An Expat Onion Dip Craving...

Since we've moved to Italy, I've had these moments that I've begun to call my "Homer Simpson" moments.  Usually they involve a craving for extra crispy bacon.  Bacon!

Okay.  I'm back.  Whew.  You don't know how much you love certain things until it's either completely impossible, or ridiculously difficult to get them.  Tacos?  I figured that out.  Pho?  Strangely, found the ingredients at a local outdoor market.  But my go-to foods when my husband is traveling and I'm single parenting for a week?  Ugh.  Florence doesn't have them. 

Kyle was away last week, and all this mama wanted was some onion dip.  You might be thinking, onion dip?  Who craves onion dip?  ME.  I want it with carrots, peppers, chips, whatever.  Just hand it over.

But here's the problem, Italians don't do pre-packaged food, or food mixes- unless it's pasta.  Is this good for you?  Yes.  Do I live 99.9% of my life this way?  Yes.  But man, sometimes I just want onion dip. And not that crapgasm in a tin that you can buy for 4 euro.  Ew.  No thanks.  I'd rather be grumpy.

Or figure out my own damn onion dip.

So I did.  I looked up a few recipes online, and realized that no sir, I don't have sour cream.  What I do have is a big bag of onions, some worcerstire sauce, a tub of 0% greek yogurt, some garlic, and some hope.  While you might be thinking, "silly American girl, you can't make onion dip in Italy", I'm telling you that you are so wrong my friend.  So wrong.  And I'll furthermore tell you that my shameful addiction to onion soup mix packets, feverishly swirled together with sour cream and barely refrigerated before I devoured it while we lived in the States is o-v-e-r.

This dip is so good, that even when I got sick I was still finding a reason to house it.  Then I made the mistake of telling Kyle that I figured out how to make onion dip, and I had to make more!  Which only made me eat more!  Ah!  And I'm not one of those people that gorges on things.  Ah well, I guess we all have our kryptonite.

So here's the skinny on how to make some amazing, delicious, and internationally ingredient friendly onion dip.

Cara's Onion Dip

You'll need:

• 3 small yellow onions, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 cup 0% Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup, 1Tb mayonaisse
• Garlic powder (3-4 stiff shakes)
• 2tsp worcestire
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Olive oil

Instructions:

• Heat a medium-large skillet to medium-heat.  Add a good glug of olive oil to the skillet.
• Add the onions to the skillet.  Sprinkle a bit of salt. 
• Lower the heat to medium-low heat.  Allow to carmelize for 20-minutes.
• *If the onions seem to be sticking to the pan, add water periodically to continue the caramelization, and to keep the onions from sticking.
• In a medium sized bowl, combine the garlic powder, greek yogurt, worcestire, and mayonaisse.
• Once the onions begin to caramelize, add the diced garlic.
• After the onions and garlic are caramelized, allow them to cool (10-15 minutes).
• Mix them in with the yogurt/mayo mixture.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
• **This tastes best if you let it sit for a few hours, but it will also taste pretty great if you let it set for just a half hour/hour.

Enjoy!

P.S...Did I mention that this is virtually guilt free? ; )