... are first cousin to Pink Elephants, if you find any that might be a bargain. In that, you will buy them when they go on sale, even though you don't know what you would possibly do with a ten pound bag. In addition to admitting that possibly you don't really like eating onions under the best of circumstances. Especially raw.
I dislike them (onions in general) so much, that I have gotten into the habit of cooking them twice: once in the microwave, and again when I put them in the recipe where they would be an ingredient in casseroles or soups/stews. I will dice them and put them in a bowl, nuke for three minutes, then dump them in with the squash, or browned meat for chili. Cooking a second time just to be absolutely certain they are completely done. I use them all the time, and readily admit they add flavor to many meals, but cannot make myself eat without being thoroughly cooked.
I have a bad rep. of adding vegetables to lots of things that don't actually have a particular item in the list of ingredients: especially carrots. Which at one time, would have been claimed as my 'favorite'. My bemused family continues to tell stories of how they would sit down to a meal and discover that I had sliced or diced or grated fresh carrots to sneak into the chili pot, or casserole dish. I can't explain it myself - as it is pretty obvious that the bright orange vegetable is swimming around in the bowl or on your plate as a helping of some unlikely dish that did not call for or warrant the inclusion of carrots. Not something that adapts well to surreptitious. Even when they are well cooked, sufficiently tender, they do not cease to be eye-catching orange. Pretty difficult to disguise.
I bought a ten pound bag of Vidalia onions from a neighbor who was selling as a fund-raiser for a civic group. I can't say what I was really thinking: other than being supportive of their money making project. Don't even know what the funds they hoped to raise were supposed to do, what the project was in need of financial under-pinning. And, as I said, not really fond of onions, though I am mostly convinced the sweet mild flavor of the Vidalia puts it in a class by itself. They have a really high water content, as opposed to your average/much smaller yellow or white onion, and therefore a pretty short shelf-life. Which means you have to enjoy them as soon as you get them.
Bringing me to the problem of what to do with ten pounds of onions. I had a recipe from a friend for a casserole that included cheese and rice. So I made it, and decided it was not nearly as good as my taste buds remember it to be. So put half in the trash. Then proceeded to ponder what to do with the bag of onions sitting in the pantry. When in doubt: Google it.
The baked (sort of) onions we just had for lunch were quite good. Better than the casserole, and 'way less time, effort, ingredients, trouble. Peel it. Cut off both ends, and hollow out a little divot in the leaf-y end, big enough to put in a smidgen of butter and some beef bouillon (or vegetable), granulated or cube. I put two in a glass pie plate and covered with plastic wrap, and put in microwave for nine minutes. Take out and baste with melted butter half way through cooking. You'll wish you had made biscuits to sop with, as the liquid in the dish is flavored with butter and bouillon. You'll also probably think you should have peeled off a couple of layers of the onion besides just taking he brown skin off, as the outer layers are a bit tough, not particularly edible.
The recipes I looked at mostly wanted you to wrap the onions, individually in foil and put on the grill. Or bake in the oven in separate packets, but cooking in the microwave for 8 to ten minutes works just as well. I've got lots more onions, so if you want to stop by and get a couple to try, please do! I am still baffled as to why someone who does not even remotely care for raw onions would take complete leave of her senses and request a ten pound bag? Just like those huge under-utilized pink elephants, I guess. I noticed in the store they are $1.39 a pound, and mine were $1 a pound, so I really do have a great bargain, even if I don't know what to do with them.....
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