Did I Break My Stroller For This?

I had onions on my list when I went to market, and the farmer said laconically, "how manyja want?"  And he handed me a heavy grocery bag full of seconds.  For free.  I had just canned my way through over a bushel of tomatoes and was not looking to preserve something.  I had never dealt with that many onions, some of which were slightly rotting and most had that black stuff which looks like mildew to me.  But I rarely decline FREE.  "Do not resist chances: take them like vitamins" (an internet meme I have pinned to my canning board on Pinterest).

I had a stroller full of market purchases, so I hooked the heavy bag onto the clip on the handle and creaked home.  The stroller collapsed on the porch as I struggled it inside - Phoebe was fine.

In the chaos of getting the perishables into the fridge, Phoebe found the sack of onions on the floor and took several mouthfuls out of an onion before we noticed.  She eats the bits of onion out of her food and says "yum", so I should not have been surprised.  I set aside the nibbled onion with the worst-looking onions.

I googled around until I found an easy onion jam to can.  I used this one.  When I tasted the finished jam, I didn't care for the lemon peel in there.  We'll see - sometimes citrus needs some time in the canning jars to taste right to me (for example, marmalade).

The jam wasn't done cooking down until around 9pm.  All my equipment was on hand due to the bushel of tomatoes, so I turned on the outside light and canned that jam in my canner on the grill burner (I do really wonder what my neighbor the judge thinks of all my machinations as she sits on her side porch in the evenings).

And while I was waiting for the jam to process, I filled up the recently-emptied slow cooker with sliced onions and olive oil to caramelize overnight.  My husband came into the kitchen at 10pm and very nicely got out the other big knife and helped me.  We went to bed with stinging eyes from all those onions, I'm afraid.

The next morning I had to cook and stir the caramelized onions with the lid off a few more hours to get them browner and evaporate some liquid.

I packaged them up for the freezer.  The only ideas I have for them right now are  a caramelized onion pasta sauce from Moosewood, steak toppings, and French onion soup.

And then, my husband looked at the broken stroller and said, oh, that's easy.  He got out his drill and fixed it somehow (Phoebe helped).  I think his drill died a natural death in the process because he told me he found a replacement on ebay.

I still have a number of onions to use up - good thing I signed up for chopped onions for all our Labor Day festivities!