For your next tailgate

As promised, I have a recipe to share today that is perfect tailgate fare.  When I spotted this recipe for Loaded Baked Potato Dip on The Kitchn last week, it was pretty much a done deal.  Bacon, cheddar, chives and Ranch bound together by cream cheese and sour cream? Sign me up!  This dip came together very easily and was a huge hit with the crowd on Monday night.  A few quick notes:

• In an effort to make this a tad more virtuous (ha!) I used low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream and could not taste the difference one bit.
• I did not use a full two cups of cheddar cheese, which seemed like a lot to me. I think I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 cups and would recommend just eyeballing it as you see fit.
• I tried to keep this as simple as possible because I was in a time crunch and my shortcuts actually worked out really well.  Rather than frying up raw bacon, I microwaved pre-cooked Oscar Meyer bacon (turkey bacon would also make a great substitute) and also bought wavy potato chips rather than making them as the recipe suggests, though I'd love to try that some other time.  I will say that this dip is rather thick so I definitely recommend buying the sturdiest ones you can find if you also go this route.

That may seem like a lot of notes for a simple dip recipe but I promise it is almost effortless to make.  Another point in its favor: you can make it the night before...it only improves as the flavors meld together.  It certainly earned a spot on my starting roster for the season and I hope you'll give it a try too!