Homemade Chive Chip Dip (and how to make tzatziki)

how telling is a pretty picture of untouched food? food is guaranteed good when it's gone...

Very rarely do I "throw things together". I do make things up and play with swapping one ingredient for another. In fact, it's almost impossible for me to get through a recipe without swapping one thing for another... But very often if I'm making a dish from my head I've thought about it before hand. I may have even lain awake in bed running through the contents of my fridge and cupboard, pairing flavors with textures. Or I may have read a recipe and taken the basic technique but, well, not and then I change everything else about it, too.

But yesterday I threw something together and I was very excited when it worked.

I had some tzatziki (cucumber yogurt salad) in the refrigerator that needed to be used up, maybe half a cup. I strained some yogurt (about a cup and half) and added a handful of minced chives. Then I stirred it into the tzatziki and added a liberal shaking of salt. I let it sit form lunch time to dinner time and then served it with potato chips.
It was so good! It was like an onion dip because the load of chives versus anything else, but the cucumber shavings gave the whole thing a coolness beyond the yogurt alone. I'm definitely doing this again. Although, it will probably be a little different...

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Tzatziki template
a quart of plain yogurt
2 cucumbers grated
a handful of chopped dill (some people also add mint, but I like mine with unadulterated dill)
lemon juice (or you could use lime)
salt and pepper

Strain your yogurt over a glass measuring cup using wet cheese cloth or wet paper towel overnight for the whole day at room temp.
Meanwhile, salt the cucumbers slightly and drain them for a couple hours.
Squeeze them as dry as you can and add to the thick (greek) yogurt. Add the dill and stir. Mix in lemon and salt/pepper to taste.