This is a perfect, festive dish to enjoy during those celebrations or during a themed weeknight dinner with your family. This dish is perfect for a weekday meal or a special occasion. It’s a hearty and delicious dish you can feed your family or guests easily. Chef Kurt Fleischfresser recommends serving with coleslaw or potato salad and sliced bread.

I like this smooth spread with a mellow honey-cured or maple-smoked bacon that seems so compatible with creamy cottage cheese and toasted almonds. I’ve also made it with more assertive grated extra-sharp Vermont or Canadian cheddar and toasted almonds, in which case a fine double smoked bacon (like German speck or domestic hickory) is more in order.

For ages, bacon has had an affinity with corn and cornmeal in any number of traditional American dishes (succotash, johnnycakes, corn chowder, crackling cornbread), so why shouldn’t it, along with tangy cheddar cheese, be used to give popcorn a whole new character? What’s essential here for optimal flavor is that the bacon fat be added to the cooking oil. To keep the popcorn from losing all crispiness, place it in the oven just until the melted cheese coats the popped kernels the way butter normally would.