football sunday onion dip

A loves french onion dip: the gnarly, plastic-y "helluva good" brand french onion dip in a can. I can barely stand to look at the stuff, not to mention taste it. The label includes about 57 chemicals and "powdered" flavoring. Needless to say, I don't buy it unprompted. When I saw an article in December Food & Wine, where they suggest several different themes for parties and accompanying menus, I jumped on one that called for a homemade onion dip. It was simple enough, just caramelize some onions and mix with sour cream and cream cheese. I'd rather spend 10 minutes making this than ever buy the canned stuff again.

Grocery list (adapted from the original): 2 large onions, worcestershire sauce, 4oz softened cream cheese (half a block), 3/4 c sour cream, handful parsley, butter.



Start by thinly slicing the onions. Heat 2T butter in a dutch oven over medium heat, then add the onions.



Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are golden, about 20 minutes. Add a couple tablespoons water, and stir until the liquid cooks out. Remove from heat.



When the onions have cooled, move them to a cutting board and chop finely. Stir them into the sour cream and cream cheese.



Add about 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley, a couple dashes worcestershire, and season with salt and pepper. I also added a pinch of dried red pepper flakes for kick. Refrigerate until ready to serve - with lots of salty potato chips on the side.

football food: creamy spinach artichoke dip

A and I don't really have "date night" since he's in grad school, but we do have "date football" on Sunday afternoons. If both our teams (Panthers & Steelers) are on at the same time, we bring the second TV down from the bedroom and set both up side by side. We'll make dips, chicken wings, ribs, and get some new microbrew to try. It's quite a production. This spinach dip is the most often repeated football food around my house; and if you're serving it for guests, it gives you maximum impressiveness while requiring the least amount of effort. The base is the same, but you can play around with different cheeses, different amounts of pepper/garlic, etc.

Grocery list: 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach (thawed), 1 8-oz package cream or neufchatel cheese - softened to room temperature, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup mayo, 1.5 cups grated cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, even a little parmesan thrown in can't hurt), sriricha hot sauce, worcestershire, dijon mustard, 1 jalapeno or serrano, 1-2 garlic cloves, 1 small jar artichoke hearts, salt & pepper.



This isn't a very appetizing picture is it? Mix your softened cream cheese with the sour cream, mayo, and about 1 T worcestershire, 1-2 T sriricha hot sauce and 1 tsp dijon mustard. Stir until smooth, then fold in the grated cheese.



Drain and chop the artichokes, and mince your jalepeno or serrano pepper, and mince 1-2 cloves of garlic.



Squeeze as much liquid out of the defrosted spinach as possible, then stir it into the base. Pour into a baking dish (I use one that can go straight to the table), and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, until bubbling and starting to brown in spots. Serve with chips, pita crisps or crackers.

cream cheese brownies

Another weekend, another request for homemade dessert... A finally got his hands on my copy of "The New Best Recipe" (from Cook's Illustrated), and started reading the dessert section. As an engineer, he was impressed with the thorough, scientific approach, which was all he needed to be convinced that their brownie recipes must be the best in the world. I had all the ingredients on hand, so we were digging in to hot gooey layered brownies about an hour later.

For the brownie base: 2/3 c AP flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, 4 oz bitter or semisweet chocolate, 8T unsalted butter, 1 c sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 large eggs. For the cream cheese filling: 8 oz cream cheese (room temp), 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg yolk.



In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and butter (start with 1 minute on high, stir, and keep heating in 30 second increments till melted). Stir the mixture till it's smooth, then whisk in sugar and vanilla.



Let this cool for a couple of minutes, then whisk in eggs one at a time till smooth.



Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder, then set aside.



In a separate bowl, make the cream cheese filling. Whisk all ingredients together till blended.



To assemble the brownies, layer half of the chocolate base into bottom of 8x8 pan (greased). Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese filling into the base, reserving half of it. Repeat by spreading remaining brownie base, then dropping spoonfuls of the remaining cream cheese filling.



Use a knife and drag blade through mix to swirl filling and base together. Bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes, then allow to cool.

happy birthday cheesecake

Yesterday was A's birthday, so I knew his "Mama Lynn" would be making him his favorite chocolate kahlua cheesecake to celebrate. Of course there's no way I wasn't going to make him a dessert myself, I just had to do something different (and a day early). I decided to make a standard cheesecake with lots of strawberries and sauce on top, as "refreshing" as a cheesecake can possibly be. I found an Emeril recipe that I took some pointers from as well -- like adding lemon and orange zest, and a splash of bourbon. Other than that, the ratios of sugar to cream cheese, how to make the crust, etc are based on the chocolate cheesecake. It was delicious - and poor A now has to choose between 2 types of birthday cheesecake every night this week.

