What Ed Said About Cutting Onions

Welcome to the 87th weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's YOURS goes to Santa's Gift Shoppe! She posted instructions on how to make my all-time favorite Girl Scout cookie, thin mints! These cookies are incredible, and you'll see why I know that tomorrow. How could they be otherwise with ingredients like this...?

Honestly, there is almost nothing that I love more than homemade versions of store-bought stuff, versions that leave out the hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup and all of the other unpronounceable ingredients. For Santa's Gift Shoppe's recipe, click HERE. Thank you so much Santa's Gift Shoppe, and feel free to grab the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar!

MINE: My father was probably the most interesting person I've ever met in my life, so much so that my mother, before he died, had thought about writing a blog called "What Ed Said" to record all of the memorable words of wisdom he pontificated...

(Ed is shown here carefully pressing plastic wrap onto his coveted guacamole to keep it from browning.)

She never did get around to it, but because I love the ring to that title, I'm going to use it in this and subsequent titles of my various blog posts. Thanks for the fodder, Mom!

And since I brought up Santa in the "YOURS" section of this blog, let me just say that during the latter years of his life, Ed strangely resembled a jolly red-clad man who rides in a sleigh at Christmas time, complete with red polo shirts and suspenders, and when awed children pointed to him in grocery stores, then whispered to their mothers, "Mommy, there's Santa Claus!", he would walk past them saying "Ho, ho, ho!"

And that was probably one of the most "normal" things he did.

Along with painting my mother's dining room picture window white so she couldn't see the discarded thrift store finds he would pile outside her home, asking us if we had let anyone tie us up when we came home from school, and telling us we didn't have to brush our teeth because we had behaved so well that day, one of Ed's trademarks was that when he cooked, he cooked A LOT. Using a large stock pot was not sufficient if he wanted to whip up a batch of soup. He had to use an Army kitchen sized stock pot, one he had purchased at an authentic Army Surplus store. I remember having to ladle soup into bag after Ziploc bag because there was so much, that we had to freeze at least three-fourths of it, and that was after the seven of us had eaten it for every meal for a week.

But really, all kidding aside, I learned many homemaking skills from my father during these marathon cooking sessions. One of the most valuable skills he taught me, and one I even passed on to a short-order cook when I worked in a diner in Louisiana, was how to cut an onion. In honor of Ed, let me share...

(Note: To avoid tears when you're cutting an onion, try THIS tip.)

The first step is to peel off the skin, then slice off the top, like so...

(Make sure to leave the bottom in tact)

The second step is to slice the onion in one half inch strips almost all the way to the bottom, but not quite, leaving the pieces still connected together...

The third step is to slice these slices in the opposite direction, continuing to keep the onion in tact...

And lastly, slice these slices off the onion, like so...

...leaving wonderful little chunks perfect for making enough soup for an Army...

I really love this technique because there is no trying to pile slices of onions on top of each other to then again slice them down to size. Try it...you'll love it!

Thanks for listening.

OURS: Okay, I can't wait to see what all of you amazing homemaking have for us today. Last week was the biggest Homemaking Monday since it's conception, which was hugely exciting for me, so thank you so much for linking up and visiting. Have a great Homemaker Monday!