Thanks for all your input.  I tried it as I remembered and listed above and it kinda came out okay but was really solid and not at all creamy....don't think I'll do it that way again.

 

Have any of you been watching the 'Ultimate Recipe' competition on the FOOD NETWORK?  They had, as one of their comfort food recipes, a mac & cheese contest between three cooks and one of those incorporated carmalized onions into it....and it won.  It looked really yummy but then I love onions.  One thing the guy who cooked it did was to add a little honey to the onions to sweeten them...I'm going to try that.