Tacos and Vadalia Onion Pie

For your reading pleasure, I have digressed to my old self; bumbling around the kitchen and making mistakes left and right. I had a couple of friends coming over and I planned to make Wisconsin cheese fondue, Chicken Divan and Vidalia Onion Pie, but wait...I already posted the fondue and chicken, alright, what's up?!

So I tried to make the Vidalia onion pie, but made such a ghastly mistake that I had to take the whole dang thing and chuck it in the trash! Near tears on this one. Jeff spent a long time chopping up vidalia onions to fill the pie. I spent loads of time inefficiently crunching up cracker crumbs for the crust. Then I mixed up milk, cheese, an egg and a can of cream of mushroom soup to be added to our lightly browned onions in a delightful cracker crust. Hmm this sure does seem a little soupy...oh well, I will dump it in! So generally, I paste all of the recipes I am working on in a Word document for easy access. Apparently, that lead me to glancing at the wrong recipe! The cream of mushroom soup was NOT part of the recipe, it went with the Chicken Divan. Rookie mistake!

After I realized my mistake, I maybe said a word my mom would not approve of, stormed over to the oven, pulled out the pie and dumped it all in the trash. I look up at Jeff with little drops welling in my eyes. By this time, Jeff is prepared for the meltdown. He says, "no crying! I will go to the store, buy onions, crackers and another soup can and it will be fine." I insist that I don't want to make the onion pie anymore, I loathe the onion pie and I won't be subjected to cracker crunching again (at least not tonight). We settle that we will make the onion pie the next night and take some time to 'cool off'. So fast foward to the next night, the tacos are great and the vidalia onion pie is easier now that I have done it once before. Now I know I said I 'loathed' the onion pie but I don't mean that. The onion pie is one of my favorite recipes in the book; crunchy, salty, cheesy, savory and right up my alley!

Treasure Island Tacos

• 1 ½ lb hamburger browned

• 1 cup onion chopped and browned

• 1 clove garlic chopped and browned

• 1 – 8 oz tomato sauce – 3 sauce cans water

• 1 small tomato paste

• 1 tsp. chili powder

• 1 tsp. accent

• 1 tsp. oregano

• 1 tsp. cumin

• ½ tsp. sugar

• Salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste

Simmer for ½ hour. Before serving add 1 to 1 ½ cups of cooked rice, lettuce, cheddar grated, onion and tomato.

 

Vidalia Onion Pie

• 1 cup cracker crumbs

• 5 Tbsp. melted butter
• 2 ½ cups thinly sliced Vidalia onions
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
Press mixture of cracker crumbs and butter onto an 8in pie plate to form crust. Bake at 350°F for 8 minutes. Sautés onions on oil and skillet until tender, spread in pie shell. Combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper in bowl and mix well. Spoon over onions, top with cheese, bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Let rest before slicing.