Happy Wednesday everyone!  This Sun-Dried Tomato Dip recipe was a hit at our Memorial Day party.  If you didn’t read my posts last week, I bought Mr. TAL a pizza oven from Blackstone and we all made pizzas with our favorite toppings.  I made garlic bread in the pizza oven and layered on this Sun-Dried Tomato Dip.  My sister even added it to her pizza and it was delicious!  I on the other hand played it safe and made a Margarita Pizza with fresh basil.

This dip recipe is quick to make and is packed full of flavors!  Of course the sun-dried tomatoes dominant and with the delicious herbs, garlic, shallot, olive oil, and parmesan cheese, you can’t resist.  Mr. TAL made the dough (use my dough recipe here) and I made a charcuterie board of favorite pizza toppings.  Everyone rolled out their own dough, added their toppings and Mr. TAL cooked the pizza until it was crispy, cheesy, and the crust was garlicky and buttery!  We used this Extra Large Silicone Pastry Mat #ad for rolling out our dough which is slip resistant and perfect for what we were using it for.  A portion of the sales of this mat goes to Two Adorable Labs at no extra cost to you.  

We enjoyed salad, pizza, garlic bread, calzones, cherry chip poke cake, Strawberry and Cream Moonshine, beer and wine!  I’ll break down the recipes for the dip, garlic bread, and poke cake for you below:

How to make Sun-Dried Tomato Dip:
(Adapted from Half Baked Harvest)

*All you have to do is get a bowl, spoon, and your ingredients (see recipe card below).
*Combine sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, shallot, dried oregano, dried thyme, paprika, chili flakes, parmesan cheese, basil, olive oil, pepper, and garlic salt together in a bowl.
*Mince the garlic and shallot.
*Mix ingredients together well.  You will quickly smell the ingredients and the aroma will be fantastic.
*You can make a day ahead of time and refrigerate.  Take out day of party and let sit to room temperature.  *Or you can make minutes before the party.
*Serve with garlic bread, crackers, Doritos.  Throw in some olives, roasted red peppers, or hot peppers for a boost of flavor.  Use as a topping for your pizza, calzone, or Stromboli.

How to make garlic bread:
(See my recipe here for garlic bread)

*In this case, I took a loaf of homemade Italian bread from Shop N’Save and cut it length wise into two large pieces.
*I melted 1 tablespoon garlic powder and 1 stick of Land O’Lakes salted butter together.
*I basted each piece of bread with the garlic butter.
*Then I topped with shredded mozzarella cheese before Mr. TAL cooked it in the pizza oven for 2 minutes.  Then I topped it with the Sun-Dried Tomato Dip.
(If you are using an oven, pre-heat oven to 400 and bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese starts getting crispy around the edges.  Then serve warm along or with dip or sauce.

How to make Cherry Chip Poke Cake:
This is an old recipe that my mother makes for my dad which is low in sugar but very delicious.

*Preheat oven to temperature indicated and follow instructions to make a Cherry Chip box cake.  Pour into an 8 x 11 cake pan.  Follow the instructions for baking.

*Take out and let cool.
*Make a box of strawberry jello but do not refrigerate.
*Poke holes in the cake with a fork and pour the strawberry liquid over the cake.
*Top with Cool Whip.

We had a great day.  The dogs got new toys which I’ll post pictures on another blog.  They ran around getting pets and attention from everyone.  So much so they wore themselves out and slept like little babies that night.  The weather held out and was a little on the chilly side.  I hope you enjoyed this post and trust me, if you get a Blackstone Pizza Oven, you won’t be disappointed.  All opinions are my own and I am not making a percentage from this post.

Enjoy!

Want more recipes?  Check out my Sit, Stay, Eat Cookbooks or some older posts here:

Prosciutto Pizza

Lemon Butter Garlic Sauce

Fried Herbs