Barefoot Contessa’s Caramelized Onion Dip

The nice thing about this is you can caramelize a bunch of onions ahead of time, split them into separate freezer bags and thaw one the night before to make the dip.  Though I am no one to doubt Ina Garten, I find caramelizing the onions on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, creates an even deeper flavor.

H&H Gluten-Free Chocolate Peppermint Snowcaps

I saw this one in Canadian House and Home magazine, which if you haven’t read, is awesome.  First, because you see different household goods than we do in the U.S.  Second, because a summer home in upper Canada is sometimes one house on a small island.  And finally, what excellent taste in decorating Mr. Michael Buble has!

Use almonds with no skins, like Marcona or other bulk almonds.  These will make your hands very sticky, so I use a 1 ¼ inch diameter cookie scoop and then roll the balls evenly and then dump as many as will fit onto the baking sheet into a big bowl of icing sugar and then roll them all.  And then wash my hands.    I have left this dough in the refrigerator for a day with no ill effect.

P.S. to those from the lower 48 or the Mother country – “icing sugar” is also known as “confectioners sugar” which is also known as “powdered sugar”.

Leslie Conneely’s White and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Leslie made these as part of the meal she made for us shortly after my second son was born and while these cookies are always delicious, they are especially delicious when you’ve only slept 6 hours cumulatively for a week.  The nice part is you can leave the logs in the fridge and slice and bake just a sheet at a time – especially handy for post playing outside in the snow days!

1 ¾ cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks cut into ¼ inch pieces
4 oz white chocolate chips or chunks cut into ¼ inch pieces

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.   Beat butter in large bowl on medium speed of a mixer until fluffy and pale yellow, about 2 minutes.   Beat in sugars until smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla; reduce speed to low.  Beat until just incorporated.

Gradually beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.  Stir in white and dark chocolates pieces with a spoon until just incorporated.

Form two logs about 2 inches in diameter and place each on a sheet of parchment paper.  Roll up logs in the paper then wrap in foil.  Refrigerate at least two hours and up to a week.

Position an over rack on lower level.  Heat oven to 350. Cut the dough into ¼ to ½ inch slices and place cookies on parchment covered baking sheet about 1 inch apart.  Bake, rotating sheet front to back halfway through under edges and bottoms brown, about 12-14 minutes (mine take 12).  Cool on wire racks.

Merry Christmas to all.  I’ll try to post the video of the boys thinking they got socks and underwear instead of Xbox soon.