Get that 70s Feeling - Cream Cheese Spinach Dip!

Sometimes it's not about where the cheese is from, or how it's made, but what you do with it.  Cheese, however, is always about how it makes you feel.  I've been enjoying so many fabulous, exotic cheeses that my palate has had a little bit of overload lately.  So, when I was supposed to bring cheese to a party recently, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  But my love of creamy dairy products got the better of me, and so I hit the grocery store for a package of original Philadelphia cream cheese and some sour cream.  I was going back to the 70s with the always lovely spinach dip!  Travel back in time without the polyester stretch pants with me, wont you?

Courtesy of the very last issue of Gourmet to ever be published, I bring you the following moderately adapted recipe:

- 4 shallots/spring onions sliced, 1-2 cloves garlic minced and sauted in 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

- add to the pot a ten-twelve ounce bag of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry along with an 8 oz package of cream cheese cubed.  Stir to combine

- when the cheese has melted in, add either 1-2 tablespoons of anchovy paste or 1 tablespoon Worcester sauce and 3/4 cup of sour cream

- when everything is heated through, add 1-2 tablespoons of fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon + of dried tarragon, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste

Eat with pita chips, crostini or for that really retro vibe, some Triscuits.  Yum!  All we need now are some Swedish meatballs and a sauna to complete the 70s experience.  Here's a party that could have used a little dip...