French Onion Dip

I first got the serving idea on one of the food sites (I forget which one, maybe Epicurious), but cobbled together the dip recipe from research spread over half a dozen other sites. In fact, I was so casual with throwing in a bit of this, a dash of that, and adjusting things to taste that I honestly don't know if the ingredient amounts below are anywhere close to accurate. But I think that pretty much exemplifies dip recipes - pretty much anything goes, and you can experiment and never make it the same way twice, but it will all be delicious; just in different ways.

• 2 tbsp butter
• 4 onions (for variety, you can use multiple types - sweet, yellow, red, etc)
• 2-3 large shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp celery salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• chips
• (optional) paprika
• (optional) chopped green onions

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1. Set the oven to 350 F. Cut the bottoms off the onions so that they can stand up. Set on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour. In the meantime, chop up the shallots and mince the garlic.
2. Slice the tops off the onions and scoop out the interior, leaving about 2-3 layers on the outside to act as a cup. Chop up the onion interiors and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in saucepan on the stove over medium heat and cook the shallots for about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes. If you wish you can add the chopped up onion and continue to caramelize it in the saucepan for a few more minutes.
4. Set the onion mixture aside to cool (or else it will melt the sour cream). To speed up the process, you can either refrigerate or spread it on the inside of a metal bowl and set it inside another bowl filled with iced water.
5. Mix in the sour cream and mayonnaise, then add the remaining spices to taste. Stuff inside the onion cups. Add optional garnishes.

Note: You can make this a day ahead, and in theory, it's better if you let the flavors blend overnight anyway. Store the onion cups and the onion dip separately in the fridge, and make sure they are sealed tight against fridge odors creeping in.