Yum Yum Onions

I Love A Parade...

I have so many fond memories of Thanksgiving. Of all the senses, the ones I remember best are those of smell and sound.

From the time I was just taller than the top of the kitchen table, my mom let me “help” with preparation for Thanksgiving dinner. You had to get up pretty early though. My mother was in the kitchen just after dawn beginning her preparations.

By the time I showed up, there were already crescent rolls rising on the floor registers around the first floor of the house. That’s one amazing aroma drifting through from room to room. Made from scratch, they had to rise somewhere slightly warm, and in a big, old house, the heat was coming from those floor registers so they made a perfect spot to help in the process. I’ll never forget that smell.

When I got into the kitchen, mom was often in the process of making the dressing. She cubed her own bread, cut her own onions, celery and butter bits. The sage was the prominent smell. I wasn’t a big fan of sage but it was always a signature Thanksgiving smell. She’d let me help mix the dressing, but truth be told, she did most of it herself by hand.

Then I got to “help” stuff the turkey. Mom would tip the huge turkey (often 25 lbs or more) up on the butt end. I got to steady it. I hated that job. That bird was cold and slimy, but I was helping! Mom would then stuff the bird. Of the two jobs, I was much more interested in propping up the slippery bird. I was not going to put my hand inside that thing! Gross!

Extra dressing was made for my dad with no onions. Dad could not handle onions. Poor guy.

All the while the work was being done in the kitchen the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was being shown on TV. It was practically blaring; the only way you could hear it above all the noises from kids and clanging pots and pans. I loved the parade. I’d sit down with my breakfast and watch. Little did I realize that it was really a big commercial for Broadway. My memories really don’t include that. I just thought it was a lot of massive balloons that were in the shape of my favorite cartoon characters and marching bands. I think, in the old days the marching bands and balloons were much more of a feature. Not sure when the Broadway singing started. I can’t recall.

I still insist on having that parade on the TV while I cook Thanksgiving dinner to this day.

One of my big, lifetime goals is to be standing on that parade route on the big day. I just don’t know why I’ve never managed to organize that trip. It’s not like a year ahead I don’t know the date! Someday. I’ll get that done someday.

One of the biggest laughs at Thanksgiving came from loading the oven. You already know a massive turkey was jammed in there. All around the edges we packed in potatoes to bake and acorn squash halves with butter pats in the middle. Every inch of that oven was taken up with turkey or sides. We only had one oven, and there certainly was no microwave, so it was a bit of a geometry project to fit it all in. I was not allowed to “help” with that. Hot oven. Really hot oven.

So, on the day I write this column every year I am reminded once again about friendships and family. I’m reminded to be thankful for all I have and for those things I don’t have. (Like Swine flu!). I’m grateful for all of you readers who inspire me every week to design new recipes. I hope you all enjoy your holiday, your meal and your time with loved ones and special friends.

Happy Thanksgiving America.

For a recipe this year I decided to focus on a special side dish that can be served with the turkey or with another meal on the big weekend. It will go great with leftovers. As a tribute to my father it features onions. Dad would never eat raw onions in anything. He claimed not to be able to eat cooked onions in most things and he ate onions almost every meal when he came to visit me; never complaining about the heartburn he claimed he’d get as a result of onion consumption. Dads are funny guys. I really wonder how sensitive to onions he REALLY was. I guess I’ll never know.

Yum Yum Onions
I titled these Yum Yum Onions for the obvious reason. I am convinced they will receive rave reviews at your table, like they did at mine. Be sure to make extra! This is a great low-carb option.
Serves 3 – 4 (Or only two if one of them is my husband. The man loves onions)

Ingredients:

2 large Vidalia onions, thinly sliced. I use my mandolin on level 2

1/4 cup of butter cubed

1/4 tsp of your favorite blackening spice or meat rub

1 packet of stevia. Truvia or Purevia are two brands

1/4 tsp of grated sea salt

2 Tbl of sherry cooking wine

2 Tbl of port

1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Saute the onions with the butter until all loosened. Add the blackening spice, stevia, salt, sherry cooking wine and port.

Cook until onion are fully cooked. Sprinkle on the parmesan cheese and stir to melt. Then serve.

Special notes: If you are making a big batch of these you can sauté the onions and put them in a 9 by 13 inch pan in batches. Then add the other ingredients and stir. Bake for an hour at 350 degrees stirring half way through. Put them in a bowl and then stir in the parmesan. Then serve.

Leftovers will keep fine in the refrigerator. Serve with leftover turkey, chicken, beef, pork, lamb...even fish.

Cheers
Enjoy,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.