WOTS: 7 Layer Dip and Things to Do With It

These are my flowers for this week  Basically took the flowers from last week and added the zinnias that I collected from the garden.
The seven layer dip that I am writing up today is basically Pioneer Woman's 7 Layer Dip.  I mostly put in into a 9 by 9 inch pan and am showing you each layer as it is built up.  I am also serving it cold.

First layer: A can of refried beans combined with a can of chiles, heated just enough to mix.  Also added a little cumin.  As far as I'm concerned, you just can't add too much cumin- about 2 teaspoons.

Second layer is 3/4 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese.  I just fill up a custard cup.

Third layer is a cup of sour cream.  Important here to spread carefully so it doesn't mix with the other layers. You can see that mine did just a little.  I just plopped it down by heaping tablespoons and the sort of gently eased it over the cheese layer.

Next layer is the Guacamole layer.  This is just 2 small chunked avocados with the juice of a half lime and my pico de gallo.

The next layer is 3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese.  

This layer is a 3.5 ounce can of whole black olives chopped.  I never buy chopped olives- tastes way fresher to cut them yourself.

The final layer is pico de gallo or fresh salsa.  To make it, I chopped 2 medium tomatoes, 1//4 bell pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, and a bunch of green onions and most of a bunch of cilantro, then added the juice of one lime, salt, pepper, a teaspoon of organic sugar and at least a teaspoon of cumin- more to taste.  This makes about 2.5 cups- 1/2 cup for the guacamole layer and 2 cups for this layer.  Pioneer Woman only added a cup in hers but it just didn't look right.  She garnished hers with jalapenos but I added more cilantro because I am a cilantro kind of girl.

All this came right to the top of the pan which I made a few hours before and refrigerated until the Dean's potluck lunch yesterday. It held up very well.  At the luncheon, the main dish was tacos- I just took a shell, added some meat sauce and filled the rest of the shell with a little lettuce and this dip.  For me- that is a lot less complicated than trying to put on all the ingredients individually.  Of course, you can also use it like a dip.   Since I was 15 minutes late to the lunch- about half was left over- so I covered and refrigerated it- and it made a lovely taco salad.  Just put a bed of lettuce in a bowl, add any cold meat you want (or serve without meat)  and plop a big spoonful of this dip (we each had 1/4 of the pan on our salads last night- without the meat) served with chips on the side or arranged neatly on the edge of the bowl.  All three ways of eating this was just delicious!  Enjoy and make it your own!