No - it is not a dessert. It is, however, a fabulous dish that can be served as a vegie side or a stand alone meal. YUM!
When the Gladiator and I bought our first home in Gwinnett County in metro-Atlanta, home of the worst traffic on earth, we were blessed with wonderful neighbors. When we had our boys, they were never short of meals to bring over for us time and again. Our immediate across the street neighbors were retired and orginally born and raised in Alabama...............meaning..........she was an excellent down home cook! Every spring when the Vidalia onions were ready for the world, she would bake Vidalia pie and bring us a couple of slices. The first time she called to bring over a slice, I thought, "Who in the world eats onion pie?"
It only took one bite and I was hooked!
It wasn't too long after that, that I had her convinced to bake a whole pie for us every Spring. Bless her heart. I begged and pleaded for the recipe; but she said it was secret and she had never written it down. So I remained content for our Spring delight to be delivered from across the street.
Then the day came that they were planning to sell their house and move back home to Alabama. My dilemma was two-fold: I was losing one of the greatest neighbors of all time and how on earth would I ever again get to eat Vidalia pie.
I cried.
Literally the day the moving truck was loading up their furniture and all their memories, that precious neighbor walked across the street and knocked on the front door. When I opened the door, she held out her hand and gave me the secret recipe she had finally written down. I hugged her and cried. Not just for the recipe, but for the years of friendship and neighborship, for keeping our babies at a moment's notice, for helping me round up lost dogs, for listening to me complain and for sharing her woes as well, for the most beautiful Christmas cookies you've ever seen or eaten, for bringing me cuttings from shrubs in her yard to share the beauty and for just being Terri.
There isn't a time that I make this recipe that I don't think about her.
Since I consider you, my neighbor at large, I'm sharing this wonderful and delightful recipe - but be forewarned: It's a Secret! Shhhhhh! If you tell anyone, I'll send Bubba to see you!
VIDALIA ONION PIE
Ingredients:
* 2lbs. of Vidalia onions, peeled and thinly sliced (there is only one Vidalia onion and that is the onion grown in Vidalia, Georgia. In the wintertime, when I get desperate - I'll use Texas sweet onions.....but don't tell anybody.
* 1/2 Cup Butter
* 3 eggs, beaten
* 1/4 teaspoon of salt
* 1 Cup of Sour Cream
* Dash of Tabasco
* 1/4 Cup of grated Parmessan cheese
* 1 9inch pie crust (un-baked)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Heat butter in a large skillet. Add onions an saute` until tender. In a separate bowl combine eggs and sour cream. Add cooked onions. Stir in salt and Tabasco. Pour into pie shell and sprinkle the Parmessan cheese evenly on top.
Bake at 450 degree for 15 minutes, then reduce to 325 dgree for 20 more minutes and lightly brown on top. Serve warm.
Eat and enjoy!
PRONUNCIATION NOTE: Let's talk about dialect and the word "Vidalia". It is pronounced "Vie" (like pie, very loooonng "I") - "Day" - "Yuh"; you do not hear the "L" so it's "vie-day-yuh": Vidalia.
So now you know!
Harriette K. Jacobs
SouthoftheGnatLine.com
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