Old Friends....Bacon Tomato Dip

This past Saturday, at the farm, I hosted, along with Elizabeth Rich and Lisa Coleman, a bridal shower for Hannah Farris, bride to be of John David Lewis. We had a simple menu. Everyone wanted the recipes so I am posting them here on granny lessons, and mailing the bride to be a copy for her new recipe file! We had a good time. It is such a great joy to see John David and Hannah so happy! Donna Lewis, John David's mother has been a close friend of mine since we were about 14 years old. A long time! I am so very blessed to have had these wonderful women in my life for such a long time. We all still feel like we are 20 when we get together! No matter how long we have been apart when we get together it's like we saw each other yesterday.It's comforting to know that no matter what happens we are all there for each other. I love you guys and I am thankful for every minuet we have together.


The menu for Saturday's shower was real simple. We had Chicken salad, Bacon tomato dip, Pinwheel sandwiches, mixed fresh fruit, and vegetables with cucumber dill dip. Lisa made some yummy brownies marbled with cream cheese and mini pecan muffins. And of course we had to go to Rolen's Bakery for some of their classic cheese straws. For drinks we had sweet and unsweet tea and regular and diet coke and Granny Jane's sweet lemon mint tea.


I am posting the Bacon Tomato Dip and the Pinwheel sandwich recipes for you. Hope you have a great week. :)

Bacon and Tomato Dip

6 medium size ripe tomatoes chopped or a quart of cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 lbs. bacon fried crispy

2  bunches chopped green onions

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh basil (optional)

1 8 oz package cream cheese room temperature

2 Tablespoons sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel tomatoes and chop into small pieces.

Chop green onions including green tops fine

Chop basil fine

Mix together tomatoes, onions, and basil. Cover tight and refrigerate for several hours or over night.

Cook bacon crispy and let cool. Chop fine and reserve until just before you are ready to serve.

About an hour before you are ready to serve remove tomato mixture and drain. Mash room temperature cream cheese with fork, add sour cream and mix in bacon. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of bacon to sprinkle on top. Lightly fold in the tomato mixture carful not to crush the tomatoes. Place in serving dish and sprinkle with remaining chopped bacon. Serve with “Scoops” corn chips.

This will serve about 30- 35 people appetizer portions.

You can also serve on a bed of lettuce for a luncheon dish with crackers of your choice.

Pinwheel Sandwiches

1 package flour tortillas

1 package cream cheese room temperature (regular or fat free)

2 Tablespoons sour cream (regular or fat free)

1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 yellow bell pepper chopped

1 small jar pimentos

1 large cucumber chopped fine

Using a fork mash the room temperature cream cheese until soft and creamy. Mix in the ranch dressing mix and sour cream. Set aside and chop vegetables. You can use any vegetable you like. Carrots chopped fine are good and broccoli florets are good cut up fine also. Just make sure that you drain tomatoes if you use those. Wet vegetables will make the wraps soggy and that’s not good.

Working on a flat clean surface, take one tortilla and cover the entire tortilla with cream cheese mixture. Lightly sprinkle vegetables on three fourths of the tortilla covered with cream cheese. Roll the tortilla toward the side not covered with the vegetables. If you put vegetables on entire tortilla they fall out and make rolling difficult. By covering the entire surface of the tortilla with the cream cheese, the cream cheese serves as a binder for the roll up.

After you roll the tortilla, place it on a platter seam side down. When you have rolled all of the tortillas, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour or over night.

Remove and cut off uneven ends of tortillas. Slice with serrated knife into ½ inch thick slices. Cover with plastic wrap and return to refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Bacon is really good added to these roll up pinwheel sandwiches but since we were having bacon in the bacon tomato dip I didn't add bacon. You can also add chopped dry beef or prosciutto ham. Get creative and Enjoy.

Sweet Filling for Pinwheel Sandwiches

For a sweeter pinwheel use the following ingredients and roll same as above.

1 package cream cheese room temperature

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

¼ cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Pinch of salt if using unsalted nuts

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh mint

Dash of reserved pineapple juice

Drain pineapple for an hour. Reserve juice.

Mix together cream cheese, sour cream, mint and dash of pineapple juice. Let stand for about 20 min. You want this mixture to be easy to spread but not wet.  

Spread cream cheese mixture on entire tortilla, sprinkle pineapple and chopped nuts on ¾ of tortilla then roll, and place seam side down on tray, refrigerate for at least 1 hour and cut into ½ inch thick pieces.

You can use fat free cream cheese and sour cream.....avoid the calories!