Foodbuzz FB: Caramelized Onion-Bacon Dip in Mini Bread Bowl

I can't remember when I made this one, but it was near the end and my brain was absolutely fried. My mom already helped me out with one recipe (which I'll post later) and she also helped me add up the times for everything, which was almost worse than making up the recipes!

So we kind of were all sitting around and someone decided to "brain storm" by throwing out a bunch of stupid ideas. Along the way my dad said something about a dip in bread bowls, though the exact wording sounded dumber (yes, it did, and I wish I could remember it because I first gave him sort of a Spock stare minus the Dramatic Spock Eyebrow Raise before laughing), though for a split second it all made sense and I realized that having your own dip in an edible bowl would make the perfect party appetizer. If you whip up a pot of chili, after eating the dip with crackers you can fill the bread bowls up with chili and you've got a meal!

My concern for this was that I didn't have mini bread bowls, and I most definitely did not feel like waiting around to bake bread for 2 hours. After a quick Google search I found a recipe for hamburger buns from All Recipes. The dough comes together and kneads very quickly, and the only rise is after you form the balls of dough, so really quick and perfect for my time crunch.

With that out of the way, I proceeded to make the dip. Bacon, for sure. What else? Caramelized onion. It gives it a bit of sophistication while lending a really delicious flavor to the bacon. A combination of spices, Worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke makes the flavor a unique and very hard to resist. For the creaminess, I used fat free cream cheese and plain yogurt. The yogurt sort of thins the mixture out while maintaining the tangy flavor. A sprinkle of sliced scallions at the end and your party, or movie night, or game night, is all set!

Recipe after jump.

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Print this recipe

Caramelized Onion, Bacon, and Spinach Dip in Mini Bread Bowls
recipe by Christina Provo

A festive, flavorful onion dip served in individual bread bowls.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients -

1/2 pound bacon
2 cups diced onion
1 1/4 cup chopped fresh baby spinach
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
8 ounces fat free cream cheese, cubed and at room temperature
1/4 cup plain yogurt, at room temperature
12 small dinner rolls, tops removed and reserved, the inside of the bottoms scooped out to create a 1/2-inch deep hole
1/4 cup sliced scallions
Crackers for serving

Directions -

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon on medium heat until browned and crispy. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and crumble; set aside. Remove all but 3 tablespoons bacon grease from skillet. Add diced onion, salt, and black pepper and cook for 10 minutes or until reduced and caramelized (the onions will look brown because of the bacon bits, but they shouldn't look charred or browned around the edges; adjust heat accordingly).


2. To onions, stir in chili powder, celery salt, and paprika; stir to coat onions and until the seasonings coat the bottom of skillet. Toss in spinach and stir until completely wilted. Add Worcestershire sauce with the liquid smoke, stirring up the fond from the bottom of the skillet. Reduce heat to low and stir in cream cheese until completely smooth and blended with onion mixture. Stir in yogurt and crumbled bacon.


3. Either hot or at room temperature, spoon about 2 tablespoons onion dip into hollowed out dinner rolls. Garnish with scallions and a sprinkle of paprika and top with lids. Serve immediately with crackers; alternatively, you can refrigerate until serving time.

the end to the super bowl

This post will include the remaining foods I made for the Super Bowl because I'm getting tired of posting about them.

I've been wanting to make pretzel bites for quite a while now, and what better time to finally make them than for a party where finger foods are appropriate. These ended up tasting like a super awesome pizza roll, but with a chewier bready matter with much more flavor that the boiling technique gives bread.

Anything involving the extra step of boiling might seem time consuming, but unless you're really lazy it wasn't that bad. The recipe I used says these can be frozen, once baked and cooled, up to two weeks, then reheated when needed, so they really are an excellent choice to make for an event.

My concern was that the filling would come out of the bites when boiling, and a bit of it did, though not enough to leave a void. I do want to try an alfredo-like filling next time, though in that instance I will make sure the bites are more like closed pockets.

Very delicious, the best appetizer I've ever made. I served them with a honey mustard dressing, though they tasted best without any dipping sauce thanks to the pepperoni-bell pepper-cheddar cheese filling.

Next up was a buffalo chicken dip. I've never made this before and figured it would take the spot of wings, as this would be less messy but can still be eaten with your fingers if you really want to do that. This was really delicious, and the blue cheese rounded out the heat from the hot sauce most excellently.

My disappointment with the recipe is that no one punched their way to the last portion like the blog post said. I really was looking forward to witnessing this, and I'm sure I was more upset about that than the loss of the Colts.

Finally, we have puppy chow, which really is called Crack, but the Chex marketing/PR department decided it wouldn't go over well with families. But the correlation to pet food is more than fine! Actually, the Chex website calls this "muddie buddies", so what, Teletubbies covered in dirt? Whatever. How about "peanut butter and chocolate-coated chex pieces covered with white sugar". Sometimes it's best to call it what it is.

My brother really wanted this since it wasn't made for New Year's, like it usually is. I decided to make cake balls instead, but those actually didn't come out correctly and I couldn't even get myself to eat any. For my loss.

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Recipes used ~

Country Ham and Cheddar Pretzel Bites

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Muddie Buddies -- I made 1 1/2 times the peanut butter-chocolate stuff, though I didn't increase the butter

chicken satay

"No more spoons! Use your hands!" Says the charming schnitzel man!

Gosh, how I love that movie. And how I love chicken on a stick. In fact, many people like to eat with their hands, so you would probably enjoy satay, which is usually made by skewering raw chicken onto wooden skewers before cooking.

The marinade consists of yogurt, five spice powder, salt, raw garlic, cilantro, and possibly something else, but since I can't find the notebook I took notes in I'm not entirely certain.

Zucchini strips.

Orange peanut sauce.

Chicken skewered with a zucchini slice. The bummer part is that I should have blanched the strips because they kept breaking and falling apart as I was skewering them.

FIRE -- a necessary element. Half of the peanut sauce goes to baste the chicken strips.

Remember the zucchini strips? Many of them went as a sacrifice to the flames. And many of the skewers burnt to a crisp, although I soaked them for quite a while.

This is just beautiful stuff, right here.

Now, I don't like eating with my hands. They get all messy, I start up feeling claustrophobic, reaching for anything dry and soft to wipe my hands on, I just cannot unleash the inner kid that I keep locked away in the depths of my soul.

Balancing the chicken, here we have a simple cucumber-tomato salad with a miso vinaigrette. I believe I keep saying I will blog about the vinaigrette, and I will. Eventually.

Salad, chicken on a stick with orange peanut sauce and cilantro, and jasmine rice.