Spicy Cheese Spread

I attend a holiday party every year thrown by business associates where they serve the most delightful snack foods on an enormous buffet. Part of the parting gift is a cookbook of all the recipes they featured that evening. One of the appetizers that I couldn't get enough of was a spicy cheese spread served with an assortment of crackers and baguette slices.

Before I even had the cookbook in my hand I tracked down one of the host...well... cornered her is more like it, and asked how she made this cheese spread.

I'm not going to lie, I was HORRIFIED to find out the main ingredient was...

Kraft Delux American Cheese.

This spread taste like so much more! I don't think of myself as a food snob at all. Okay, I did have a minor heart attack when I realized my mom was using garlic powder in place of real garlic in all her recipes. I'm not saying you have to keep fresh garlic on hand, I purchase the large jars of minced garlic and keep it in my fridge. Compromise ya'll.

So after I got over the main ingredient in this cheese spread I began to realize how awesome a recipe this is. If you don't tell people what's in it, they would NEVER know and think you've concocted something complex.

There is nothing complex about this recipe folks! Here we go.

All you need is Kraft Delux American Cheese, mayonnaise, garlic, salt and cayanne pepper.

To shred the cheese, I'm using my cuisinart and the shredder attachment.

Cube the cheese log.

I cram it in the feed tube and shred it all chunk my chunk.

In a large mixing bowl I dump the shredded cheese and add one cup of mayo.

1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, chopped.

Add that to the processed cheese. (did I just say that?)

Add 3 cloves minced garlic.

Dash of cayanne pepper...and in my case I use 1/4 teaspoon.

1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Now mix mix mix it all together.

This isn't as spreadable as I would like it so I would have added more mayo but I didn't have any more. What I did have in the fridge was chive cream cheese. Sure!

Once I mixed that in it gave the spicy cheese mixture the spreadable consistency I wanted.

I made this a day before my party and put in plastic tupperware in the fridge. When it was party time I served this in a pretty bowl with an assortment of crackers and baguette slices.

This was really great and REALLY spicy. Only problem was that this recipe makes a LOT of cheese spread so what should I do with what I have left over?

Today I topped a chalupa with the spicy cheese and added black beans and it was pretty good!

I had corn tortillas that I sprayed with pam on both sides and seasoned with salt, pepper and a little ground cumin.

I put them in a 350 oven for 30 minutes... which was way too long. These were inedible and I tossed them in the trash.

For round two I didn't spray these at all, I just seasoned with salt, pepper and some ground cumin and put in a 350 oven for 10 minutes.

Here is my leftover cheese spread.

Then I put just a little on each tortilla and back in the 350 oven they went for three minutes.

Mmm... perfect. Cheesy and spicy!

I heated a can of black beans and spread on top my spicy cheesy chalupa.

Picture is blurry....only because I couldn't wait to chow down on this. Yum!

Any other ideas?? I think I'm going to clean out some jalapeno's and stuff with this cheese, maybe cram a shrimp in there too and broil in the oven. What do you think about a grilled cheese sandwich with a KICK? Okay those are two possibilities. Any other ideas? Can I freeze this stuff?