Home Appetizers Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip

Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip

by Ann
29 comments

Caramelized Onion & Bacon Dip

Yeah, I’m on a dip kick lately. I’ve been feeling kinda down, and I like to munch and dip when I’m sad. My ultimate “comfort” food is potato chips and french onion dip (the kind made with real sour cream), but I have come to realize that eating it just makes me feel worse than before, so I kinda stay away from that store-bought stuff now. Today I tried making my own home-grown version of french onion dip. With bacon. Because bacon makes everything better, right? And the greek yogurt has the same rich texture as sour cream, but it’s good for you, so it makes you feel BETTER after eating it instead of sinking you deeper into depression.


There are a few things that are nagging at me, but I think the biggest one is probably the changes on facebook. Yeah, I know, my life is really easy if all I have to be upset about is the changes on facebook, but you see the social connections I’ve made on facebook are really important to me. I’ve met a lot of foodie friends on facebook (7,264 of them as of this moment) and every single one of them is precious to me. Most facebook users probably aren’t even that aware of the changes or how they impact the pages they “like” on facebook, but what facebook did is cut back the views of our posts unless we pay to “promote” them.  It feels like my fan base that I worked so hard to build was just cut from 7,000 to 700. Ouch.

But the worst part is now when someone tags my page, I can’t see that they tagged me, and vice versa.

We foodie pages used to communicate by tagging each other in our status … we did virtual parties on facebook and the invitations were lists of facebook tags. Everyone would bring a drink or dish … the way we would do this is to go to one of our food photos and tag the person having the party (plus a bunch more pages usually … hey, the more the merrier!). We did “shout-outs” telling our fans about other pages we thought were awesome and you always knew when someone else shared your page so it was easy to say thank you by tagging them back. We shared recipes amongst ourselves and tagged the creator of the recipe. Now, if someone shares my recipe or my page, unless it is directly shared from one of my own posts, I have no way of knowing it. There are no more parties. No more shout-outs. No more thank you’s.

It makes me really sad that I can’t see the posts of my friends unless I take time out to go visit their page. They are my inspiration and joy. Oh, yes, there is an alternative: I can make a “list” of my favorite pages from my personal facebook page, but this has several disadvantages:

  1. I have to leave my page to go there
  2. I can share to my page from my personal page, but it’s cumbersome, tricky and easy to screw up
  3. I can’t comment as my page from my personal page
  4. How the heck am I going to make a list of thousands of people from memory? Okay, not all of my “likers” are facebook pages, but still, there are thousands of them, built up over time. Trying to make a list of all of them is harder than putting together a list of people to invite to your wedding. You’re going to forget someone … and in my case it’s a LOT of someones.

Foodies are a tight-knit group and we are feeling right now like facebook is tearing us apart. I think many of us are turning to Pinterest to fill the gap. At least I can always see my friends’ pins on Pinterest. We have group boards that a bunch of us contribute to, and you can comment and like things just like on facebook.

We’re trying to roll with the punches, but I have to tell you it’s very disheartening. I know this is not personal, facebook is just trying to make some money off of this service they have offered us for free for so long, but can’t they do that without tearing us apart? At least let me know when someone mentioned my page. That’s business networking and analytics 101: you want to know who your referrers are. That’s how you build your network. How can you thank your referrers and help them out in turn if you don’t know who they are?!?

Sorry about the rant, I just needed to get that out … let’s get back to the dip at hand, shall we? It’s a lovely dip with the sweet taste of caramelized onions and the salty, smoky bacon, along with creamy cream cheese and tangy greek yogurt and a few chives for spite (and color). Thinking on it now, I bet some smoked paprika would be nice in this too … I’ll have to try that next time.

Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip

Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip

Inspired by one of my foodie facebook friends: Lisa’s Dinnertime Dish

  • 1 teaspoon of olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups of chopped onion
  • 1/4 cup of white wine
  • 2 oz. lowfat cream cheese
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup of lowfat mayonnaise (or plain nonfat yogurt)
  • 2 slices of lean bacon, fried till crisp and chopped up
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives
  • Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Heat your frying pan up to medium heat and swirl around a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan. Add the onions and reduce head to medium, stirring pretty much constantly to keep them from burning. When the onions start to brown, add a bit of the wine and cook some more, stirring the onions till the wine has evaporated, then add a bit more wine and stir and cook some more, and repeat until the onions are brown and sweet and all the wine has evaporated. This might take 20 minutes or so, but it’s worth it, believe me.

