Homemade Onion Dip

"This dip with either start wars or end them"
                                         -Cristina

We tried this out last weekend at the Xmas gathering at our place. Two different people tried to steal the dip and by the end of the night, the bowl was empty.  The next day, people were requesting more.

You have to let the onions slowly cook down.  There is no way to speed the process up.  If you do, you'll just end up with burned onions, rather than true Caramelized onions.

This is my variation of the original.

Caramelized Onions

• 3 large (4 small) sweet onions, diced to 1/4"
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar (to taste if needed; it's only needed this addition once for me)
• 1-2 Pinches salt (3/4 way through cooking, to taste)
• 1-2 Pinches pepper (3/4 way through cooking, to taste)

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the onions are golden, stirring every 5 minutes.  This step will take 45-80 minutes, depending on the onions.  (note: it will look like a LOT of onions initially, but they will reduce in volume by about 70% when they are done cooking)

Add more salt and pepper if needed. If not sweet enough, add the brown sugar and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

To make the dip:

• Caramelized onions (at room temperature)
• 8 ounces room temperature cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup regular mayonnaise
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large clove garlic

Assemble all ingredients in food processor and mix on low speed to combine.  Scrape down sides of bowl a couple times during mixing to ensure dip is fully mixed.
Place dip in sealed bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Take out of refrigerator 15-20 minutes before serving to allow dip to come to room temperature.  Stir before serving.

Awesome Peanut Butter Cookies

We love peanut butter cookies! These are everything a good cookie should be- soft, chewy and decadent.

I love adding a chunky salt to the top after rolling in sugar- it gives the cookie a whole new dimension. I prefer Gray Salt, but Kosher will work fine. But, that's up to you. If you do, reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon in the batter.

 Ingredients

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening (think Crisco)
• 1/4 cup butter, softened (not margarine, butter)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (must be AP, not self rising)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 regular Heath toffee bars, chopped. (two bars will be about 2.8 oz by weight)
• Granulated sugar for rolling.
• Kosher or Gray salt for topping (totally optional, but reduce the salt in the batter to 1/4 teaspoon.)

Method

Combine sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter and eggs in mixer.  Scrape down bowl once or twice.  Beat until light and airy.
Wisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, then with the mixer on low speed, slowly add to the wet ingredients.
Add chopped toffee bits.  Turn mixer up to medium speed.  Beat until dough forms a ball.

Cover mixing bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 350f.

Make 1" balls of dough, lightly roll in sugar and place 3" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten with fork dipped in sugar to approximately 1/2" thick. (if in doubt, leave them a little thick)

If desired, sprinkle the salt over the top of the cookies at this point. I prefer the Gray.

Bake ~11 minutes until edges are lightly brown.  The cookies should still be soft in the center. - This may vary depending on your particular oven.  Start checking them at about the 9 minute mark and adjust as necessary.
Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes.
Move to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 18 cookies.

Ginger Lime Cranberry Sauce

I added orange before it was trendy. Now that it IS trendy, I wanted to do something different.

This is really, really good. Like "I'm going to make this past the holidays" good. The lime and fresh ginger add a dose freshness that's balanced out by the honey and vanilla. It's modern while still feeling traditional.

Ginger Lime Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• One package of Cranberries (usually 12oz)


• 1 cup of water


• 1 cup of sugar


• 1 Tablespoon of honey


• Small pinch of salt


• 1/2 teaspoon each grated fresh ginger and fresh lime zest (this MUST be fresh. Nothing else will work. Really.)


• 2 drops of Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Prepare the ginger and lime and put aside.


2. In a saucepan on medium heat, heat water, sugar and honey just until the sugar and honey melt. It's okay to stir this.


3. Add the cranberries and salt


4. Cook the cranberries until they start to pop and break down a little (approx 10 minutes), stirring occationally.


5. Add the lime zest and ginger and cook for another 5 minutes.


6. Remove from heat and add the vanilla.


7. Chill and serve

Just a note: Add the lime and ginger a little at a time if you're unsure. I like strong flavors, but you might like it turned down a notch.

o_O

Apparently, "save draft" is Blogger for "publish unfinished post."

Okie dokie, then.

Roasted Garlic

Basic, but it goes along with the Baba Ghanush I'm creating. And a lot of other things. Or just on toast.

There are a lot of ways to roast garlic. None of them are wrong if you get the desired result. This is my version, even though it's really more like braised garlic. But, whatever- it's still yummy and the leftover oil is great for dipping bread if you don't use it for anything else!

Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

• One head of garlic


• Enough Olive oil to cover

Tools:

• Aluminum foil (about a foot)


• cake pan (size doesn't matter here- this is just to hold the foil pack you're going to make)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.


2. Separate and peel all of the cloves from the head of garlic


3. Put garlic on the foil


4. Pull up the sides of the foil so you've created a bowl with the diamter of a soda pop can. Don't close the top, yet!


5. After placing the foil pack in the cake pan, add the olive oil so it covers the very top of the garlic pile


6. Close the packet and roast until garlic is medium to light brown and tender.

Cook time will vary depending on how much garlic you have. I've had it take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45, just keep an eye on it and lightly jostle the packet occationally.

Don't be tempted to crank the heat to speed up the cooking time! Let the garlic take it's time. If you rush garlic, it will get a horrible, bitter taste.

Garlic is tasty, yet vegeful.

Baba Ghanush Experimentation!

Right now there are Eggplant roasting in the oven. Soon, there will be roasted garlic.

Baba Ghanush, experiment 1 in progress!

update: Needs more garlic and less Tahini; Burnt peanut butter is not a good layer of flavor. But, I'm on the right track!

update 2- 24 hours later, the garlic has really developed and the Tahini has mellowed, but it's still not balanced. So, to make it something I want to eat the rest of the weekend, I'm adding more Eggplant and will season up.

Plotting with Maple

I have an idea.

A tasty idea.

Maple meet Burbon and pie crust. Film at 11 (not really).