My Cup Overfloweth . . .

My cup overfloweth . . . or at least my herb garden does!

We even abandoned it for 11 days of 95F+ heat with no rain, no watering and it thrived!

The only thing not completely happy is the mint. It's in front. You can see that we still have plenty for Greek salad and mojitos though so I'm not worried.

School has already started here in the Greater Kansas City area but the heat certainly hasn't dissipated.

So after the kiddos were settled on the buses some girlfriends and I decided to assuage our grief over the separation with cocktails and pool time.

And snacks! Gotta have snacks!

After buying school supplies for three and shipping various electronic devices to my Airman I had no money for anything but emergencies. Now, generally I do find the need for good snacks an emergency but I was trying to control myself and decided to dig around the house and check out what I had on hand. I considered it a challenge.

Two packages of cream cheese! Woohoo! Ding, Ding, Ding! Cream cheese just screams party to me.

I was raised in a household where cream cheese and cream soups were never, ever used for meals.

Between the cream cheese and all those herbs I just knew I could make a spread of some sort. These were my friends! They'd be kind. They'd just avoid it if it wasn't good.

I wanted just one large clove of garlic. It'd give it a garlic undertone but it wouldn't be the star of the dip. Mince it up! I just throw mine into a dry work bowl of a food processor that is running. I'm lazy.

Then I peeled some tarragon leaves off of them stem and threw them in too.

I threw them in and they promptly flew to the sides and stuck. So I had to stop and scrape everything down to the bottom . . .

Now a little salt. It'll help release the oils of the herbs . . .

Now for some thyme! Just drag your fingers down the stem . . .

Some beautiful fresh basil . . .

A little scallion . . .

A tad bit of olive oil just to get things moving and mingling while it whirls around.

Now for the cream cheese!

Now for a little taste! Hmm, the cream cheese is so rich and creamy it can handle a LOT more herbs.

Thyme in all its bright bitterness reminiscent of Thanksgiving! Basil with its grassy, aromatic, Italian flavors!

Tarragon with that lovely anise flavor! It'll remind you of fennel, liquorice, and Italian sausages!

After I got the flavors right I added some smokey ground chipotle pepper. You could just add a shot of Tabasco if you like. It just makes the cheese seem cheesier.

Tarragon ended up being the star of this dip. It was creamy, cold, and herbalicious. It was like pesto met its girlfriends Italian sausage and cheese lasagna for a GNO!

Creamy Herb Dip

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground chipotle pepper (optional)
1 scallion, chopped finely
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped*
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped*
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves*

Mix all ingredients together.

*If you don't like really strong herb flavors start out with just small amounts of these herbs. You can always add more. Since they're fresh the flavor of the dip really isn't going to get a lot stronger while it sits. If you want it "greener" add some flat leaf Italian parsley.