I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to raw meat....yes, I know this is a problem for doing the whole homesteading thing, but nevertheless, I don't like it. I can handle ground meat okay and boneless skinless chicken breasts. If there is skin, bones, or other yuck, I don't handle it as well. I am getting better though. Well, tonight was supposed to be the Slow Cooker Turkey and sweet potato casserole, etc for dinner. I forgot to have Jared get the turkey breast out of the package, rinsed and in the crock pot last night, so I was faced with what to make for dinner.
Hmmm, what to have? It was quite humid today and a bit uncomfortable in the house. I really didn't want to cook but the family has to eat, right? I pulled out some chicken breast from the freezer with the intent to maybe make a Chicken Alfredo or the like and use some of the chicken for Chicken Salad for Saturday's lunch. I was okay with that and proud of thinking ahead. I really didn't want to turn on the oven so I decided to grill the chicken. As I began preparing the chicken, I spotted two 10 lb bags of Vidalia onions I had purchased at Costco last week. VOILA!! I got excited.
If you have never had vidalias you are missin' out!! They are SWEET onions from Georgia and are delicious. They have a very short season though, soJared and I look forward to "Onion Season" every year. We LOVE these and have his uncle to thank for introducing them to us.
I peel the onions, cut them in half and then into wedges and pile them all in our big cast iron skillet. (This thing is a beast that we bought, years ago when we lived in Texas, expressly for Chicken & Vidalias.) I used 7 large onions tonight. Slice a full stick of real salted butter around the top of the mound and sprinkle, generously, with ground black pepper. 
Place on the grill over medium flame. Mix/toss with two wooden spoons occasionally to mix it all up. After a while, you are going to have some of THE best caramelized onions ever! 
I cut the boneless skinless chicken breast into long strips tonight to let them cook faster and put those on the grill when the onions were about done. When the chicken is cooked through, mix into the onions and let it simmer for a few more minutes. OH MY GOODNESS!!! My mouth is watering all over again, just typing this out!
Miranda is the only little who likes the onions so I always leave some of the chicken out for the others and add something else for them to eat. Tonight it was to be pasta. Just before turning on the stove, I remembered the grill has a side burner......so I fired that baby up and took my big pot of water out there to boil for the noodles. Good job, me!!! I didn't heat up the kitchen at all!!! Impressive....maybe not to anyone else but me, but I was very excited! Teehee.....it really is the small things.
Jared pulls in and gets out of the car and says, "We're having onions!!" He could smell them as soon as he rolled down the window to get the mail! HA! He was happy to come home to that!
I bring in all the food, Savannah sets the table, and after draining the noodles I added 4 tbsp butter, 1 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Man oh man, it was all soooo yummy! All without heating up the kitchen.
Our kitchen is by far the hottest room in the house with the least air flow. It was really nice to not be sweating all while preparing and eating dinner! I am very motivated to figure out more crock pot meals and how make use of the grill and side burner.
The other advantage, I could be outside while the kids played in the yard. Even Chandler was crawling around in the grass......
I like my life!