Remove the onions from the heat and put in a bowl with the cream cheese and stir. The heat of the onions should melt the cream cheese and make it easier to mix in. Add the rest of the ingredients, reserving a few bacon crumbles and snipped chives to sprinkle on top before serving. If the dip is too thick, add a little plain nonfat yogurt (not greek yogurt, the regular thinner kind) or a teaspoon or two of milk.

Serve with crackers and/or vegetables and/or chips. Whatever you prefer. You’ll need a sturdier chip, though, like a kettle chip, if you want to use chips.

Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip

This recipe was shared at Cast Party WednesdayNewlyweds Recipe LinkyFull Plate ThursdayIt’s a Keeper ThursdayTastetastic Thursday, Katherine Martinelli’s Onion Bloghop and Weekend Potluck.

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29 comments

Awkward Kitchenette June 12, 2012 - 8:55 pm

Ooooh this looks so delicious!

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Ally Phillips (@allyskitchen) June 12, 2012 - 9:15 pm

I’m gonna be eatin’ a lot of chips and dip w/you, my sweetums, cuz I so miss you and also detest this FB shenanigans…yes, we have Pinterest, but that’s not quite the same…we are hostages…xoxxo

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Ann June 12, 2012 - 9:24 pm

I thought maybe if I blogged about it, facebook might listen? I didn’t make a very good business case, though … I’m too emotionally distraught about it.

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Michele June 12, 2012 - 9:27 pm

I’m with you dear AllyCat!!!

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Michele June 12, 2012 - 9:23 pm

Believe you me my darling Ann, precious friend, I feel your pain!!! No not 7,264 times, just 2,777 times, but it’s still very painful indeed! I’ve had a rough couple of weeks, what with coming back from San worn to a frazzle and then discovering I have bronchitis. That, plus all the FB mess, technical problems with LBC web host (long story) and on and on. I’m on overload in many ways, and then find myself beating myself up because I don’t take time every day to visit you and AllyCat and ChinDeep and many other dear, dear friends whose posts aren’t making it thru to me these days. We’ll have have to promise (pinky promise!) to give each other a boost every day, okay? And I LOVE the fact that you came up with a healthy dip. You totally rock! 🙂 xoxoxo

Reply
Ann June 12, 2012 - 9:31 pm

Love and hugs to you my friend. We need each other more than we even realize.

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Joan Hayes@chocolate and more June 12, 2012 - 9:46 pm

Ann, I was so happy when I saw this dip, and I pinned it, and I promise to make it but then I kept reading. Now I have to go find some cookies in the cabinet, and they won’t be homemade because we’re baking those tomorrow. They’ll be some crap like Oreos or Vanilla Wafers that I keep on hand for crusts. I do miss all my FB friends. It’s just not the same not seeing everyone. I’ve set up lists on my personal page, I’ve had 30 tabs open at one time, trying to make sure I don’t miss anyone but even then, once you have the list set up, pages still fall off. I’m going on vacation in July and I just know when I get back, everyone will be gone from my feeds. It;’s like living in a great neighborhood, we’re there’s always a block party going on, and then poof, a tornado comes through and wipes it all out. Facebook needs to fix this, we’re not GM or Microsoft with millions of advertising dollars, we’re just a big group of people who’ve formed friendships through our love of food.
Maybe I can find some ice cream in the back of the freezer to have with my cookies.

Reply
Ann June 13, 2012 - 9:59 am

I really like what you said: “We’re not GM or Microsoft with millions of advertising dollars, we’re just a big group of people who’ve formed friendships through our love of food.” … that is just it! They are looking for money where there isn’t any to find. There are other ways to generate revenue; Google is a fantastic example of that.

Don’t let facebook drive you to eat TOO many cookies though.

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draconianstylist June 12, 2012 - 11:36 pm

I get what FB is doing but they are messing up a lot of people. The small, local artists are also feeling the pain. Many of my friends used FB to promote and sell their art and that of their friends. For some of them this is the difference between making the rent or not.
But back to the dip, making me hungry I am going to have to make some of this!

