French Onion Soup

I love soup. I am a huge fan of soup in all shapes and sizes, creamy, brothey, thin, and thick. I have a special place in my heart for home made soup. I like to make soup, I think soup made from fresh ingredients tastes so much better.

French Onion Soup

4-5 med sweet or yellow onions
2 cartons of beef broth
2 cups of white wine
bay leaves
thyme
french bread
gruyere
olive oil
kosher salt
3 tbsp butter
dash of sugar

You need to start with a thick bottom pot, this will help distribute your heat better, especially if your stove is a piece of shit like mine.  Melt your butter on medium low heat.
Cut your onion in half then thinly slice it.
Add your onions to your pan and sprinkle with about 1 tbsp of salt. Drizzle with about 1tbsp of olive oil and stir up to coat well.

getting ready to hang out while you pour yourself some wine

Now you need to cover your pot and let all that stuff sit in the pot for 15 min. It needs to hang out and don't worry about stirring it or burning it, just leave it alone (you should still be about med/low heat)

oh, now we're all sweaty.

After 15 min your onions are ready for your constant attention. They should have produced some milky liquid. Now you need to sprinkle in about a tablespoon of sugar, stir it in well. Then crank the heat up. 

it's getting hot in here!

Now you need to keep it moving, you need to stir your onions every few minutes. Best bet is to not leave the kitchen. I am sure there is something you need to do in there. Like the dishes. Or clean out the fridge. Or organize your pantry. 

10 min into cooking

After these guys started to get a little softer I added in a bay leaf and covered it in the onions so it could get soggy and pass on some flavors. 

20 min 

at about 20 minutes I reduced the heat to just a hair below medium.

30 min

mmmm yummy brown

now you need to make sure that you are paying attention. This brown goodness that is accumulating on your pan? well you need to be stirring that up and getting it all over your onions. You may have to put some elbow into it but it's what holds all your glorious flavor. 

45 min

Optimum color has been achieved 

Now pour two cups of wine and add it to your onions giving it a little stir to get all the brown goodness up from the bottom of the pan. 

Add two more bay leaves and let go for about 10-15 more minutes, or until it's reduced to a syrup consistency. 

I could just eat it with my fingers.

Now we are ready for rest of the liquids. It's about to get easier. And we are almost done.

Add your broth and let it all simmer for about 30 more minutes. Or in my case an hour, because the husband was very late home from work. 

When you are ready to ingest set your oven to broil. move the oven rack to the top half of the oven. put a few slices of toast in to get a little toasty. 

see how those onions, how convenient they show up there... 

someone may be trying to stage her food shots better. 

Ladle your soup into the bowls and shred a little cheese. Then put our toasty bread on top then top with more shredded cheese. 

Broil until cheese has reached desired melty-ness. I like mine to be just bubbling. 

Then eat it, and eat more of it, then a little more. 

I used these links for inspiration: 

Alton Brown

Smitten Kitchen

I have a photo-addiction

I have an addiction to the camera on my iPhone.

I sat for over 30 min the other day and deleted almost 700 pictures. I still have over 1,400. I have only had my phone about 14 months.

Also I am willing to bet that 90% of the pictures are dog pictures... and 18% are self shots.

I need glasses

I made it almost 30 years without needing glasses. But I've been getting headaches and my most recent eye exam showed an astigmatism and a very low prescription needed. Mostly I will need them for reading, computer use and night driving. I guess, that's what the guy said. I just want my head to stop hurting, and I'd like to be able to drive at night again. Well, I can drive at night, I just have a hard time seeing, and I get really nervous when cars pass me going the opposite direction because I cannot see very well.

So anyway I went looking at glasses today.

BTW, taking pictures of yourself in the glasses department of any store is just a little weird. But I only had one person ask if I needed anything and I explained that my husband is out of town (truth) and I don't trust myself to buy glasses without someone else's opinion (also truth).

Rectangle -

 

Pink-

 

Oval-

 

Calvin Klein-

Converse-

Blue-

Turquoise-

Pink 2 -

So those are the ones I looked at today. I have yet to be even close to making a decision, but I'd like to order them tomorrow.

Just an FYI

I am giving wordpress a spin.
I like blogger, but in the past it has been more pain then it's worth.
I will continue to post both here and there (cut and paste)
Until I choose my favorite.
I don't know when that will be, but I will notify everyone here and there.
I know I am incredibly indecisive.
But After a day with wordpress there are a few things that I really like about it.
Like I said... We'll See.

http://confessionsofamarinewife.wordpress.com/

Vlog?

This whole cooking thing is a matter of opinion. There is no right and wrong. Just food... and inedible.



This has inspired me. I'd like to vlog, or at least try it. I don't know what to say though. And I'll probally have to take a page from MDK's book and do it drunk or drunk-ish the first time. Because I am terribly nervous and am scared of all of you.

But again I don't know what to talk about.

Ideas?

Things you may have missed.

If you are not friends with me on facebook (me as in the person, not the blog), then you missed this little nugget of gold from last night. 

Love you daddy! 

Spicy Tzatziki sauce

I may have shared this recipe already, But it's dope.
Sorry I don't measure anything.


Alana's Amazing Spicy Tzatziki
1 large tub of greek yogurt
cheesecloth
about 1/2 tbsp cayenne
2 cucumbers (with seeds removed)
fresh dill
2 tbsp chopped garlic
salt and pepper to taste

I strained the yogurt by putting the cheese cloth in a strainer, dumping in the yogurt and wrapping it up.

After wrapping it tightly I placed a bowl on top to keep light pressure, too much pressure and the yogurt will ooze through the cheese cloth. Let it sit a good 2-3 hours.

While you are letting the liquid drain from your yogurt quarter and gut your cucumbers. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for about an hour to sweat out the liquid.

Unwrap your yogurt and you can return it back to the original container if you like.

I pureed my cucumbers, but I didn't mean to, I wanted to just chop them up a bit.

(I need a manicure)

Chop up a few sprigs of dill, to about 2 tbsp. and combine all extra ingredients together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for a few hours at least, but best overnight. 


You can eat this with anything, veggies, pita bread, tortilla chips, a spoon.




(sorry I am no food photographer, it may not be pretty but it's still amazing.)