Caramelized French Onion Soup A few days ago, Scott asked for the address to my blog.  I was immediately suspicious.

He told his friend that I had a "cooking blog".  The friend was going to give the URL to his wife so she could look at it since she likes to cook too.

I hung my head in shame.  I said he should probably not do that.  There wasn't much to read in the way of "cooking" lately and he's all confused and I'm all, "I mean, I have a recipe index…" and he's like, "Hey, just give me the link to that then" and I scowled and that was the end of the conversation.

Side note: Let me remind you all that I have the recipe index simply because I'm terrible at writing down recipes.  I even try, every now and then, to do this in a word document and I fail at that.  The only way a recipe ever gets documented in this house is if I click "publish".

The next day, I made soup from scratch.

Often, French Onion soup is one of those that tempt me on a menu when I'm out somewhere.  However, having worked at a restaurant, I know that they just reheat that same pot of soup day in and day out until it's gone.  Really.  Never order soup in a restaurant.  So I make my own French Onion soup at home. Usually I use the crockpot, but sometimes I just don’t feel like cleaning the crockpot.  That is the honest to goodness truth.  Sometimes using it is actually more trouble than it’s worth.  It often sits in the sink for days, full of soapy water, after it has crockpotted us a delicious soup or stew.

This time, I went with a stockpot on the stove. I caramelized the onions first and it only took about 30 minutes.  I filled the pot with beef stock and let it simmer all day.  This might be the easiest soup in the world.

use a 6 quart pot

2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 T. butter

6 cups beef broth
2 T. white wine (or sherry)
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Melt the butter over low heat and add in the onions.  Stir them around to coat them and then put the lid on the pot.  Keep it on low.  Stir every few minutes until they become soft and start to turn golden brown.  (This is where I should've taken a picture…)
The caramelizing will take about 30 minutes.  Then, add in the wine, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce and turn it up to medium.  Pour in the broth or stock.  Allow it to come to a boil and then turn it to low and keep the lid on.  It can simmer for an hour or 6 hours.  Whatever fits your timetable. The longer it sits on low heat, the better.

To make croutons, this is my preferred method with swiss, provolone, mozzarella, etc.  However, if that's too involved (as it was for me on this particular day…), just slice some crusty bread, broil it to golden-brown, and add cheese to the top.
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