Southwestern Appetizer Cheesecake

By KRed

This is an excellent appetizer. The first time I made it was for an annual Holiday wiine get-together that Brian and two of his buddies from IBM Rochester had each year...just the three of them. They'd drink wine, munch on food, and smoke a cigar at the end of the evening. The three of them managed to devour an entire batch of this when I made it.

Ingredients

• 2 8-ounce pkgs cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 cups sour cream, divided
• 1 1.24 ounce pkg taco seasoning mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 4 ounce can chopped green chilies, drained
• 2/3 cup salsa
• avocado pieces
• finely chopped fresh parsley
• chopped or sliced black olives
• tomato pieces
• crackers or tortilla chips

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Beat together the cream cheese and cheddar cheese until light. Beat in 1 cup sour cream and taco seasoning mix. Add eggs, beating well. Fold in chilies. Turn mixture into a 9-inch springform pan. Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Do not turn oven off. Combine 1 cup sour cream and salsa; spoon over appetizer. Return to oven and bake 5 minutes more. Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until ready to serve, up to 24 hours. To serve, run knife around edge of pan. Remove sides. Garnish top generously with diced avocado, parsley, chopped black olives and diced tomato. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.