Friday Foodie Fix - A collection of sorts - Onions

Today's Friday Foodie Fix secret ingredient is onions, the event hosted as always by the lovely Diane over at The W.H.O.L.E Gang.

To think, I grew up and actually wouldn't eat an onion to save my life. They were one of my least favorite things in the world. My mother actually used them as punishment. When I got in trouble I didn't get spanked, I didn't get grounded, I had to eat liver and onions... sometimes with brussel sprouts. Talk about the worst punishment in the world. I was pretty well behaved just to avoid a meal like that.

When I was around middle school age my father slowly started integrating onions into the weekend hash-browns and I liked them... ok, I knew my tastes were changing when I didn't like the potatoes as much without their onion accompaniment. When I met my husband who loved onions though, I started cooking with them and now I can't imagine that I ever had an aversion. I love onions. Still not a big raw onion fan but I do eat them on occasion and in certain recipes.

I don't have a specific recipe I wanted to use for today, as I use onions almost every evening when I cook. I feel they are a vital part of my kitchen and due to the recent loss of some other tasty ingredients, onion are even more on the front lines for me than ever, adding flavor, texture and joy to many of my dishes. So today, rather than share one great dish with you I thought I would share a collection of dishes that all feature onion in them. I'll link back to the original post for each dish so you may take a gander if you so choose.

Living Without Wheat: Quick and tasty pork chops. - I'm not a big pork chop fan, but I love this dish so much... the apple and onion glaze is soooo very tasty. I tend to try and stretch (not quite double) the amount of glaze I have at the end because it's so very tasty.

Living Without Wheat: Corn and Black Bean Salad.- I love this quick and easy dish and I always use a walla walla sweet in it. This is as close a replacement for salsa I have and it does a pretty good job. You could even use lime juice instead of vinegar and add a little cumin (thanks to all the other bloggers out there with a similar salad for the variety ideas.)

Living Without Wheat: Ghoul.... ash- I love this dish, love love love it. While I can no longer eat it (tomatoes and peppers are not my friends anymore) it was one of my childhood favorites. I'd finally been able to tweak enough recipes to get one that is as close to what "mom used to make" as it can be. Without the onion this dish would not be the same, I really use one whole onion in it. No skimping.

Living Without Wheat: Onion rings.- Need I say more. I'm going to be trying out a beer battered version of these soon. I'll let you know how it goes, in the meantime these are very very tasty.