Sweet Onions

My kids have a huge passion for onions! They absolutely love grilled onions and onion rings. Every year we have a huge onion festival in my hometown of Weslaco, TX http://www.weslaco.com/OnionFest. My sister and I setup a booth for our JOY Marie's Boutique http://joymaries.com/ and the kids got to run around to all the food booths.

Onion Scoops ~ Recipe
Ingredients:
2 large onions, sliced in scoop sizes for easy dipping.
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
Directions:
Separate onions into scoop strips. Mix with buttermilk in a large bowl. Cover with plastic and refrigerate 1 hour. Can be prepared 1 day ahead if kept refrigerated. Stir flour, salt, paprika and cayenne in another large bowl. Drain onions and discard buttermilk. Add onions to flour mixture and toss to coat. Pour oil into a heavy saucepan to a depth of 3 inches. Heat oil to 350 degrees F. Working in small batches, shake excess flour off of onions and cook in hot oil until golden brown and crispy, about 2 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer onions to paper towels to drain. Transfer onions to platter. Season with additional salt to taste and serve immediately.
Secret Southern Touch:
Dip the crispy onion scoops into a bowl of spicy salsa or guacamole dip.