French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup

1 lb onion, sautéed in butter for 20-30 minutes

Add 2 cans chicken broth and 2 cans beef broth 

Add 1/2 cup dry sherry

Grate swiss or parmesan cheese over the soup and broil 

This recipe is SUPER good, and incredibly easy.  The instructions were minimal, but I think that’s because the recipe is quite inexact.  Put it all together.  Heat it up.  Done.

It reminds me of the fact that, in addition to being the glamorous woman-of-the-world I often remember her to be, she was also a single, working mother for phases of her life.  It reminds me of my latchkey kid days, when we lived in a small townhouse along the highway.  My mom would leave my brother and I $5 on the counter to go buy lunch at the grocery store during our days off of school.  We would split the money evenly, and I remember exactly how we would spend it.  My brother was more set on quantity, buying oodles of baked goods from the “day old” rack to make sandwiches.  I, impulsively focused on pleasure over sustenance, would purchase a 2 Liter of Tahitian Treat and a pack of Twinkies.  The sugar high and running through the weeds and hot, sun-toasted skin that followed were euphoric.  The crash and sunburn and irritability that followed (particularly in the context of a carbo-loaded, planful, irritated big brother), was a living story arc – characters introduced/setup (blah blah home alone kids blah) > inciting incident (WHAT WILL WE EAT?!?! WE’RE HOME ALONE!!!) > Conflict (This is MY $2.50!! I wanna buy THIS?!?) > Full Crisis/Climax (me running around on a crazy sugar high while my brother attempts to beat me with a loaf of day old bread) > Solution (I will lick the frosting out of my Twinkie wrappers while enduring muscle cramps, while my brother leaves to go skateboarding).  CLOSE SCENE.

 Oh, weren’t we talking about soup?  Yes….the soup.  I love French Onion soup, and order it at any and all restaurants.  And, I have to admit, this tasted just as good as the soup I’ve ordered out and about.  The fancy-factor is the bread/crouton and cheese baked on top, which I really couldn’t figure out at home.  I put a chunk of artisan bread and a slice of cheese on top and put it in the broiler, but it didn’t turn out like it does at restaurants.  The cheese was melty and good, but it was at the bottom of the bowl, instead of bubbly and on the surface. I have NOIDEA how one fixes that. 

 Despite the fact that it wasn’t “restaurant perfect,” I will definitely make this again.  It’s an easy, quick, delicious soup.  Perhaps I’ll eat it with Tahitian Treat and Twinkies…