Roasted Garlic and Beer Dip

July 14, 2011 By Kait 2 Comments

Really Domestic | Roasted Garlic and Ale Dip
 My name is Kaitlin, and I’m a dip-aholic.

For all my foodie tendencies, there is no appetizer that gets my heart beating quite so fast as a creamy, savoury dip.

I love dip. I want dip. I need dip.

It clouds my vision in the kitchen. I can’t think of another appetizer to serve when I’ve got dip on the brain. So more often than not, I indulge my craving.

Sometimes that’s a bad, bad thing. Dips are meant to serve a crowd, but  I will often make a batch for dinner and polish most of it off between the two of us.

We serve it with baked whole wheat pitas. That’s kind of healthy, right? Right?

And now that we have Beecher, we go for multiple walks a day. So our hearts and waistlines can afford it, right? Right?

(Don’t judge.)

On the bright side, I’m now obsessed with creating my own dip recipes. Last night, when faced with a head of roasted garlic in need of using up and nary a clue what to do with it, I turned to my old faithful Mr. Dip.

Roasted garlic dip – that sounded pretty tasty. But roasted garlic and beer dip? Come here, you delicious bowl of pub-grubby goodness.

This dip is super rich and tangy and loaded with the sweet, caramelized flavour of roasted garlic. I could go on about how it marries with the beer, but I’ll just say this: beer makes everything better.

I recommend serving it with baked whole wheat pita chips. They’re really easy to make yourself – just cut a pocket-style pita in half so you’re left with two thin circles. Then cut or tear those thin circles into dippable shapes and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Triangles are a pretty standard shape, but if you just want to eat, ripping the pitas into jagged, haphazard rectangles will get dinner on the table faster has a certain, uh, rustic charm. Repeat, repeat, repeat until all of the pitas are cut/torn tup. Dab olive oil on them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and bake them in a 350F oven for about 8 minutes. Easy peasy.

Are you a dip fanatic? Is there another food you’re obsessed with? Let me know in the comments!

Roasted Garlic and Beer Dip

Yields About 1 cup

A creamy, tangy roasted garlic dip with a touch of beer.

  • Cloves from 1 head roasted garlic (approximately 10 cloves)
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese (light or full-fat)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream (light or full-fat)
  • 1.5 tbsp beer (I used lager)
  • 2 tbsp milk (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Add cloves from one head of roasted garlic, cream cheese, sour cream, and beer to the bowl of a food processor.
  2. Pulse on low speed until mixture is well combined and no big chunks of garlic remain, scraping down the sides of the processor with a spatula as necessary.
  3. If desired, thin mixture by pulsing in up to 2 tablespoons of milk.
  4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with whole wheat pita chips (see post above for a quick recipe), nachos, or crudites.

 

 

Filed Under: Appetizers Tagged With: , , , ,

Rigatoni in Roasted Tomato, Garlic, and Basil Cream Sauce

April 18, 2011 By Kait 1 Comment


Rigatoni in Roasted Tomato, Garlic, and Cream Sauce | Really Domestic
Few things get this girl more excited than a brand new package (or a freshly picked bunch) of fresh basil. The next time you find yourself in possession of fresh basil, I want you to put it to your nose and give it a big sniff.

What does it smell like?

Possibility.

You can (successfully) add basil to almost anything.

Lemonade? Sure. Ice Cream? No problem. Bubble gum? Like I said, almost anything.

Often, though, it’s nice to have basil in a classic, comforting combination: tomatoes, basil and garlic (oh my!). Combine those flavours into a rich blush sauce for pasta, and you’ve got a recipe that you’ll return to again and again when you’ve got fresh basil at the ready.

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Filed Under: Pasta Tagged With: , , , ,

Creamy White Bean and Sage Soup

April 9, 2011 By Kait 1 Comment

Creamy White Bean and Sage Soup | Really Domestic

This weekend gave us the first beautiful spring day of the year. It was the first time in 2011 we all had hope that maybe, just maybe, we’d all survived another winter and warm weather is here to stay. Well, for four or five months, anyway.

In early spring, the weather can be unpredictable, so we wanted to make the most of the nice weather by going for a long walk. It wasn’t just a leisurely stroll, no, we were on a mission: to find the best park for our new puppy.

Our new puppy.

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Filed Under: Soups Tagged With: , , ,

Creamy Cheddar-Green Onion Grits with Creole-Style Shrimp

March 23, 2011 By Kait Leave a Comment

Really Domestic | Shrimp & Grits

I love Ina Garten. I love her simple yet elegant approach to cooking. I love that her laughs always come from deep within her belly, and how, despite her obvious wealth (hello brand new barn in the Hamptons!) she is so gosh-darn unpretentious. I love how she still giggles when her husband, Jeffrey,  is around, and that she dedicates every one of her cookbooks to him. On that note, I love how she is pretty much incapable of writing a bad cookbook.

Yes, Ina is my cooking idol, except for one teensy, tiny little problem: sometimes, I think she is trying to kill me.
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Filed Under: Fish and Shellfish, Vegetables and Side Dishes

Sweet Potato Hash Browns with Goat Cheese and Fried Eggs

March 16, 2011 By Kait Leave a Comment

Sweet Potato Hash Browns with Goat Cheese and Fried Eggs

Some days are just no good from beginning to end. They start out all wrong, and they just don’t get better. Your day deals you a series of small knocks. There’s a crisis that leaves you shaking in your boots. You hear some really, truly, awful news. Any of these things will make you want to close the blinds, crawl back into bed, and say, “Hey, Today? I never want to see you again. We’re over.”

So when you wake up the morning after that really, truly, awful day, you are probably going to want to head to the nearest diner and stuff your face with whatever greasy dish will remind you there is plenty of goodness left in this world.

That’s a good option. This sweet potato hash brown dish is another one.

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Filed Under: Breakfast and Brunch
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