Onion Rings and another Burger

Over Labor day weekend I decided it was time for another hamburger. I didn't want french fries and I didn't have any eggplant to make eggplant fries, but I did have a few good sized onions. Onion rings were what I decided to make since I haven't done it in quite some time and both the hubby and myself love them.
Onion rings are pretty simple to make but time consuming if you don't have enough counter space or a deep fryer. I use my regular saute pan and put in about a half inch to an inch and a half of oil (I used olive oil). As for the onions, get them ready before you get your oil heating up. Slice two good sized onions in half inch slices (make sure to separate them) and take out the little pieces in the middle that aren't really rings cause they are too compact, set them aside for another dish or something else that is in need of chopped onion. Take about four cups of all purpose(wheat or white works) flour (more or less depending on how many you are going to make.) and salt and pepper it to your liking, making sure to mix it well.

Now this is where most people divide the flour, but I choose not to. I used my casserole dish to hold the flour, put the slices into the flour, coating them evenly and set into a bowl. Crack an egg into another bowl and add water to it (about the same amount of water as egg) and mix well. Using your hands take a few onion rings at a time and place them in the egg/water mixture then using a fork (my genius mother suggested this from when she made my eggplant fries) take the onion rings out of the egg and put them back into the flour you used previously to do the first coat. Make sure to coat the onions well and they are ready for the hot oil!
The oil should only need to be at medium low to medium heat, hotter than that will cause it to smoke and burn. Add the onion rings to the oil, watch them and flip when they get a beautiful golden color on one side. When they are done place them on a plate with napkins/paper towels to soak up excess oil and let cool a bit before serving.

I also said I made a hamburger. Well that is pretty simple as I used lean ground beef, mixed with salt, pepper, paprika, and a few drops of liquid smoke to season it. Cook them as I suggested on my other hamburger post, except instead of adding in the cheese I decided to let it melt on top as I finished them off. I also used wonderful homemade hamburger buns that I found over at Our Best Bites. They have a recipe for French Bread, Hoggies, and Buns. I didn't do any changing except for using half all purpose wheat flour & half regular all purpose flour as well as substituting the vegetable oil for extra virgin olive oil (it was all I had at the time).

They turned out perfect, I think I will be using this recipe for hamburgers and quite a few other sandwiches from now on (unless of course I find yet another that I like)!