Fresh fruit in the Summer is great. It really is. But turning that fruit into a maple pancake syrup is just a little bit better.

After I made homemade strawberry syrup, I couldn’t eat it fast enough. It’s a great sweetener for pancakes, ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal—just about anything. After giving it a try I can say that making the recipe with blueberries is just as good.

You can use fresh or frozen blueberries for this recipe—it doesn’t make a difference. Unlike the strawberry version, you need to strain the syrup once it’s cooked to get the skins out. Don’t waste the solids though! They’re full of sugar and make a great jam-like spread for toast or mixing into yogurt.

Blueberry Pancake Syrup

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1 1/2 cups):

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2/3 cup blueberries
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

1. In a small pot over a burner, combine the sugar and water and heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Boil the water until the simple syrup reduces to about half of its original volume.
3. While the water is boiling, puree the blueberries and maple syrup in a blender or food processor until they make a smooth sauce.
4. Off of the heat, combine the blueberry puree and simple syrup and whisk together. Whisk in the vanilla and cinnamon as well.
5. Put the pot back onto the stove and continue boiling until the syrup reduces to about half of its volume again. Don’t over-reduce the syrup to be quite as thick as maple syrup because once it cools off of the heat it will thicken.
6. Strain the sauce through a sieve to remove the blueberry skins.
7. Store any extra sauce in a sealed container in the refrigerator when not enjoying.

Kettle Brand Chips asked 14 bloggers to create a recipe of their favorite holiday dip. My favorite holiday dip is guacamole; I could eat it with a spoon. But too much guacamole can be overpowering on the taste buds, especially at parties when you lose track of how much chips and dip you’ve eaten. Sour cream, on the other hand, has that smooth and clean flavor that lets you dip and dip and dip. I don’t usually like to do sponsored posts, but Kettle Brand Chips is a company I can really get behind. They’re dedicated to using natural ingredients without GMOs and their chips are gluten-free, too. They’re also just delicious; have you tried their Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper flavor? Incredible.

For this recipe I’ve added avocado to a fairly simple sour cream dip. It’s no hassle at all to throw together. The avocado adds a light green color and a rich texture. Even though they’re similar, using both onion powder and fresh chives helps to add layers to the flavor of the dip. I paired this with my favorite flavor of chip, Sea Salt and Vinegar. I think it goes perfectly with the tart flavor of vinegar because the chip lends flavor to the dip while the dip cools the chip down. It would also be incredibly good with any spicy flavor like Jalapeno or Spicy Thai™–anything with a strong saltiness to it. Since there’s very little acidity and seasoning in the dip itself, it’s important to use a chip that will bring that to the table. At the end of this post there’s also a giveaway so be sure to read through!

Avocado Sour Cream Chip Dip

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 8 servings):

• 1 ripe medium avocado, peeled and pitted
• 3/4 cup sour cream or low-fat sour cream
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons freshly chopped chives

Method:

1. In a food processor(or however you’d like to do it), puree the avocado until it’s completely smooth.
2. Fold together the avocado puree, sour cream, onion powder, salt, and 2 ½ Tablespoons of chopped chives.
3. Transfer the dip to a serving bowl and garnish with the remaining chives.
4. Serve with Kettle Brand Chips and veggie crudités

Now it’s your turn to tell me, What is Your favorite holiday dip? Respond to this question with your answer using one of the methods below and you could win a $100 Visa Gift Card!

Rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to respond otherwise a new winner will be selected.
• This sweepstakes runs from 11/13-12/31.
• You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment answering what’s your favorite holiday dip?

b) Tweet a public message about this promotion including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry” Leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

The Official Rules are available here.

Be sure to visit the Kettle Brand Chips page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win! Good luck!

Last week I moved back to Providence. Now that everything’s been unpacked and I’m settled, there are really only two things I sorely miss: HGTV and the Food Network. While they aren’t my favorite channels, they’re certainly my favorite to have playing in the background when I’m working on other projects. And even better they’re perfect to get ideas from.

One of the last shows I watched was Melissa d’Arabian’s cooking program where she made an easy honey mustard dip. It instantly reminded me of the type of sauce you’d get from McDonalds with an order of chicken mcnuggets and knew it’d be good. However I wanted to make it more like something that I’d eat. 

Instead of mayonnaise this recipe uses a vegan mayonnaise substitute that’s tofu based. While I’m sure that doesn’t sound appetizing, I actually prefer the flavor of it to traditional mayonnaise. Instead of honey I used two non-animal based sweeteners: maple syrup and agave. The maple syrup gives an earthy flavor while the agave makes the dip taste a little bit fruity.

Vegan Honey Mustard Dip

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup stone ground mustard
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon agave nectar

Method:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. Add more or less sweetener to taste.
3. Keep cold in the refrigerator when not eating.

This dip has been great with pretzels, apples, and carrots. You can also eat it with chicken or tofu. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about pouring this on a salad even though it’s not quite a dressing; it’s just too good to ignore.

I used to have a teacher who loved Cheese Wiz so much, he kept a tube at his desk. I’m pretty sure there’s no actual cheese in Cheese Wiz, just like there’s no actual cheese in this recipe. But I promise you this is a much healthier way to get a cheesy fix.

I didn’t like sunflower seed butter the first couple of times I tried it. I think most people feel the same way if you try to enjoy it like peanut butter or almond butter or even cashew butter; it’s oddly savory and unenjoyable. But once I tried it in savory ways it grew on me.

Sunflower seed butter makes a better “cheese” sauce than any other nuts I’ve tried. It gives the sauce a rich and velvety texture, and the nutritional yeast and seasonings create a flavor that doesn’t taste exactly like the real thing but delicious nonetheless. 

Easy Vegan Cheese Sauce

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 3/4 cup sauce):

• 6 Tablespoons sunflower seed butter
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together.
2. Store in an sealed container in the refrigerator. As it cools, the sauce will get thicker. Either bring it to room temperature before using or mix in a little extra water until it gets to the desired consistency.

There are plenty of ways that this would taste good. I made cheesy vegan burritos with corn flour tortillas, scrambled tofu, and steamed kale.