Baked Vidalia Onions

For those who are not familiar, the Vidalia (Vie-dale-ya) onion is a sweet onion grown in Vidalia, Georgia and a limited number of surrounding counties, as mandated by the State of Georgia and the USDA. The sweetness of these onions is attributed to the low sulfur content in the soil of the region. Southerners and onion lovers, like me, celebrate their arrival in late spring each year.

Here is a recipe I picked up at the cash register, printed on an index card, from the iconic Mary-Mac's Tearoom in Midtown Atlanta, many years ago.



Baked Vidalia Onions
4 Vidalia onions
1 cup tomato juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter

Peel onions and slice off both the stem end and the blossom end. Place in a buttered baking dish. Mix together the tomato juice, honey, and butter. Pour over the onions. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until very tender.


So sweet! Tastes like dessert.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day Brunch

Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Gouda

Crisp Bacon

Stone Ground Grits with Butter and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Baked Vidalia Onion

Toasted Raisin Bread

Happy Mother's Day

Chocolate Banana Pudding

A traditional banana pudding, as I know it, is made with a vanilla custard layered with bananas and vanilla wafers, then topped with meringue. I decided to change things around and made chocolate pudding. Then I used animal crackers rather than vanilla wafers because, well because I really like animal crackers. And they're so cute! Lastly, I topped it with real whipped and unsweetened cream, lightly scented with vanilla.

Chocolate Pudding
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together the cocoa, sugar, and flour. Stir in milk until smooth. Stir constantly, over low heat, until the mixture comes to a boil. Add the butter and vanilla, stir to blend, then remove from heat. Cool the pudding completely before layering with bananas and animal crackers.

Stirring the pudding was one of my jobs as a girl, while my Mother made the rest of the meal. (The salad was another of my jobs.) To this day, I love the peaceful stirring and staring at the swirling pudding mixture. It is so relaxing to me and it always reminds me of those cherished days in the kitchen with my mother.

Celery Stuffed with Pimiento Cheese

I have previously blogged about Pimiento Cheese, a beloved Southern spread, which I grew up on, am very familiar with, and am comforted by. If you want to read the long version, you can here. This is the short version.

Without going into the differences of opinion about Pimiento Cheese, as I have covered that, I am simply stating the way I make it and my family prefers it. The traditional cheese used is extra sharp yellow cheddar, hand grated. Most recipes I see call for draining the pimientos and using much more mayonnaise than I do. I don't like the taste of mayonnaise so I retain the pimiento juice for added moisture and use only enough mayo to take advantage of its binding qualities.

If you let your cheese come to room temperature before grating, it will be easier to grate. Also because the cheese is softer, it is easier to judge the final texture while mixing.

Pimiento Cheese
16 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
4 oz. jar chopped pimiento, undrained
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1/4 c. to 1/2 c. good quality mayonnaise
Freshly ground black pepper or cayenne, to taste

Mix all ingredients together until desired consistency, starting with the lesser amount of mayonnaise.

Make Pimiento Cheese sandwiches, spread on crackers, or one of our family's favorite ways, stuffed into celery.

Wild Rice Salad

Several years ago, my coworkers and I would sometimes send out for lunch from a local bakery, which baked the most delicious breads they would then use at lunch-time to make unique and tasty sandwiches. They also offered scratch made soups every day, along with an array of salads, not to mention their beautiful pastries.

We loved and always ordered the Wild Rice Salad. We were all avid cooks and food lovers but we could never figure out that salad. We would pick out all the individual components--the wild rice, of course, the red bell pepper, the scallions, the almonds, and we could tell it had a vinaigrette dressing, but there was a very distinct background flavor we simply could not identify.

A couple of years ago, through a serendipitious meeting, a woman who was once the pastry chef at this bakery gave me the recipe. As I scanned the list of ingredients, I quickly identified the elusive flavor component--Mango Chutney!


Wild Rice Salad with Mango Viniagrette
8 oz. wild rice, cooked according to package directions, and cooled
1 red bell pepper, chopped
6 green onions, sliced
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 bunch (approx. 1/2 cup) minced parsley

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Dress with the following dressing.

Mango Viniagrette
1/4 cup mango chutney
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar, or more to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Puree the chutney and vinegar, then slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Mix the dressing into the rice mixture. Adjust the vinegar, salt and pepper, to taste.



Sadly, after almost 20 years, the bakery is no longer in business. They could not compete with the two corporate bakery giants who moved into town.