"dips" news and stories

Why are finger foods so appealing? Is it because we all secretly like to eat with our hands, or does it have more to do with those tangy, flavored dipping sauces like barbecue, honey mustard or homemade chipotle mayo? I like finger foods because they come in bite-sized pieces. I can have a taste of everything without feeling stuffed and even have seconds of the things I enjoyed most.

So what's the ultimate finger food? I'd have to say chicken fingers. In my career as a professional cook, I have made hundreds -- no, thousands -- of juicy, homemade chicken fingers.

Some are coated with Parmesan bread crumbs or crushed golden butter crackers, others dipped first in thick buttermilk and Tabasco, then coated in crunchy, crushed cereals. They are perfect for kids and even better for entertaining, as I found out when my neighbors devoured them during our monthly movie get-together.

Buttermilk chicken fingers always disappear first, but I also love to convince my veggie-hating friends to dip nutrient-rich vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower into the sauce of their choice. That's why I've collected a private stash of recipes that are healthier, but just as tasty.

Get Jennifer's recipes and warm weather entertaining tips after the jump.

It's a great word, Skordalia. Sounds like a flower that grows on Venus, or a rare breed of pygmy squid. What it is in fact is a Greek dip made from pureed potatoes and garlic. Not as exotic as a Venusian dandelion, but probably much tastier. The Recipes for Health column in the New York Times has a version using nothing more than potatoes, kosher salt, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. The kind of thing you can whip up out of spare pantry ingredients and wildly impress your hungry friends. Skordalia is traditionally served with fried fish or cooked vegetables, but it's also excellent as a spread or a dip for raw veggies. Try it in a sandwich with roasted red peppers and spinach.

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Looking for quick, easy dips for your veggies, crackers and chips? We've got you covered!

With potato chips, you can go in a few different directions -- thick, plain potato chips with dip; skip the dip and serve flavored potato chips; or get all kinds of flavor-crazy and serve flavored potato chips with dip!

I am fickle when it comes to potato chips, so I actually do need to have several different options available. Sometimes I love those horrible Lay's potato chips that are nothing more than pieces of potato paper, but most of the time, I love thick, hard, crunchy kettle-cooked potato chips with an obscene scoop of French Onion Dip. You can make it from scratch, but I have to confess that I have a soft spot for the French Onion Dip made from dried soup mix and sour cream.

No, I don't need to give you yet another recipe for guacamole.

Not only are there plenty of them out there, but a recipe for guacamole is like a "recipe" for a bowl of cereal or pasta salad, i.e. it doesn't really require one. It's enough to say that the basics are avocados, garlic, onion, scallions, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper, and sometimes, chopped tomatoes. You mash them together and adjust everything to your taste. I usually leave cilantro out because that vile stuff tastes like dirty soap to me.

Though it tastes and feels like it would be naughty because it's so creamy, guacamole can be considered a "healthy" snack. Guacamole is made of all vegetables, and though people seem to focus on the "fat" part of avocado, the truth is, the fat may be fattening (like any fat), but it's still a "good" fat.

However, I have this thing I do to guacamole that pretty much yanks guacamole off the "healthy" table and hurls it down into the deep fat fryer with things like Buffalo wings with Blue Cheese Dressing and French Onion Dip.

I add a giant -- no, make that enormous -- dollop of sour cream to my guacamole. Not that good, ripe avocados need it, but the full fat sour cream makes guacamole even creamier, and adds a different tang in addition to the lime juice.

If you have a "secret" or interesting addition to guacamole, let us know in the comments!