Okra Rellenos

Yes, it will be a lot of trouble, but for those who don’t like okra, this might be worth it to use up that okra. You can adjust the size of the pepperjack sticks to the size of the okra you have. This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in Southern Living about a half dozen years ago. Pico de gallo is a combination of chopped tomato, onion and jalapeno, usually seasoned with cilantro and lime juice. You’ve got three out of five of those ingredients in your box.

Fresh Tomato Soup 2

Fresh tomato soup recipes abound. A few years ago I suggested a similar one to this, but it wasn’t heated and used sugar instead of honey. This one has more peppers in it ( you could use a jalapeno or two if you like) and just a tiny bit of cream. Serve it with a grilled cheese and caramelized onion sandwich ?

Eggs Baked on Grits with Bacon and Tomatoes

Veering away from a focus on onions and garlic, just a reminder that those veggies make great breakfast food. This recipe from seriouseats.com calls for quick cooking grits, but you can (and should!) substitute long cooking grits like those from Riverview. Grits are another one of those things that you can cook up in a slow cooker – start them the night before and let them cook on slow overnight. Season to taste in the morning.

Caramelized Sweet Onions – in a slow cooker

We’ve posted a stovetop version of caramelized onions. Here’s one more way to make them, this time in a slow cooker. If you start them in the morning on a day when you’ll be home, you can just check on them periodically and they’ll be done some time before you’re ready to go to sleep.

Use your caramelized onions to top any piece of grilled meat, stir into sour cream or yogurt to make onion dip, sauté some potatoes and top with onions, stir into steamed squash, use them as a condiment on any sandwich …. they’re really versatile. And delicious.

40 Cloves and a Chicken

More onions, more garlic. I have to confess I’m puzzled when I hear that folks can’t figure out what to do with all the alliums that have been coming our way. They’re so essential to most everything I cook that I’m just pleased to see them in the box. But apparently that’s not the case for everybody. So here are a few more ideas for them, and a couple of other things.

This is one quick way to use up a lot of garlic, and it’s absolutely delicious. This particular version is adapted from a recipe in “Good Eats: The Early Years” by Alton Brown.

Caramelized Sweet Onion Tarte Tatin

This is a really simple recipe with a huge wow factor. If you keep a box of puff pastry in your freezer, you’re golden. You do keep puff pastry in your freezer, don’t you? It’s adapted from a recipe I first saw in Southern Living. For the prettiest tart, use the smallest onions you’ve got on hand. But really, it works with any size onion, just cut the onions into quarters or even eighths. The idea is to line the bottom of the skillet with onions in a pretty pattern so when you turn it upside down (after it’s cooked, of course), it’s a gorgeous pattern of rich, brown, buttery onions with crisp pastry on the bottom. Easy. Delicious, Impressive.

Pickled Onions

Feeling overwhelmed with members of the onion family? A miserable year for a number of crops has been a fantastic year for onions and garlic. I hear there are more in our future. There can never be too many onions or too much garlic for me.

Onions are easy, easy, easy to pickle and they’ll keep for months. They’re a traditional topping for tacos, but they’re great on any sandwich or chopped up into a salad. Red onions are the traditional onion for pickling but who says you can’t use white ones?