your favorite hot crab dip recipes, please

From the F&D cookbook

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Crab meat or Shrimp Layered Dip
16 oz cream cheese at room temp
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp Lea and Perrin's
3 tsp Tabasco
1/2 jar Cocktail sauce
6 to 8 oz mozzarella cheese.
6 to 8 chopped green onions.
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
1 chopped bell pepper -6 -
2.chopped tomatoes, (drained).
1 lb jumbo lump crab meat
Procedure
1 Mix the first 4 ingredients together and spread on a 10-12 inch platter
2 Spread the cocktail sauce on top of the cream cheese.
3 Top with crab meat. (You can use 1.5 pounds of chopped shrimp as well.)
Sprinkle one ounce of Parmesan cheese and can garnish with a sprinkling of the bell pepper and tomatoes.
4 Serve with salted crackers like water crackers or other unflavored crackers of your choice.

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The recipe doesn't say what you do with these items

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I didn't even see that. I guess just throw in the cheese and top with green onion.

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The recipe doesn't say what you do with these items..

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Darnit! That's my recipe. You add the mozz with the parm and the green onions with the bell papper and tomatoes.

I just make it by heart, so I guess I forgot to type that up!

This isn't a hot dip, but it's good and goes a long way.

this is a simple and easy one to make that you can serve hot or cold

Ingredients:
2 pounds jumbo lump crab meat
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup celery (2 stalks) (minced in food processor)
4 heaping tablespoons or 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large yellow onion (minced in food processor)
1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Allow cream cheese to warm to room temperature and then just combine all of the ingredients except the crab into a casserole dish and gently stir until thoroughly and evenly mixed, then stir in the crab trying not to break it up too much.

Bake in an uncovered casserole dish in a preheated oven for 30 minutes @ 350 degrees or until lightly golden brown on top and serve while still hot out of the oven or refrigerate and served as a cold dip.

Best served used with Nabisco Ritz crackers or Keebler Town House wafers for dipping. This is a firm thick dip, so do not try serving with thin potato chips, strong crackers are needed so they don’t break.

Note – this is also great served cold, spread on bread just like an egg salad sandwich.

The crab meat can also be substituted for any type of pre-cooked seafood so fish, lobster, shrimp, or crawfish meat that is minced will also work very well in this dish.

I did something similar...went the cream cheese route as it's a bit more stable than a white sauce when reheating.
--finely chopped celery, onion, bell pepper, sauteed in butter until soft & onions beginning to color
--deglazed pan beaucoup worcestershire sauce and juice of 1/2 fat Meyer lemon
--melted in 16 oz cream cheese, plus a generous tablespoon of a cajun seasoning blend (Uncle Larry's)
--2 lbs crab meat (lump and claw, I think claw has more flavor) plus all of the liquid in the crabmeat containers (it was frozen, so there was a decent amount)
--stirred it all together, added finely chopped green onion, a little salt
--spread in a pan & chilled, garnished w/chopped green onion, a sprinkle of cayenne for color, and a lemon slice garnish

I'll reheat it in a few minutes. It's not the best dip ever, but it is FULL of crabmeat, plenty tasty enough for the amount of effort....Wheat thins and Triscuits on the side, as I wasn't feeling up to making parmesan toasts or crostini or toast points for serving.

Thanks to everyone who commented, Merry Crab-mas.

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I noticed you used frozen crabmeat. I have tried to use it, but find the texture changes a good bit when it's been frozen and I don't like that texture. How was yours in the way of texture?

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Chere, with 16 oz of cream cheese in the mix, it could have been crabmeat flavored rubber bands and people would have eaten it. To my taste, it was too creamy & the dairy blunted the flavors a bit. People ate it & enjoyed it & took home leftovers.

I wouldn't have used frozen crabmeat for a crab au gratin or crab salad or crab ravigote.