Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

First off, thanks go to Sharon for choosing this recipe for her week. It was pretty simple, and it was a nice change of pace to be using beef broth after many weeks of chicken. We had this for a Saturday lunch along with a glass of Barbera from Castoro Cellars in Paso Robles. In keeping with the "French" theme we also shared a French Apple Tart from Trader Joe's, which flew into my cart on my trip there yesterday morning for a baguette and Gruyere cheese. Soup yes, baking not so much this weekend.

So, here are the ingredients assembled on the counter:

This soup started with a large pile of sliced onions, which were sauteed slowly for oh about 40 minutes until they reduced to golden yellow:

And let's not forget the bread, the cheese (for the crouton topping), the wine, thou, etc.:

The wine gets added to the onions, then the beef broth and the soup then simmers for 30 minutes. Meanwhile the bread gets toasted and waits for the cheese and the broiler.

When the soup is done, it gets ladeled into a bowl, a bread crouton is placed on top (should have used two, I now think), which is covered with the Gruyere and then is placed under a broiler for just a few minutes until it becomes gooey and melted, and just a little bit brown.

I brought some of the soup, bread and cheese over to our neighbors later in the afternoon, and when we came home from having dinner out, I found a lovely phone message from one of them; French Onion Soup is apparently his favorite, and he compared this recipe to soups he has apparently had from Paris years ago to a bistro in town just last week. I may keep the message around for awhile and play it now and again. Thanks Fran for the compliment, glad you enjoyed the soup.