Homemade French Onion Dip, Ooh La La!

Hey Rachel
When I was a kid, cocktail parties were the main neighborhood entertainment. Lots of martinis and manhattans and hors d'oeuvres and women in swanky cocktail dresses and men in jackets and ties. Think Mad Men and you've pretty much got the idea.

As an adult now, I look back on those in marvel. Why was dinner never served? And if dinner was never served, how did those people ever make it home after consuming all that hard alcohol? (Wine and beer were never on the booze menu, at least not where I grew up.) I guess the fact that these were neighborhood bashes and everyone walked there made it okay.

Anyway, I loved coming down to the kitchen the next morning and eating the leftovers. My particular favorite was the onion dip, which seemed incredibly exotic and which I would eat right off my finger. Imagine my surprise as a college kid when I was organizing my first parties (decidedly more plebian believe me) and learned that this magical dip that I assumed my mother slaved over was actually just some soup mix and sour cream! Who knew!

Once I was an official adult, serving something that only involved a pre-made mix and some sour cream seemed a little like cheating so I basically stopped the onion dip and carrots deal. But I'm not going to lie: I missed it. So I was pretty excited to discover this dip in Skinny Dips by Diane Morgan. I amended it so it's not low-fat because really if you're going to have something with sour cream and cream cheese, my theory is go for it 100 percent. Anyway, I hardily recommend this to one and all. Add a little Herb Alpert, a manhattan, and you'll be doing the bossa nova before you know it.

Fresh French Onion Dip

ingredients
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2 sweet onions, diced small
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup finely snipped fresh chives

method

Saute the onions, salt and pepper in the oil over medium heat. Stir frequently until they're a nice golden color but not too brown. Should take you about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, combine the sour cream, white wine vinegar and cream cheese. Add the onions and chives. Taste. Adjust seasonings. I think this is better if it's made ahead several hours at least to give the seasonings time to, um, season. Take it out of the fridge about 45 minutes before you'll be serving.