Caramelized Onion Dip

So I have been sick since last August pretty much, and I've had to leave all of the cooking to Geoff. He is a good cook but it's been pretty standard fare and not too much worth taking a picture of. When we have made an amazing meal, we've just been too tired to photograph it, but today I have energy!
I have put in five hours at work, two hours of work on my thesis and another hours worth of studying for an astronomy quiz. Instead of continuing to get things done, I decided to take a break and make this awesome dip which was adapted from a dash of sass who had originally adapted it from Ina Garten's recipe for Pan Fried Onion Dip.I'm going to try and take pictures throughout the cooking process in the future like all of the other successful bloggers seem to be doing.


I think I love caramelized onions. I had my first bowl of french onion soup while I was in university out East. It was one of the few edible dishes that was served in the cafeteria. It certainly didn't end up being a good example of French onion soup, but it had caramelized onions and as much cheese as I could fit in my bowl... I love anything with cheese.


Sooo good! As you can see, the onions have shrunk, but that's partially because I couldn't help myself from eating them. They made the kitchen smell so tasty.

The final result was delicious! I've made this dip before, but I added more cayenne this time. A perfect balance between sweet and spicy.

The original recipe calls for mayo, but mayo gives me the creeps. I hate it. I never order sandwiches when I go out to eat because most restaurants add a ton of sugar to their mayo and its just gross. Instead, I just added extra sour cream and it turned out great!

Caramelized Onion Dip
Adapted from A Dash of Sass who adapted it from Ina Garten
2 large yellow onions
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
6 ounces cream cheese
1 cup sour cream

1. Cut the onions in quarters and slice into thin strips.
2. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Combine butter and oil in the pan.
3. Add the onions, cayenne, salt and pepper. Saute for 10 minutes or until softened. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue sauteing for another 30 minutes until the onions are browned and caramelized.
4. Put the cream cheese, sour cream and onions into a bowl. You don't need to soften the cream cheese before hand because the heat from the onions with soften it enough. Mix it all up together.
5. Enjoy!
   

Salmon with Dijon-Dill Sauce

We were rummaging through the freezer and found some salmon steaks that we thought we'd finished. As it was already late and we were ridiculously hungry, we came up with this deliciously light meal that didn't take more than 10 minutes to put together.

We had some extra tomatoes that needed to be eaten so we made a small salad to go with the salmon. Our final touch was to fry up some mushrooms and drizzle the bed of veggies in our balsamic dressing. The bite of the salad dressing and the Dijon-dill sauce complemented each other perfectly so we could attack everything at once when we finally sat down to eat!

Ingredients:
2 Salmon Steaks
2 Handfulls of fresh baby spinach
1 Tomato - sliced
1 small hand full of mushrooms
1 Knob of butter
1 tbsp of Dill Weed
1/3 cup of Sour Cream
3 tbsp of Dijon Mustard
2 tsp of lemon juice
1 clove of garlic - minced
salt
pepper

For the sauce:
Mix the dill, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and garlic into the sour cream.

For the salmon:
Brush melted butter onto salmon and fry until cooked through. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, fry mushrooms in butter until softened. Spread the spinach on the plate and top with the tomatoes and mushrooms and drizzle with balsamic dressing. Place the salmon on top and cover liberally with the sauce and enjoy!

Stuffed Zucchini

This was soooooo good. I can't even start to explain to you how much I enjoyed making eating this. Somehow the zucchini even tasted meaty. It was great!

I could eat these every day. Geoff and I found this recipe and had to try it right away. Unfortunately, the night we decided to make it, we made WAY too much, and also made the goat cheese crustinis because my sister was coming to visit me and we were going out to dinner the next night.

Luckily the left overs kept pretty well in the fridge overnight and Geoff was able to bring them into work the next morning to share with everyone was there. He said everyone that the stuffed zucchini loved it.

Taken from http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=1465

Ingredients:

2 zucchini

½ tomato, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp lemon seasoning

4-5 slices bacon

Goat cheese

1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 400F
   
2. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and spoon out the centre so it looks kind of like a boat
   
3. Roughly chop up the zucchini that you just scooped out and mix together in a bowl with the sour cream, lemon seasoning and tomato
   
4. Melt butter in a frying pan; add onion and garlic, sauté until the onion starts to brown. Mix in with the sour cream, tomato and zucchini
   
5. Cook bacon until crispy. Crumble into the sour cream mixture. Spoon mixture into the zucchini boats. Crumble a little goat cheese on top
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes

Brussels Sprouts and Scallops

Geoff and I made this recipe last month for my mom's birthday. We actually made my grandpa cook the scallops because he has a tendency of saying seafood is "tough" if it isn't cooked right. I wasn't about to let a delicious meal be ruined with that horrible word. Unfortunately, he undercooked the scallops slightly, which is why they aren't that delicious golden brown. Surprisingly, both my nanny and my grandpa loved the meal. They enjoyed it so much that they even told me it was good. In the 5 months that they have been living with my mother, I think maybe they've complimented her cooking 3 or 4 times (and twice it was for the lobster mac and cheese recipe that I picked out!) so I think I'm winning.

Inspired by this recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/scallops-with-brussels-sprouts)

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

¼ sour cream

½ tsp grated lemon zest

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

6 jumbo scallops (my Uncle John swears that if you get the scallops that are slightly pinkish in colour that they’re WAY better, but white coloured scallops are really good too!)

½ lb Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced

1 green onion, thinly sliced

3 tbsp butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 ounces pancetta, cubed

1. In a bowl, mix together sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper
2. In a medium skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 1 clove of garlic. Sautee scallops on moderately high heat until golden and just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm
3. Meanwhile, in another skillet, cook pancetta over moderately high heat, until brown and crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the Brussels sprouts and green onions and cook, stirring until softened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add butter and garlic until melted.
4. Transfer to plates