguette.

Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling on top
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach
• 1 french baguette, for serving

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place all of the ingredients in a 2 qt. casserole dish, or inside a food processor, then mix well. If using the food processor, transfer the mixture to the 2-qt. casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with a small layer of parmesan cheese. Bake for 1 hour. Serve warm with 1/4″ thick slices of baguette.