Thank Garden & Gun for this party tip

I'll always give credit where it's due. So thank you, Garden & Gun, for two recent finds.

First, an item on the Charleston-based magazine's web site sent me over to the Kenilworth Harris Teeter in search of Big T Crab Dip, made by a company called Big T Coastal Provisions of Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Few things are better than good crab dip and few things are more disappointing than most commercial versions. Big T, $6.99 for an 8-ounce tub (on sale for $4.99 when I stopped in) is . . . oh man, that's real crab dip. Not crab-flavored dip. Like crab dip you'd make yourself, thick with shreds of crab.

Some of the tasters in my office actually like the jalapeno even better, for the bite of pepper. Great on a cracker, but I could also see it as a worthwhile shortcut to stuffed mushrooms.

And back at you, Garden & Gun, with this one: While searching the store for the crab dip, which turned out to be in the seafood section, I stopped by the section near produce where they stock the pimento cheeses. I was following the logic that spreads in tubs tend to flock together. That's how I found out that Pawleys Island Specialty Foods, makers of the crazy-popular Palmetto Cheese, now sells an onion dip - OMG (for Onion Made Goodness). As you'd expect, it's also very good, with caramelized sweet onions in a creamy base.

So there you go: Two options, ready to take to a party. I'd call that a special occasion.