Shanisty Ireland, Home Chef and Lifestyle Influencer on Chip 'n Dip Day

The transcript is a conversation about chip and dip day and the variety of options available. The host interviews Shanisty Ireland, a home chef and foodie, who shares her favorite dip recipe and talks about the different types of dips that are popular now. They also discuss the popularity of guacamole and other dip ideas, such as layered dips and using pork rinds as an alternative to chips. Shanisty mentions her social media accounts and website for more recipes. The conversation ends with a prediction that pork rinds will lead to the next dip revolution. And one of them happens to be chip and dip day. So many different varieties, so many options. The ones you like, the ones you don't like, the ones you try to stay away from. And of course some chip and dips will go in very handy I think over the next couple days as this basketball tournament now is resuming with games tonight right on through Sunday. And with some very tasty recipe ideas for chip and dip, joining me now on the RNJ morning program is my favorite home chef, foodie, and lifestyle influencer, Shanisty Ireland who is back with us here this morning. Shanisty, it's Burt Barron. Good morning. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you so much. Thank you for the wonderful introduction. I love to hear I'm your favorite. You're my fave. That's everyone, but that's okay. Oh, please, please. Just to give you a little background into my upbringing, Shanisty, we were not people of means growing up in Sussex County, New Jersey. And my mom would whip together this dip that she would use. And it was a real simple, down and dirty, dry, like instant French onion soup and a pack of sour cream. And she'd mix it together and say, here you go, here's your gourmet French onion dip. And for a kid from Jersey, that was pretty good. And we only had about two or three choices of potato chips when I was a kid. But as time has gone on, obviously now there's so many different choices for snacking. But dips are really keeping up, aren't they, in terms of the variety and the types that are available. That's so funny. I remember my grandfather always serving that dip around Thanksgiving time and thinking, man, I've got to get the recipe for that. And recently I asked my mom and it was the same thing. It was a very simple dip and I thought it was luxury. But you're right, Bert. I mean, dips have come a long way. And I feel as though that there's so many different varieties now and there's so many different ways to enjoy your dips, beyond just the potato chip. We've got the pretzel. We've got the pork rind. There's so many different things. One of my favorite dips is just having anything with cheese. If you can have some sour cream, some cream cheese, some cheddar cheese, even some bacon in there, I mean, I'm talking about that is the best kind of dip, in my opinion. That's like a meal on the end of a chip right there that you just mentioned. Exactly. That's spectacular. For someone like me, Shanisty, you know me, I don't go for the real hot stuff. I like flavor. I don't really go for, you know, the real hot sauces and things like that. I'm going to watch Princeton hopefully pull off another upset tomorrow night in the basketball tournament. I think we're going to beat Creighton. What's a good chip and dip combination as I'm watching like four straight days of basketball again starting tonight? Yeah, so this dip I've made probably the best I've made it, no exaggeration, probably five different times. Because as you mentioned, there's so many gatherings with basketball. There's just so many things happening on the weekend as well. So my favorite dip recipe is so simple. All I'm going to be doing is using eight ounces of cream cheese softened, two cups of sour cream, some bacon strips that are cooked and diced, or if you want to get really lazy, you can always just use bacon bits in there, two cups of cheddar cheese, a little bit of green onion. You can add the chipotle seasoning, but that is completely optional. I'm going to mix this all together, pop it into the oven, 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, and I kid you not, this dip is so addicting. I made it one time and I was thinking, I don't know, there's a lot happening in there. I think I ate half the dish myself before anyone even arrived at my house or before my kids could even get into it. It is so addicting. It is so delicious. Excellent. It really sounds really, really good. And I'm wondering if now this popularity that we've seen, I don't know, it's got to be going on 20 or 30 years now, Shanesty, where all of a sudden guacamole became the in thing. I mean, there was a time when nobody would go anywhere near an avocado or whatever. Somebody makes a dip out of