Grocery list: 24 ounces cream cheese, 1 orange, 1 lemon, splash of bourbon or scotch, 1 package graham crackers, butter, sugar, 5 eggs, sour cream, vanilla.



Start with the crust - preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and crush 1 - 1.5 cups of graham crackers. Mix with 3 T of melted butter and 2 T of granulated sugar, and press into the bottom of a spring form pan. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes, then bake for 8 minutes. Lower the oven temp to 350 degrees.



To make the filling, start with 3 packages of softened cream cheese (I use lower fat neufchatel). With a hand mixer, blend 1 cup of granulated sugar into the cream cheese. Add the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange, plus 1 T of vanilla and blend until smooth. Next, add the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition. Finally, stir in 1 T of bourbon and 1/2 cup of sour cream.



Pour the filling into the prepared crust (depending on how much you trust your spring form pan to be nonstick, you may want to grease the sides of the pan with more butter). Place the pan inside a large roasting pan, and fill the roasting pan with water until it's about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.



Carefully remove the cheesecake pan from the hot water, and allow to cool to room temperature for an hour or 2, then place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. I sliced fresh strawberries and poured 1/4 cup sugar over them, so that plenty of syrup was released. I also made some fresh whipped cream (3/4 c whipping cream + 4 T of powdered sugar, whipped with a hand mixer for 3-4 minutes).

lynn's chocolate kahlua cheesecake

I don't normally make a lot of desserts, and I'm one of those weird people that never craves chocolate. I've wanted to learn how to make this for A, knowing that it's his favorite dessert ever. The recipe comes from Lynn, a coworker who adores A (she says he reminds him of her son) and makes this for him every year on his birthday. My first 2 or 3 attempts were disastrous (first time, I didn't think it mattered if I used a regular cake pan instead of a spring-form pan, other times I didn't realize how long the cake needed to cool before removing the outer edge of the pan...). I'll try and give very specific directions so you can nail this on your first try.

Grocery list: chocolate graham crackers, butter, heavy whipping cream, 24 oz cream cheese, sugar, 3 eggs, 1/2 pound block chocolate (semisweet), dark cocoa powder, vanilla extract.



Start by making the chocolate crust: take one package of chocolate graham cookies (normally 3 per box -- just use 1 of them), and crush them with a rolling pin in a large ziploc bag. This should make about 1.5 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs. Melt 1/4 cup (one half stick) of butter, and stir this in with the crumbs and 2 T of sugar in a bowl. The consistency will still be crumby, but don't worry. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the spring-form pan, and partway up the sides. Freeze for 5 minutes, then bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside.



There are 3 main parts to the actual cheesecake: the cream cheese base, the chocolate sauce that you mix into the base, and the chocolate icing. You can ignore the icing part until later, when the cake is cooling.



Next, work on the chocolate sauce. Start by chopping up the 1/2 pound block of chocolate and divide this (should be 3/4 cup + 1 cup). Melt the 3/4 cup chocolate chunks in the microwave, for a minute at a time, stirring in between, until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup kahlua and 1/4 cup whipping cream -- keep stirring till smooth. I actually used half and half in place of all the heavy cream in this recipe and it turned out fine, so whatever your preference.



Now, for the cream cheese base. I used 3 8-oz packages of neufchatel cheese (lower fat version of cream cheese); soften these by leaving out on the counter for about an hour before starting to cook. Using a hand or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Then blend in 1/3 cup powdered dark cocoa (I use Ghiradelli brand). Add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each.



Now, with a big spoon, just stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract into the cream cheese mixture. Then stir in the chocolate sauce. Stir well, then pour all of this into the spring form pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn the oven down to 275 and bake for 45 minutes more.



Here's the part I learned the hard way - patience is key. After 45 minutes, turn off the oven and open the door, but leave the cake there, resting. After about an hour, place the cake in the fridge for about 2 hours, then bring it back to the counter for final icing.



To make the chocolate icing, melt the last 1 cup of chocolate chunks in the microwave. Stir in 1/4 cup whipping cream and 2 T kahlua. It will seem very liquid-y, not like icing, but you're going to refrigerate it to harden. Now, take a butter knife and run it along the edges of the spring form pan to loosen the cake. Very carefully remove the sides of the pan. Pour the icing right on top, and using a spatula, carefully smooth the icing around, allowing some of it to run over the outer edges.



Return the cake the fridge for at least 4 more hours before serving.