Cream cheese spreads (p. 179)

I've meant to make Cream cheese spreads (p. 179) for a while, to the point in which I've roasted garlic for the recipe and just never finished it (roasted garlic is good in just about everything and I tend to use it up quickly).

I combined cream cheese, heavy cream, roasted garlic, scallions, and chopped black olives:



Mix, mix, mix, mix:



This was a delicious dip! It was just as good as the expensive dips that you may buy at the bagel shop and it was really easy to make at home. You could make countless permutations of this spread, both sweet and savory--a great canvas to express some flavor creativity. I think I might keep a savory option, like this one, and a sweet option (probably honey walnut) on hand, for when I want a quick bagel or toast snack.

Random facts:

• A bagel should be made with white wheat high-gluten flour, boiled in water, and baked. The boiling gives the bagel a hard crust and shine (The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, p. 32)
• "The proximity of Jewish immigrants on New York City's Lower East Side and the Catskills' dairy farmers led to the creation of two very American takes on Old World foods: New York-style cheesecake and bagels "with a schmeer" (a thick slathering of cream cheese)" (The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, p.176)
• Even though cream cheese was invented in New York, it was called "Philadelphia Cream cheese" because Philadelphia was considered to produce the highest quality food at the time (Wikipedia)