Spinach Artichoke Dip

This holiday season snow and ice are on the ground in the Owens Valley, a high desert paradise nestled between the High Sierras and the White Mountains with breathtaking views.  This Vegetarian Slow Cooker was invited to spend the evening with old childhood friends, their parents, and a large assortment of extended family.  About 1/2 of the 11 attendees were vegetarians, the other half were not.  An easy hot appetizer was in order to take the chill off the cold night.  This was assembled  at Cousin Cake Queen's house, cooked in the crock, and  loaded in the car for the 10 mile ride up the hill towards ski country.  I had already sliced up a fresh sourdough baguette to bring along.  The crock was plugged in at the final destination and everyone dipped their bread straight into the warm crock.

Winner, Loser or Meh

This was outstanding. People could not get enough of it and kept coming back for more.  It was so good, it was almost the main course. I will make this again and again and again.  Easy and delicious.  This was so good I wanted to have a romantic relationship with it.  It's all a daze now, but I might have.

Recipe

I used a single setting 1 1/2 quart crock for this

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped coarse
• 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed of all liquid
• 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, cored, diced
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Serve on:

• sourdough crostini or sourdough baguette slices from a full baguette

Spray crock with no stick spray.  Place first 5 ingredients into the crock and mix well.  Top with mozzarella cheese.  Cook on low or high until warm and the top cheese is melted - about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours.  Serve warm, right out of the plugged in crock.