I admit it — I love chile con queso. Yes, the Velveeta/unknown substance mixed with jarred salsa. I love it. I actively seek restaurants that serve it. It's just so, so good. In fact, I think I want it now.
I haven't made queso at home in years though — the steps of purchasing a block of Velveeta and jarred salsa, slicing the oddly-textured Velveeta, and then zapping both products together in the microwave (let's be honest — probably in a plastic container that seeps BPA) really make the queso experience feel like a cancer-causing activity. So my queso eating has been confined to restaurants, where somehow I justify that the product is somewhat less horrible for my body.
I haven't really found any restaurants in my new neighborhood that serve chili con queso, and my need to eat it led me to finally search the internet to see if there could possibly be anyway to prepare a "real food" version of queso at home. The search ended up being fairly easy, with the Homesick Texan's chile con queso recipe standing out as a clear winner. I halved the recipe, but otherwise followed it precisely. I purchased organic cheeses and milk, and got most of the vegetables at the local farmer's market which was definitely an added bonus to making this a "real food" adventure. Just a half portion of the recipe lasted me almost half a week of eating queso and chips pretty much nonstop. The queso was spicy, had a great consistency, and definitely tasted like "real" cheese. I can't say much more than that — I will certainly be making it again and again in the coming months!
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