My mother-in-law makes a quick, easy onion dip using Lipton onion soup mix, sour cream and cream cheese that has been a party staple in our house.  It’s a good dip to make when you are out of time and need to bring something to the party.  If you have a little more time (and this dip gets better and better the longer it sits) this from scratch version is really flavorful and impressive.

French Onion Dip

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp beef base or 1 cube beef bouillon
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 16 oz sour cream
• 3 oz cream cheese

1. Heat butter and oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Cook onions and garlic until soft and browned.
3. Add beef base or bouillon and water and continue to cook until mixture is combined.
4. Season with Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste.  Can be made in advance, cool and refrigerate onion mixture until ready to use.
5. Using a hand held mixer (if necessary), combine sour cream, cream cheese, and onion mixture.
6. Chill dip at least 30 minutes or up to several days.  Taste and adjust seasonings as desired before serving.

You really have to let the flavors develop in this dip.  If you try to serve it right away it will be bland and possibly even a little overly sweet from the caramelized onions.  I suggest making the dip at least a day ahead and letting it chill until serving time (if you can stay out of it that long!).

Weekends are wonderful: sleeping in, knowing that a whole day of relaxation stretches ahead of you, lazy breakfasts, and quality time spent with the ones you see too little of during fast-paced weekdays.  This weekend, embrace your lazy day and start it with a fortifying breakfast.

Blueberry Pancakes

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 cups buttermilk (or milk plus 2 tbsp lemon juice)
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cups pancake mix
• 2 cups blueberries (or chocolate chips!)

1. In a glass measuring cup, melt butter in the microwave (about 30 seconds) and allow to cool to room temperature.  Heat a griddle over medium heat.
2. Measure buttermilk and pour into a large bowl.
3. Holding one hand over the bowl, crack an egg into your hand and allow the white to run between your fingers and into the bowl.  Drop the egg yolk into the butter and whisk quickly to combine.  Repeat with the second egg.
4. Whisk buttermilk and egg whites until combined.  Add melted butter and egg yolks and stir to combine.
5. In another bowl, place pancake mix.  Add liquid to flour and fold together gently.
6. Stop stirring when batter is combined but lumpy.
7. Grease the hot griddle lightly with butter or oil.  Wipe away excess with a paper towel.
8. Using a 1/4 cup measure pour batter onto greased griddle.  Pour as many or as few as you can manage.
9. Sprinkle the uncooked pancakes with blueberries (or chocolate chips!) and cook until the top bubbles and the bottom is golden brown.
10. Flip pancakes and cook until bottom is set.

I made Alton’s Instant Pancake mix and though I like the concept, the recipe doesn’t make an even six cups so you are throwing away about 1/4 cup of pancake mix.  The recipe is below and does make excellent pancakes if you want to try it, however you could follow this same process with any pancake recipe or mix.

Instant Pancakes

• 6 cups flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a large, seal-able container or plastic bag.

I used to make the BEST dirty rice.  When mrChaos and I were just a couple of kids (are we not still?) I used to make a big batch of dirty rice to last us a couple of days and it was wonderful!  So what if it came out of the box with the trumpet player on it.  Well, it has been a long time since we’ve had the boxed dirty rice-I have a hard time paying for things I can make myself- and I have never actually attempted dirty rice from scratch, although I’ve long been curious about whether it would be as wonderful.  So I can’t say I am the best judge as to whether or not this risotto tastes like dirty rice.  To me, it kind of tastes like Supreme Pizza Risotto.  And I’ll tell you: there is nothing wrong with that at all.

This risotto is hearty and full of sausage and peppers and mushrooms, pair it with a salad and some garlic bread and you have a wonderful, filling meal.  The recipe has been popular.  I first saw it when Passion Foodie posted about it, and she saw it on Brown Eyed Baker, but I changed a few things to try to make it a bit “dirtier.”

Dirty Risotto

• 5-6 cups chicken stock
• 2 tbsp butter
• 6 oz. hot Italian sausage, removed from casing (about 3 small links)
• 4 oz. pancetta or bacon, roughly chopped
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 jalapenos, de-seeded, minced
• 6 oz. mushrooms, roughly chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups rice, Arborio or Long-grain
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley

1. In a small pot, heat chicken stock to a simmer and turn down to keep warm.
2. Melt butter in a large, deep skillet or stock pot.
3. Brown sausage and pancetta in butter over medium-high heat, breaking sausage up into chunks.
4. Add vegetables, onion through mushrooms, to browned meat and cook until softened.
5. Taste vegetables and season with salt and pepper.
6. Stir in rice and allow to brown lightly.
7. Pour in wine and stir until almost absorbed.  Turn heat down to medium.
8. Using a measuring cup add hot chicken stock to rice mixture a little at a time, stirring, until almost absorbed.
9. Once rice is tender, turn off heat and stir in cheese and parsley.
10. Taste again and season with salt as needed.  Serve.

This one was a real knock-out.  I will definitely be making it again and I hope you give it a try!  If you are intimidated by risotto, don’t be.  It is much more forgiving than you think.  You really don’t have to stir forever and you can even use your usual long-grain rice if you can’t find the Arborio rice.

I used to subscribe to the “eat lots of small meals” way of healthy eating.  What I found was that I was always eating and always hungry.  I never had that full-and-satisfied feeling which only made me want to eat more.  My new strategy is to eat a nice, substantial meal three times a day and one light snack as needed to get from one meal to the next.  I am glad to report that, for me, it is working much better.  I get to sit down to a nice hearty meal which then holds me over until my next meal.  This is one of my favorite breakfasts, a warm, gooey ham and Swiss on one side and a toasty egg and cheese sandwich on the other side.

So a Moons over my Hammy sandwich is basically a grilled cheese stuffed with scrambled eggs and ham.  It is generally made with sourdough toast but I substituted a sourdough English muffin because it is half the calories and just as hearty.  If you do make it with toast, proceed as you would a regular grilled cheese or even grill under a panini press.  Also you can make this with one or two eggs or one egg and one egg white like I did, or Egg Beaters too if that’s your thing.

Lighter Moons over my Hammy

• 1 sourdough English muffin, split and toasted
• 1-2 eggs, scrambled
• 1 tsp mayo
• 1 tsp mustard
• 2 oz. thinly sliced deli ham
• 1 slice American cheese (about 1/2 oz.)
• 1 slice Swiss cheese (about 1/2 oz.)

1. Scramble your eggs.  Once they reach the just set, soft scrambled stage stop breaking them apart with your spatula so they will be easier to keep together on your sandwich.
2. Spread mayo and mustard lightly on opposite halves of your English muffin.
3. Starting with the mayo side, layer American cheese, then scrambled eggs, then ham, and top with the Swiss cheese.  Cover with the mustard spread English muffin half.
4. Place sandwich carefully in a warm pan (I used the same one I scrambled my eggs in). Cover with a pot lid of plate until cheese is melty.
5. Flip sandwich and warm other side under pot lid until sandwich is warm all the way through.

I don’t have a toaster oven because I haven’t found one that works and isn’t prohibitively expensive or heats to 500°F on the outside, but if you have a toaster oven this sandwich would also work very well under the broiler instead of pan-warming.

Every now and then Foodbuzz send me coupons from their sponsors.  While I am under no obligation to endorse their sponsors (very important-that) I had been making myself this lovely sandwich for breakfast and considering a post on it for a week or two before they surprised me with a coupon for Eggland’s Best Eggs.  I buy our grocers generic cage-free eggs for baking but for fried and scrambled eggs, I think the Eggland’s Best Eggs do have superior flavor and nice big, deep yellow yolks.  So there you go.