Caramelized Onion, Cheese and Bacon Dip

Today is my 5th anniversary of writing this blog and my 643rd posting!
I had no idea I would be doing this for that long.  I thought I might run out of ideas... the funny thing is that I have over 250 recipes in "draft" mode, sitting there waiting for me to either make them, finish them or just there to inspire me to make something "some day".

Most of my ideas start there, including this recipe.  When I opened my draft for Caramelized onion, cheese and bacon dip, it was totally blank.  Hahaha, I guess my inspiration for this only went as far as the name.  So, I started my creation, and here it is.

This is very rich, but sweet and cheesy, perfect on a cracker or toast.  I must say it would be a good side dish with a steak.  I actually threw some of the leftovers into a quiche the next morning too, completely yummy. 

As you can see from the photo below, I added to my recipe as I went along as my idea was not fully formed when I took the picture.  I didn't add any salt or pepper as I figured it might be salty from the cheese, bacon and caramelized onions.

(not pictured, cream cheese and Dijon mustard)

Makes an 8x8 pan
Ingredients

2 1/2 large onions, sliced thin
1/2 lb bacon, sliced into small pieces
2 cups grated Jarlsberg or Swiss cheese
4 oz. cream cheese
1 Tbsp dijon mustard, or 1 tsp dry mustard powder

Preheat oven to 375.

Slice up your bacon into pieces like below.  Over a medium high heat, cook the bacon until starting to brown and the fat renders out of it.  You don't want the bacon hard in this dish, but you do need to fully cook it in order to get most of the fat out of it.

Slice up the onions, I cut them in half and then slices as I didn't want the pieces to be too long.

Bacon cooking...

After removing the cooked bacon to another dish to drain, I add the onions to the same fan with a very small amount of residual bacon grease.  Now caramelizing onions takes a while...  cook over medium, or even medium low heat, stirring often, until they start to brown and get very soft.  It will probably take about 30 minutes.

When the onions are ready, add the bacon to the mixture, plus the cream cheese cut into a few chunks for easy mixing.  Add half the grated cheese and the dijon mustard, mix well and add to a baking dish. Top with the remaining grated cheese.
I used an oval dish, but a 8x8 would work, or even two small baking dishes.

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, until all bubbly and hot.  Serve at once with crackers, small toast like brushetta, or even chips.

My niece ready to dig in! I sure liked her hand model with blue nail polish as an accent.