Cheese Crack and I'm a dealer!

Ok, so this isn't the real name for this dish, it's just one we have used to describe it. :) I have made this for a number of crops and everyone seems to love it. To the point of being asked "where's the cheese crack" when I made something different one night. On Friday, Sean had a potluck for work and said that's what he wanted to take. So the Thursday night before the potluck, cut to me making his dish as well as 13 dozen cookies. Well, the cookies is a totally different post. :) Yes, I may have been quiet here, but I have been cooking my brains out. I need to find time to get some of the new favs posted with my tweaks and comments. Soon, honest, soon.

Back to the cheese crack. If you are on a diet, read no further. If you are concerned about your hardening arteries, well, this will help harden them. But if you don't care and want something completely yummy, I recommend checking this out.

I saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and just knew I had to try it. 

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/appetizers-and-snacks/baked-sweet-onion-dip/

Of course, when I looked at it, I asked myself, how can I make it even *less* healthy. Why, by adding butter of course. :) We all know that onions sweeten up quite nicely when caramelized in butter. So if you have a plain old yellow onion, you still get some lovely sweet results using this method.  I have made this cutting the onion many different ways. I've done just rings, minced, quarter diced, large chop. When they are cooked in butter I think the larger cut is better than minced. If you decide to skip the caramelizing and follow the original recipe, I would do the mince.

Cheese Crack

8 ounces Cream Cheese (room temp is nice, but not required since you'll add warm onions to it)
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup onion (cut the way you prefer)
2-4 T butter
1 long baguette (I prefer sour dough)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saute pan, cook the onions and butter on medium heat until a beautiful brown.
 
In a bowl, place the cream cheese. Once the onions are nicely brown and the kitchen smells yummy, pour the onions on top of the cream cheese. The nice warm onions and butter should soften up the cream cheese and make mixing a snap.
 
Add mayo and Parmesan cheese, mixing thoroughly. (The original calls for 1T of cracked black pepper here. I'm not a big pepper fan (for anyone who hasn't read me rant about that), but I did add 1 tsp during one attempt and it was ok)
Place mixture in ramekins or any oven-safe dishes. I have a wonderful oval baker from Pampered Chef that this fits in perfectly. When I had 2 batches going at once, I also used my smallest (6 inch) cast iron skillet with great results.

Bake slowly, for about 30-45 minutes for all ingredients to cook together. When the top crust is brown, almost burnt-looking, then the dip is ready. The darker brown the crust of the dip becomes, the better the flavors are cooked.
Serve with your favorite bread and crackers.