Cream Cheese Garlic Dip

This is an incredibly easy cream cheese & garlic dip that I first tasted about fifty years ago and have been eating and making ever since. Neighbors of my parents made this and brought it to a New Year's Eve Party my folks gave and this recipe has been passed on to one and all who have had it. You can serve it as prepared or get creative and add different ingredients to suit your own tastes. I routinely add chives either fresh or freeze dried depending what I have on hand and I have sliced up stuffed green olives and that was good as well, a little salty but it had a good taste. The other nice thing with this recipe is you can double, triple, etc. using as much or as little garlic as you like. It is best served with rippled or dipping potato chips or even veggies. I have found that the lite brand cream cheeses are not as good to use in this recipe with the taste and consistency defintely affected. Try it, you'll like it.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened (DO NOT USE PACKAGES OF ALREADY WHIPPED CREAM CHEESE)
• 2  cloves fresh garlic, crushed
• 1⁄4 cup milk or 1⁄4 cup half-and-half (more may required)
•  chives (optional)

Directions

1. Open packages of cream cheese and place in large mixing bowl.
2. Let soften at room temperature for several hours.
3. Crush garlic and add to blocks of softened cream cheese.
4. With electric mixer, slowly add milk or half& half thinning mixture and mixing all ingredients together until a desired dipping consistency is reached.
5. (It may be necessary to add additional milk etc to achieve this).
6. Stir in chives, if desired.
7. Refrigerate covered.
8. Let dip sit out about 5 minutes before serving.
9. *Not to worry, if you get it a little too thin, just add another package of cream cheese.