Almost Houston's Spinach Dip

One of my favorite restaurants of all time is called Houston's. I have been going there my whole life and I have always gotten the same exact thing - grilled salmon and spinach dip. This is the most perfect salmon you will ever eat and my whole family compares all other salmon to Houston's - no other restaurant has so far matched how perfectly cooked the salmon is cooked at Houston's.

But this blog post isn't about salmon. It's about Spinach dip. Houston's also makes this amazing spinach dip. Ten years ago, my mom found a recipe for their spinach dip in a newspaper. So she has been making me almost Houston's quality spinach dip for years. It is my friends and mine favorite snack - all my friends always want to come over just so they can eat this amazing spinach dip.

However it is A LOT of work.

Recipe:

1/2 cup of grated Romano cheese
1 large clove of garlic
1 (10 ounce) package of frozen spinach
1 (6 ounce) jar of artichoke hearts (i have also used artichoke quarters and that works fine too)
1 (8 ounce) container of soft garlic-chive cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup of shredded mozzarella (and more for on top)

Before you even think about making this spinach dip, you must let the spinach thaw out. Once it has thawed out, then you must firmly squeeze the spinach to remove the moisture. If you do not do this then the spinach dip will be runny.

Then you must do the same thing to the artichoke hearts.

After removing all the moisture from the artichokes and spinach, you can start combining all of the ingredients into a food processor.

The spinach dip mixture will fill about 2 small baking dishes. Before placing the baking dishes in the oven, place some more mozzarella on top of the spinach dip.

The oven should be preheated to 375 degrees. The spinach dip will bake for about 20 minutes. I leave the spinach dip in the oven until it gets nice and golden brown around the edges and on the top.
This ensures that everything has been completely cooked through.

Last thing to do is to enjoy! This spinach dip is so delicious. At Houston's, they serve the spinach dip with tortilla chips, salsa, and sour cream. However, I prefer my spinach dip with tortilla chips only. This dip does not come out runny (like queso), it comes out thicker. This allows for a perfect dip to chip ratio.