Anyone who was of sitcom-watching age in 1993, knows all about double-dipping, the phrase made famous by George Costanza in Seinfeld, when he lost his cool at a date’s cousin who puts his chip back into the dip bowl at a wake. I’m not going to be giving instructions here on how to add your own germs to dip, rather, in this season of hosting guests and making lots of food for entertaining purposes, I think it’s time for that old favorite, the dip, which is quick to make and staves off the hunger before any meal. For this post, I’m sharing two dips – my double dip.
For the past 12 years, I have been a member of a book club. The rules of entertaining at the meetings are clear: No more to be served than a cake, dip, cut up vegetables and chips. This eliminates the need to “outdo” the previous month’s hostess, and works well to reduce pre-meeting organizational stress. I prepare two of my favorite dips each time I host. The first, Onion Dip, is embarrassingly easy and yet is always demolished. I always get asked for the “recipe” and I blush to reveal it. The other is slightly more work, but is delicious. It’s a sun dried tomato dip that I adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten. In her inimitable way, she uses “one million” percent fat Philadelphia cream cheese; I have taken it down several notches and use either 5% or 3% cream cheese (I use Strauss’ Symphony cheeses) and I use low fat mayo.
I know that dips and crudites are very 1970s, but somehow, whenever I put out a platter, it all gets gobbled up, so why fix it if it ain’t broke?!
ONION DIP
Onion Dip
Ingredients
200 ml (7 fl oz) 15% sour cream (you can use the higher fat sour creams as well)
1 tablespoon onion soup powder
How to do it
Mix ‘em well and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. That’s it, seriously!
Multiply the quantities according to need. The dip in the picture is a triple quantity.
SUN DRIED TOMATO DIP
Sun Dried Tomato Dip with Cut Vegetables
Ingredients
About 125g (4 ½ oz) sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained
200g (7 oz) 5% or 3% cream cheese
3 tablespoons low fat mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
How to do it
Place all ingredients in a small food processor and process until smooth
Serve both dips with cut up vegetables and/or potato chips.
