Onion-o-rama!

The first Second Friday of the year has come and gone and it couldn't have gone better! Granted, it was Friday the 13th but the magic of Second Friday far outweighed any dangers that could have come our way.


Now keeping true to the theme, Onion-o-rama was indeed all about the onions...

 Camera 1

Camera 2...You are looking at well over 4 lbs of yellow onions. Just the sight brings glorious tears to our eyes.

Now, time wise it all worked wonderfully. We basically started every dish around the same time but for viewing sake we'll break it down dish by dish...

So to begin let's look at the appetizer!

First things first, we had to cut up a lot (4+lbs) of onions...


But thanks to our spiffy no-tear-onion protectors not a single tear was shed!     
                       

Meanwhile, we put some bacon in the oven... it smelled heavenly.

Then, all the onions went on the stove...

So many onions! The pot was overflowing!

We then poured the bacon grease into the onions to really get them cooking!

Next, the most tempting part... cutting up the bacon!

Nom Nom Nom!

All the other ingredients and spices were then added to the onions.

Apple cider... which is the exact same as apple juice as long as it's the Kroger brand. 

Fun Fact.

Sorry for the weird flash we were having trouble with the pictures turning all yellow, but we fixed it!

White wine vinegar

Brown sugar

"I'm melting!!!" said the brown sugar 

Black pepper...

 and Thyme.

This was given a good stir to really mix things up and then it just sat and reduced down to pure deliciousness.  At which point we grabbed some bagel chips and spread some goat cheese on them.

Then, 

Ta-dah! These were so delicious!! The tart of the goat cheese fit so perfectly with the bacon and onions. Simply divine.

Next, the french onion soup!

So simple! We forgot to take pictures of the other ingredients, but doesn't this look nice?

First things first, butter in a pot!

Then some onions in that pot!

They then sat and cooked for about 20 minutes or so...

At which point they had a most delicious brown color and we moved them from the stove to the oven.

All done!

We then poured in some wine and allowed it to reduce for 5 minutes or so.

In with the beef and chicken broth!

You then add some garlic (not pictured unfortunately!) and allow it to just sit and simmer for a good 30-45 minutes.

Finally scoop some soup into ramekins (we had some mug ramekins!)

Place toast

Grate some amazing (and ridiculously expensive) Gruyere cheese over the top.  You may need assistance if you are an amateur cheese grater, such as Alixx.  She couldn't have done it without Kelsey's help!

The bowls were then placed in the broiler to melt that cheese down. (Now our bowls said they weren't broiler safe. Which is ridiculous, so we used the broiler anyway. We're rebels.)

Then after a couple minutes 

Yum!!

Last but not least, the dessert!

Cut up your apples and sweet onion and put on baking sheet...

Then we got too frustrated with how long it takes to cook the onion in the oven and placed them in a skillet to caramelize. 

While that was cooking we prepared the batter, egg whites... and only the egg whites!

Mixed until foamy...

Then you add the flour, baking powder, sugar and milk. Pretend we took pictures. 
Next we got our pan ready, nothing too fancy just sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper.

Once the onions were finished we took them off the heat, melted some butter and brown sugar, which was then added to the onions.

Then began to assemble our cake, onions then apples.

Poured the batter over the top and placed in the oven.

Once it's all done we let the cake sit and cool for a few minutes.

Until the time came to flip over the cake!

Success!

Doesn't that look so good?!

Cut and serve with some french vanilla ice cream!

All in all it was the best way to start out the Second Friday business for the new year.  So much good food and well worth the wait! Plus we had such cute little guests watching our every move...

And then giving us some in-dinner entertainment... so cute!!

Just as a reminder, all the recipes can be found in our previous posts. 
Plus stay turned for more Second Friday happenings... we already have some great ideas for the upcoming months! And like us on Facebook already!