Dinner

It has gotten a little cold in our neck of the woods, cold enough that I was craving some soup.  I don't eat too many different soups.  As a matter of fact, I'm a pretty picky eater...simple eater.  I don't like too many ingredients messing up my meals.  I stick to simple condiments, mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce.  I don't add salt to anything after the cooking process.  I normally half the amount of salt required in a recipe unless we're talking Chocolate Chip cookies and well, that's baking, and we're not talking about either of those two things.  Anywho...my point is, that simple is key for me.  I like three soups, Tortilla (if I make it), French Onion (can't be too salty) and Won-Ton (needs lots of scallions).  Tonight I was craving French Onion soup.  French Onion Soup brings back good memories for me.  I used to eat it with my parents when I was a kid.  We would go to different restaurants and try it to see who had the best soup.  I once drove three and a half hours for French Onion Soup.  Well, OK, there's a bit more to that story, but part of the trip was for the soup.  

I could eat caramelized onions by the poundful.  I love the broth, I LOVE the gooey cheese and the French Bread.  So as I set out to make my soup, I couldn't find my recipe....dant, dant, daaaah!!! (that's music in case you couldn't tell)  OK, I pretty much know what goes in this soup (remember, simple?), I've made it a few dozen times, but I still need the recipe.  I always use a guideline for this soup.  I started to scour the web (my favorite resource,) and found a recipe that was pretty similar to my norm.  Click here to view my new FAVORITE French Onion Soup recipe!!!

I did make a few changes to this recipe.  Recipes are a guideline in my eyes, so I always wind up omitting, adding or tweaking the recipe somehow to make it more to my own liking.  I used two cartons of beef stock-all natural-salt free.  I used four (Costco) LARGE Vidalia Onions, I caramelized my onions till they were brown and super syrupy.  YUM!  I omitted the balsamic vinegar and added two tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce.  I didn't have any fresh herbs, so I eyeballed some thyme, parsley and added two baby leaves.  I did add pepper, but no salt.  I also mixed Gruyere cheese with Locatelli, I love that stuff! 

Stock photo from Allrecipes.com

If you are a French Onion Soup fan, (you know you are) then I encourage you to try this recipe.  If you're a salter (I know that's the way you like it) then add the salt, but seriously, this soup was very simple to make and delicious.  I think from start to finish it was done in about an hour and a half.  I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as we have.

'Till next time...