Recipe - Oven Baked Onion Rings w/Spicy Dipping Sauce

Oven Baked Onion Rings and Dipping Sauce

So, it's a Friday night and I felt like having something a little bad.  I wanted something that tasted good, but not something I normally have.  For some reason onion rings sounded perfect and I found this great oven-baked recipe.  You never know what you're going to get, when trying something new out, but this turned out amazing!!!  The onions turn out crispy, not soggy and the coating is spectacular!  Definitely will make these again, but just can't do it too often.  It's nice for a special treat.


Recipe - Oven Baked Onion Rings w/Spicy Dipping Sauce

Courtesy of Annie's Eats

Oven-Fried Onion Rings

Ingredients:
½ cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 large egg, at room temperature
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
30 saltine crackers
4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips
2 large yellow onions, sliced into 24 rings (½-inch thick rounds)
6 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions: 
Adjust oven racks to lower- and upper-middle positions.  Preheat the oven to 450˚ F.  Place ¼ cup of the flour in a shallow baking dish.  Beat the egg and buttermilk together in a bowl.  Whisk the remaining flour, cayenne, salt and pepper into the buttermilk mixture.  Combine the saltines and potato chips together in a food processor and pulse until finely ground.  Place half of the crumb mixture in a second shallow baking dish; reserve the other half.

Working one at a time, dredge each onion ring in flour, shaking off the excess.  Dip the onion rings in the buttermilk mixture, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl, and then dredging in the crumb coating, turning to coat evenly.  When the crumb mixture is low, add the reserved crumb mixture to the dish for dredging the remaining onion rings.  Transfer the coated rings to a large plate or platter.

Pour 3 tablespoons of the oil onto each of 2 rimmed baking sheets.  Place the baking sheets in the oven and heat just until smoking, about 8 minutes.  Tilt the heated sheets to coat evenly with the oil.  Lay the onion rings out in a single layer on the oiled baking sheets.  Bake, flipping the onion rings and rotating the pans halfway through baking, until golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes total.  Transfer to a paper towel-lined rack briefly before serving.

Baby Onesies

I went to California earlier this week.  It was time to get my hair done (yes, I travel to Cali and use the same hair stylist I've used for over 17 years!) and I got to meet my cousin's little girl, Sienna, for the first time.  

What do you get a 5 month old??  I didn't want to go empty handed to Kelli's (my cousin) house, so instead of running out to buy baby clothes, I got the brilliant idea that I'd make a couple of baby onesies.  I mean, how hard could that be, right?  After much research, I decided on several ideas, but putting them into clothes, is not something I do often.  (I don't even own a onesies and I'm almost 43!).  

First idea.....Let's tie-dye/dip a couple of outfits.  How cute would that be?  Well, of course it would be cute.  But good grief!!!  Any idea how long that takes?  First I dipped half of the onesie, then I had to let another 1/3 of it really soak in the dye.  Once that was finished, I had to let the material air dry out, so as to let the dye really soak in and not fade. The next step is to rinse.  Let air dry again.  Rinse.  Air dry and iron.  After a day and a half, I was ready to make a onesie.  (Oh, and by the time these were done rinsing, drying, repeating, etc, it was less than 16 hours before my plane left.)  

Luckily for me, while the process of dying was going on, I had made a couple of different fabric flowers, printed out a couple of words and was almost ready to get to work.  I ironed my newly dyed clothes and started out sewing on flowers, painting on fabric and ironing on appliques.  I actually made some really cute baby clothes.  And, what's great about them is you can't find them in any store. :-)  Hope you enjoy them, Sienna.  I really did have fun making them, even if it would have been cheaper and easier to get them at Hermes!

Just love this Monkey!

Handmade fabric flower with glitter fabric paint

Fabric Flower with Metallic Silver fabric paint

Who knew that lots of people get up before 8 am??

I'm always the busiest, when I seem to have nothing planned.  Why is that?  You'd think that with a slow calendar, it would allow for some relaxation.  Fat chance of that!  Life just keeps flying right on by, busy or not.
This past week I started walking at 6 am, with a neighbor/friend.  For those of you that know me, mornings are NOT my strong suit.  As a matter of fact, when I told Chris that I was getting up to walk at that hour, he looked at me, incredulously, and then asked "What time did you say?"  I repeated the time back to him and you would have thought I just told him that I was dying.  The sheer look of panic in his face was priceless!  He knows me and knows that if I rise before 8am, this cannot mean good things for anyone involved.  I found it funny, on the first day I started walking, that he went out into the back yard, when he heard me coming out of the bedroom.  On normal mornings, I don't even speak to Chris, until after I've had my Starbucks or Frappe.  I think he finds it helpful not to talk to me until I've been up for a good hour or so.  Lol!  Poor guy!!  It's not just him......I've been like this my whole life.  I hate the mornings.  I hate everything about them.  I hate that I have to wake up.  I hate that I have to get out of bed and I especially hate that I have to eat breakfast!!  The thought of shoving food into my mouth when I first get out of bed, seems just gross to me.  I've never been one to eat in the mornings.  I was good waiting until lunch to eat.  But, in this past year, I've learned to make myself eat breakfast, because I know it's important.  I still find it repulsive if I stop and think about it, so normally I don't.  I just shove those Cinnamon Cheerios down the hatch and try not to think about the fact that I'm still half asleep.
Walking around the neighborhood has been a pleasant change, actually.  I don't mind being out and about and it's really nice to have someone to talk to.  It makes the hour go by so much more quickly, than when I'm at home on the treadmill.  I hope that we can keep up the early mornings, but know that it will be a challenge, as it stays darker longer and longer.  Come on, Kristina!  We can do it!!  :-)