Mom’s Pink Dip – Your New Family Favorite!

What do you call a family favorite dip that has no recipe, has been made for decades purely by taste and color, and is served primarily with Chicken in a Biscuit crackers or plain old potato chips? You call it “Mom’s Pink Dip.”

Growing up, we rarely had snacks in the house. Chips, crackers other than saltines, dips, even soda…were nearly nonexistent except at the holidays. On one hand, my mom was pretty frugal and didn’t want to waste the tight budget on stuff we didn’t “need.” On the other, she was a perpetual dieter and loved that junk just as much as us kids. Having it in the house was too much temptation for her.

As I kid, I always looked forward to Christmas season. Sure, I loved the anticipation of Santa coming. But, more importantly, it meant we’d finally have chips, crackers and dip in the house! As much as I have a sweet tooth, I’m a real sucker for salty snacks like chips and dip.

My family always “did the circuit” at Christmas to see the relatives’ Christmas tree and decorations. Night after night, we’d head off to someone’s house, and enjoy their family favorite snacks and Christmas treats. The adults would have their Old-Fashions and us kids would have our “pop” (aka, soda). It was wonderful fun, but boy, I couldn’t wait until it was our turn.

Mom used to make this particular dip whenever relatives or friends were coming over. I have no idea where this recipe came from because there was never anything written. Once, when I asked my mom how she came about that recipe she said she had no idea. She thought she might have tasted it somewhere, and because we always had Russian Salad Dressing in the house she thought maybe that would give it the color it needed. The rest was just winging it!

Because there wasn’t a real recipe, making it meant it needed a lot of taste-testing…get my drift…taste-testing? I loved being the official taste-tester…and dreaded when it was perfect. That meant it was off limits until the guests arrived. Mom would carefully pile and swirl it in the “dip bowl” (yes, we had a fancy dip bowl… that matched the chip bowl!), cover it with plastic wrap and pop it in the back of the fridge. I think she thought she was being clever tucking it in the back. But…I was more clever! I used to secretly snitch spoonfuls and carefully swirl the top again so she wouldn’t know.

Years later, as an adult, I told her how much I used to snitch. Like a mom, she knew. The bowl was always less full when the guests arrived! We had a good laugh about that, mainly because she didn’t think too much about the dip. It was just something easy to make with ingredients usually kept in the house.

I still make this dip a couple times a month, and think of my mom every time I make it. My husband has come to love it, too. And, when I featured it at one of my Cooking with Friends gatherings, it disappeared pretty quickly. There was a time when I couldn’t find Russian Salad Dressing at my grocer. I felt a small panic! Mom suggested I try Catalina or French…but those never quite passed muster. Now, I keep a bottle or two on reserve in the pantry, along with an “active” bottle in the fridge. I hope you enjoy my Mom’s Pink Dip as much as we do. Let me know what you think!