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!
   

Goat cheese, cream cheese and garlic scape stuffed chicken breasts

This is one of the meals we had stored on our camera before the long hiatus.

Super easy meal with very little work, and looks pretty impressive to boot!

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 strands of garlic scape
2 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp goat cheese
4 tbsp cream cheese
whatever seasoning you'd prefer

1. Preheat oven to 350F
   
2. Mix together garlic scape, cheeses, and chives
   
3. Slice a pocket on the side of the chicken breast, be careful not to go through the other side
4. Spoon cheese mixture into the pocket
   
5. Season the outside of the breast with whatever seasoning you'd like, we used herbs de provence
6. Bake for 30 minutes
   

Butter Chicken

Geoff and I made butter chicken about... 3 months ago. We took pictures, and even uploaded them to our blog. Somehow we have been able to write twenty or so recipes up since this and have completely neglected this one.

It was really good. My mom and sister had been telling me that they have been making butter chicken from a jar for months. They kept bragging about how good it was and how nice it was to have my grandparents move out of my mom's house (there was a fire and they stayed at my mom's house until there house was redone) so they could continue to make butter chicken whenever they wanted without my grandparents complaining.

Finally I had been convinced that I needed to try butter chicken. I decided to make it from scratch since anything homemade has to be better than from a jar. I'm still not sure that what we made and what my sister and mom make is the same thing, but it was delicious.

Recipe from Taste Buddies

Ingredients:
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces (we used 3 chicken breasts)
150ml natural yogurt
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
3 bay leaves
4 green cardamom pods
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp of grated ginger
2 garlic gloves, crushed
400g can of diced tomatoes
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs of butter
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 tbs of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of cream
1 cup of water
Steamed basmati rice to serve

1. Mix the yogurt, chili powder, bay leaves, cardamon pods, cloves, cinamon, garam marsala and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken to the bowl and cover it.
2. Melt the butter in a pot. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and ginger, cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat.
3. Add the chicken mixture to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and the water, stir. Bring to a boil.
5. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and add 1 tbs of cilantro. Stir well and then cover. Gently simmer for about 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Just before serving, stir 1/4 cup of cream into the pot. Garnish with remaining cilantro and serve on white rice.
   

Creamy Vodka and Smoked Salmon Pasta

Geoff and I went out for dinner a couple of weeks ago and had a pasta dish really similar to this. It was so good we wanted to have it again. Luckily, it was also easy enough to recreate at home.

It was pretty cheap for us to make this recipe since my dad had given me a smoked salmon that his boss had given him. We had sectioned it off and froze it in separate baggies for easy meal use. Also, there was half a mickey of vodka hidden in the back of the fridge from months ago that had been long forgotten about (unfortunately!) so our entire meal only cost maybe $8.

Unfortunately, we made enough to feed a ravenously hungry family of 4. Far too much for the two of us, so when looking at the ingredients, remember, its for at least 4 people to eat until they can eat no more.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 box bow tie pasta (or enough from a bag to feed 4)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes ( you could use crushed, but I like the chunks of tomato)
1 can tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup vodka
1 small jar of capers
smoked salmon (as much as you want, I'm not sure how much we used, but it was quite a bit)
4-5 tbsp cream cheese (not really necessary, just tasty and we had bought cream cheese in bulk from Costco that needed to be eaten)

1. Bring a pot to boil for pasta, cook pasta al dente
   
2. Melt butter in a pot or pan or roasting pan that will be large enough for the sauce AND all of the pasta
3. Add red pepper flakes, garlic and let cook for 30 second, then add vodka to butter, bring to a boil. Let simmer for 2 minutes
4. Add the cans of diced tomato and tomato paste along with the cream to the vodka mixture. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 5 minutes
5. Now if you're going to, add cream cheese. Slice up the smoked salmon and add it to the mix along with the jar of drained capers.
6. Drain the pasta, and stir it into the tomato mix and serve!