it, they give it a cool name. The next thing you know, we have a global shortage of avocados because people enjoy guacamole so much. Is guacamole still one of the ones out in the front there leading the charge of the chip and dip revolution? Oh, absolutely. Guacamole. Yeah. Right. Just social media. You can't even talk about guacamole. But avocado and yogurt dip is even really great. It's kind of got that tzatziki spin to it. You can put some herbs, yogurt, avocado, cucumbers, mix that all together. A good old-fashioned guacamole, in my opinion, you just can't go wrong with it. And even beyond dip, I like putting it on my sandwiches. You can put it on your salad, of course, burritos, tacos. Guacamole, in my opinion, is probably the best dip out there, if you were asking. I was asking. I fell for it, too. I kind of fell right in the craze, too, of avocado, just trying it once at a party. I'm like, wow, this is really good. How come I haven't been eating this for the last 15 years? Shanice D. Ireland is my guest this morning at the RNJ Morning Program, renowned home chef and foodie and lifestyle influencer. And talking today about Chip and Dip Day that we're celebrating, giving you some ideas as we head on into another crazy weekend of basketball and maybe got some spring party planning or something going on. She's got some really good ideas for us here on the program. There was one that was introduced to me a couple years ago, Shanice D., by my sister. I don't know where she got the recipe, but it's become one of my favorites ever since. It's very simply, and maybe this has a name. Maybe you know about it. You take a beanless chili, and then you put a sour cream layer on top of that, and then you melt shredded cheese on the top of that. Does that have a name? Because it is really, really good. Yeah, it's some kind of a layered dip. I've had this as well before, any kind of a layered. And you can even add guacamole to that layered dip as well. It's kind of got that Tex-Mex feel to it. I've had that before. That's another really great thing about dips is you can prepare dips ahead of time before guests arrive, and then just pop them in the oven when people walk in the door. That's another one, the one you had mentioned about your sister. That's another one that you can prepare ahead of time. Keep it in your refrigerator, or, jeez, if it's still cold up where you are. I mean, I'm in Ohio. It's still pretty cold here. You can even keep it in your garage. That's what we call a Midwest refrigerator. And you can just serve it when people arrive. And then you're not in the kitchen working the entire time if you're trying to host any kind of a March Madness party this weekend. Yeah, sounds good. And, by the way, in Jersey, the garage also doubles as a refrigerator here for at least another couple of weeks, I think. Shanisty, as we wrap up, give your social stuff out. And some of the stuff that you use when you're putting dips together, did you want to give some ideas for some folks about some products they could try? Yeah, I just wanted to mention, above and beyond just the tortilla chip and the pretzel, another thing to take into consideration when serving your dips is pork rinds. I love Southern Recipe's small-batch pork rinds. They have a variety of different flavors. They have the sea salt and cracked black pepper, Korean barbecue, spicy dill, pineapple. And what I love about serving pork rinds is they don't get mushy if you're going to be making perhaps some nachos. They really stay fresh and crunchy, keto-friendly, high-protein, low-carb. That's one of my favorite things to serve in addition to the dips. And then if you're looking for me on social media, of course, I'm on Instagram. It's at shamistyireland, and I have a blog called cheesebecomingdomestic.com where I've got a lot of fun recipes on there if anyone's looking for something exciting for March Madness or just the spring in general. Well, we'll be sure to take a look. And you basically checked all the boxes with the pork rinds. I mean, my kind of snack, low-carb and just packed with flavor. They're so good. My prediction is they will follow the avocado and will lead to the next revolution, and next thing you know, we'll have a pork rind shortage. Okay. I'm going to mark your words, and I'm going to come back to you when that happens and be like, hey, Burt called it. That's it. We will lead the charge, exactly, through your vast social media network. We're going to take over the chip and dip planet, that's for sure. Shanisty, thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of today, and I'm sure we'll talk again as we go through the rest of the year here. There's so many food holidays coming up that I'm sure you'll be contributing to. So thanks, as always, for the time. Thank you. It was fun.