Kaki, I really enjoyed making those Oven Caramelized Onions this past week.  So little work to turn something so humble into something so tasty!

So now I need to decide what to do with these babies!  I already made a quick pizza at Cooper’s place the other night; Boboli pizza crust, a little tomato sauce, some fresh mozzarella, some caramelized onions, and some fresh basil.  Delicious.

After a ton of internet searching I came up with the following other options:

• Pissaladiere – this turns out to be a traditional Italian focaccia recipe with caramelized onions, olives, and anchovies.  Olives aren’t really my thing, but I’d never heard of this dish before, so that was interesting.
• Poulet Yassa or Poisson Yassa – and this is a traditional Senegalese recipe!  I love food from other cultures.  I don’t know if one could actually make this dish using the already caramelized onions, since the raw onions are a part of the marinade, but even so one could either make a neat take on this dish with them, or maybe I’ll just file this away under “to make later”.
• in a grilled cheese – we’ve made these before, so we both know they are change-your-life levels of amazing.
• in a dip – I needed something savory for book club this week.  Done and done.  (See below!)
• in a cold salad – who just happens to have walnuts and feta and arugula in her kitchen?  This girl.
• in a warm salad – peaches and green beans and caramelized onions!  Genius.
• on top of a burger – duh.
• in pasta – I’m thinking cook spaghetti, and then dress in butter, olive oil, parmesan cheese and caramelized onions.  Maybe add some toasted bread crumbs?  Too much?  I’m leaning towards no.
• for French Onion Soup – a classic.  Too bad I don’t keep beef broth on hand!
• added to a stew – how freakin’ good does barley and beans and spinach and caramelized onions sound?!
• added to beans – yes, this could be quite a nice side dish, indeed.

Here’s the dip I ended up making for book club:

It’s just one 8 oz. container of whipped cream cheese (I like whipped because then it makes stirring it all together so much easier), a couple tablespoons of really finely chopped caramelized onions, and maybe a tablespoon or so of finely chopped fresh parsley.  Really tasty.  And I think I’ll use the leftovers to make a creamy pasta sauce like I’ve done before.

Also, the internet keeps saying I can freeze caramelized onions, and since you only need a little at a time (read: I still have so much of this, and do not want it to spoil), I’ll be doing just that to have some at the ready whenever I want!

Have a lovely Memorial Day, Kaki!

–Caitlin

P.S.  I feel like I’ve use a ton of exclamation points in this post!  And I’m not going to edit that number down!  Because I am a rebel, a punctuation rebel, and we all know it.

P.P.S.  Okay, I edited one out.  Even I thought that was overkill.