French Onion Pie and a Few Other Tips

When we did our monthly shopping, we bought a 10# bag of Michigan grown onions at the local vegetable stand. They're about softball size and starting to go bad so I chopped up the whole bag full and froze them in quart size zip-lock bags. I saved the orange mesh bag for making pot scrubbers! Remember, the idea is to not throw things away.

While chopping onions and wiping away my tears, I was reminded of an old family favorite: French Onion Pie. My mother's family was French and this was served every Christmas along with pork pie, head cheese and a few other specialties. Aside from toasted tomato sandwiches, my other favorites are onion sandwiches and Reuben sandwiches.

French Onion Pie:

3 Cups sliced onion rings (NOT chopped onions), 3 Tablespoons sour cream, 3 eggs, 3 teaspoons butter, a few shakes of salt, pepper and sugar.

I make a pie crust with lots of butter and a bit of shortening so the flavor compliments the pie.

Preheat over to 375 degrees. In a bowl mix the 3 eggs and the sour cream. In a fry pan melt the butter and add the sliced onions to it. Cook until the onions are golden, not brown. Remove from heat and add the onions to the sour cream/egg mixture. Add a touch of salt, pepper and sugar to the mixture and blend well. Pout the mixture into the unbaked pie crust and top with a lattice crust, if you prefer. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Tips:

I put two cups of dried kidney beans in a bowl with six cups of water to soak until tomorrow. When I'm ready to drain and rinse the beans, I KEEP the soaking water and use it to water houseplants or outdoor plants. I'm convinced it adds nutrients to the soil. Have done the same thing with dishpans full of water left over from scrubbing garden produce. Why pour sand and nutrients down the drain?

We're as guilty as the next person of not knowing what's in the frig and often opening a new bottle of something when it's lurking somewhere among the chilled produce, leftovers, milk carton and so forth. So, Yesterday, while CLEANING the frig - which means removing everything - I decided to try a little experiment. Every night, as I'm preparing supper, I gather up various bottles of sauces, dressings, pickles and jellies and challenge myself to use some of them in the evening's meal. It's going to make for some interesting meals! Last night I mixed together partial jars of strawberry jam, apple butter and about half a cup of maple syrup. This morning my new "syrup" was on the pancakes and we had a bit more room in the frig. Today, we had leftover Spanish Rice for lunch (there's another supper's worth still in the frig) and I added a partial bottle of ketchup to it. Another empty bottle!

Tonight we're having sauerkraut, potatoes and pork made in my #9 Griswold fry pan. We have two apples in the fruit drawer that are looking a bit poor. I'll slice them into the sauerkraut; it cuts the acidity.

Well, time to take a walk and see what the rest of our little world looks like. Treesong