Beer Battered, Fried Onion Rings

My dear husband's 8-year-old big mean inside cat ran away yesterday. Mike went to bed at 10 AM, and when he woke up at 3 PM, the front door was wide open, and Kearney was gone. We have seen neither hide nor hair of him since. Mike's pretty upset about it.

Adding insult to injury, work put him on call this weekend, even though he has asked since he started in July to get this weekend off so we could go to the GA Tech football game in Atlanta. Since our trip is in jeopardy, and I'm willing to move heaven and earth to put a smile on Mike's face, I offered to make chili dogs and onion rings like we would have had at the Varsity while we get irresponsibly drunk at home here in Clinton.

So now I have to figure out onion rings.

4 onions
1 cup flour
1 cup beer
a pinch of salt
a pinch of pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup Louisiana hot sauce (optional)
1 quart of vegetable oil for frying

1. Set the oil to heat at 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, beer, salt, pepper, and optional hot sauce (doesn't make them spicy - just adds more flavor) in a medium bowl.
3. Peel the onion, slice, and separate into rings.
4. Dredge the onion in the beer batter and drop lowly and slowly into hot oil
5. Fry for about 3-4 minutes, then turn over to fry for about the same time, until golden brown.
6. Put fried rings on a paper towel, shake with salt and pepper to taste.

I had a plate of these for supper tonight. That's it. Just one big onion beer battered and fried. With some ketchup. And the extra 4 ounces of beer. Again, never trust a skinny cook. Mental note to run 2 miles tomorrow morning, as it's too late to get my endorphins going and have any hope for sleep without Mike in the house.