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Ann June 13, 2012 - 9:55 am

You’re right … these changes are not just emotional, for some, they are real pain. … and I’m very glad you like the dip 🙂

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Brianne @ Cupcakes & Kale Chips June 14, 2012 - 12:41 pm

This post made me so sad, since I am just getting to know these wonderful foodie friends, and between cooking for the family, cooking for the blog (usually one and the same), taking care of my house, my little guy, my hubby, I just can’t keep up with everyone on Facebook, and now it is even harder. I am going to keep trying. I think we need to start a fodie letter writing campaign to Facebook! I’ll have to keep up with your awesome board on Pinterest a little more. I usually end up using Pinterest to pin things I found, and don’t visit the others I follow that often. Again, just more social media to keep up with, and I am just partial to Facebook. Clearly I am too long-winded for Twitter 🙂

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Ann June 14, 2012 - 1:41 pm

Pinterest is great for saving things you want to be able to find later, but not so good for social bonding. Facebook was the perfect place for that! Well, it still is pretty good, just not as good as it used to be. Perhaps if we all scream loud enough, facebook will hear us and bring back the ability to see when someone else tags your page. That’s the biggest thing, really.

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Miz Helen June 14, 2012 - 3:08 pm

What a great dip and just in time for summertime entertaining! Hope you are having a great week and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen

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Ann June 14, 2012 - 4:45 pm

Thanks Miz Helen! It was delicious, but I polished it off way too fast. 🙂

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Blogger Inspiration ~ Sunshine Award « Sumptuous Spoonfuls June 14, 2012 - 9:47 pm

[…] you have been reading my posts this week, you might have seen my little rant about facebook and how all of us food bloggers who met on facebook and depend on it to keep in touch are feeling […]

Reply
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen June 15, 2012 - 3:58 pm

Ann, what a great post and you are so right. FB has really screwed things up lately and I hope they’ll change it back, but I won’t hold my breathe. I honestly don’t think a reader realizes what has changed. In their mind, they probably think we’re just not posting as often as before. It’s very disheartening.

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zestuous June 15, 2012 - 9:21 pm

Well put Ann. I miss seeing your posts. Tonight, I am browsing all my foodie friends to see what I’ve been missing. This dip looks so great!

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Ann June 15, 2012 - 10:42 pm

I miss yours too! I hardly see your posts anymore and I just hate that. :

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egg me on June 19, 2012 - 7:33 am

Hey Ann. Ugh, stupid Facebook. Why are they always changing things? I can feel your frustration. But the dip looks fantastic. I’ve loved classic onion dip (with potato chips!) since I was a kid, and this seems like a great update. Bacon makes everything better. And hopefully Facebook will get better, too.

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Ann June 19, 2012 - 8:16 am

I hope facebook will get better. Most likely it will … thanks for your comments on the dip. I have always loved potato chips and french onion dip too!

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mjskit November 2, 2012 - 10:48 am

Scrumptious indeed! What a great combination of ingredients!

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lindsay November 26, 2012 - 8:57 pm

Hi! I just wanted to let you know I am including this in a 35 Christmas party appetizers and drinks collection over at Mommy’s Sweet Confessions. Thank you!

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Ann November 27, 2012 - 9:54 pm

Thank you so much Lindsay! What a beautiful collection … I am so happy you liked my dip 🙂

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58 Recipes With Bacon « Rants From My Crazy Kitchen January 30, 2013 - 4:14 pm

[…] Bacon Caramelized Onion Dip […]

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Lydia April 9, 2013 - 9:45 pm

Hi Ann. I follow you on Facebook and often visit your blog for recipes. Can I give you some advice? This White words on black really hurts my eyes to read. I have come to your blog often looking for your recipes and I have a hard time reading through a post because of this.

I thought i would let you know:)

Hugs

Lydia

Reply
Ann April 10, 2013 - 7:36 am

Hi Lydia,
I appreciate the feedback. I do love the theme, but I will see if I can adjust the font color to make it easier on the eyes. I am not exactly sure how to do that, so please be patient with me …
Thanks,
Ann

Reply
58 Recipes With Bacon November 5, 2013 - 10:16 pm

[…] Bacon Caramelized Onion Dip […]

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» 40 Healthier Holiday Appetizers Sumptuous Spoonfuls December 22, 2013 - 3:14 pm

[…] Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip (from moi!) […]

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» Halloween Veggie Tray Sumptuous Spoonfuls October 18, 2014 - 6:36 pm

[…] Bacon & Caramelized Onion Dip […]

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