Creamy Crab Dip and a Cooking Club

A couple of weeks ago, I attended my first meeting of the Chattanooga Foodie Cooking Club! I was asked by a friend from church to join a newly founded cooking club. I've never been a part of a cooking club, but I have friends that are a part of one where I lived previously. I of course said yes! I will admit to you, that even though I love to cook and think I'm somewhat good at cooking, this is going to be a new experience for me. I try new things, but not as much as I may have to with this new adventure. We were talking about who our cooking inspirations were when  I realized this. I have no idea who most of the people are that the other ladies mentioned, and my answer was google! When I want to make something, I've realized that google is my best friend. I pop it in the search engine and go from there. Just to give you a hint of what I'm in for, our next meeting is French bistro inspired. I had to "google" what French bistro was! haha Needless to say, I'm making dessert next month. Maybe I'll branch out with new ingredients and cooking methods next time...we shall see. I'm hoping I will be able to come away with some new recipes for you guys through this experience, and I'm sure I will!

At our first get together we were to bring an appetizer, again, another thing I'm not really that great at. Well, it's not that I"m not that great at it, I just don't have a ton of recipes to choose from, and in normal fashion, I made something I've never made before so this blog would benefit. =) I'm always thinking of my readers! Thankfully this crab dip turned out yummy. I was nervous about it after my husband tasted it and said it tasted "crabby" when I was about to head out to my meeting. Note that I didn't say I tasted it, I have a bad habit of making my husband try things when they are new before I"ll try them. Because it seemed a little liquidy, I decided to broil it in a pretty dish that I would also serve it in. This made it thicken up just a bit and made it look a little prettier, although I didn't take much time in taking the picture since I was in a rush. I also think that the dip needs to sit a few minutes to thicken up a bit. All in all, I got really good reviews from my fellow cooking club foodies. (It was nothing in compare to all of their yumminess, but it was good and that's why I'm sharing it with you too!)

So if I haven't lost you in all the ramblings above, and you still want to try this recipe, here it is!

Creamy Crab Dip
slightly adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup onion, minced
12 oz. lump crab meat (I used 2 small cans of regular canned crab meat.)
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup light mayonnaise
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the crab meat to the pan, including the juices in the can. (I was skeptical about this, and may only use the juice from one can next time, but it was fine.) Stir in the cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and Parmesan. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until all the ingredients are warmed through and the cheeses are bubbly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to baking dish and place in oven on broil 4-7 minutes until dip is bubbly and top is beginning to brown. Serve warm with crusty bread, crackers or pita chips as desired. I served mine with pita crackers from Trader Joe's, but if I had crusty bread on hand, I think that would have been phenomenal too!

This recipe is linked to Prairie Story and It's a Keeper Thursday.