Onion Antics

Although I love to cook, there are a few things I hate about it. One is spending all that money. One is having to clean up the mess afterward. And one of my very least favorite cooking tasks is chopping onions. I have never been a big onion fan to begin with. When I was little (okay, maybe not so little, but I won't say just how many years ago that was), I always used to pick out every speck of onion I could find in my food. As I've grown older, I've gotten more accustomed to cooked onions, but I still have a difficult time with the flavor and aroma of raw onions. So, when my roomate asked me to chop the onions for our dinner today, I cringed and half-heartedly accepted my assignment. Sure enough, I had barely gotten a couple of chops in when the acrid odor reached my nostrils and I felt my eyes start to burn.
I'm not a quitter, so I bravely continued attacking the onions until I made it all the way through the first one. At that point, fearing the onions were in danger of a salt-bath from my teary eyes, I set them down and scrubbed my hands, in a vain attempt to eradicate the smell. I should have known better. The offensive odor continued to assault my senses until I was ready to surrender in disgust. It was at this point that I had an epiphany. I suddenly remembered, although I couldn't remember where I had learned it (probably from Mom and Janel's infinite store of cooking wisdom), that I had heard that if you put a piece of bread in your mouth while chopping onions, you won't cry. Although I had known this for a long time, I had never bothered trying it out (probably because I usually avoid the whole sticky situation by just dumping in minced onions instead). This seemed like an excellent time to test my theory. I left my onions and eagerly stuffed a half-piece of bread into my mouth.
The result was amazing! Withing seconds the smell was no longer bothering me! I could breathe again! A few minutes later, I shared my tip with my roomate, Megan, and it worked for her too!
Our dinner turned out great, and as for cooking, it will never be the same for me. Chopping onions will never bring me horror again. I may even volunteer to help with onions again . . .
as long as I have bread on hand!