Roasted Artichoke and Caramelized Onion Dip

Well I’m pleased to tell you that since we last talked I have gotten my Christmas act together. We have a tree, a real tree, with a tree stand, lights and decorations. We even have stockings…with our initials on them. And, no big deal, we listened to Christmas songs and drank hot coco while we decked the halls. I feel like a real adult now, one who creates Holiday traditions for her children to cherish and someday imitate.

It turns out my daughter Tiare is somewhat of an elf. She cut out about 100 paper snowflakes in less than an hour and strung them throughout the house. Her productivity is quite impressive! Unfortunately I am now out of printer paper and will forever be picking up tiny white shreds off the ground, but it really does look lovely.

Roasted Artichoke Hearts and Caramelized Onions. Call it a dip, call it a spread, call it what you want, but this is exactly what I expect to eat as an appetizer when I am invited to a holiday party. Served hot please, with crostinis!  Just kidding. You can make me whatever you want. I will gladly eat it and wash dishes!

Let’s get real here for a minute. If you are on some kind of holiday diet or if you are considering substituting all the ingredients for fat-free alternatives, this dish is not for you. Stop reading now. Maybe you should make Carrot Lentil Soup or a Papaya and Grilled Chicken Salad.  Here’s a Maui Flour Child cooking tip: don’t try to make unhealthy food healthy. It is not in that foods nature and will just end up tasting weird. Let food be itself.

This dip does not want to be fat free. It wants to be hot and creamy and cheesy and tangy from the artichokes. It wants you to indulge and celebrate, and it wants you to be happy. Swear it off next year, but this is 2012, and there are only a few precious weeks left. So live it up!

Bring this to a party, everyone will ask you for the recipe. You can tell them, unless they are on a bah humbug holiday diet, then don’t tell them what’s in it. Let them go on existing in peace.

You can either heat it up and pour it into a serving bowl or you can put it in an oven safe dish, sprinkle it with parmesan and put it under the broiler. You can also stir in fresh spinach at the end. I normally do that, but I forgot until just now. Oops!

Roasted Artichoke and Caramelized Onion Dip

Ingredients

16 oz marinated artichoke hearts, quartered

2 onions thinly sliced

4 T butter

1 t salt

2 T AP flour

1 C white wine, sake, or vodka

1 C heavy cream

16 oz cream cheese

1 t fresh thyme

fresh cracked pepper

Crackers or a Baguette

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400. Drain your marinated artichoke hearts and spread them out on a baking sheet. Into the oven for 15 minutes. Set aside.

In a large pot on medium low heat (more low than medium) add the butter and thinly sliced onions. You want to stir about every 10 minutes for 50 minutes. The goal is to sweat out all the onion juice. After about 50 minutes they should look like this.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt and turn up the heat to medium stirring more frequently for about 15 minutes. The onions should start to caramelize. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir for a few minutes cooking out all the dry flour flavor.

Deglaze with one cup of white wine. Add one cup of heavy cream and bring to a gentle simmer.

Slowly stir in 16 oz of cream cheese cut into cubes. Once the cream cheese is all melted in you can taste it and add more salt if need be. Finish it by stirring in the roasted artichoke hearts, fresh thyme, cracked pepper and 1-2 cups fresh spinach if you so desire. Or remember.

Merry almost Christmas!