Sunday, October 12, 2008

Onion Soup for the lazy.

I have a bad cold today. I wanted something soothing. For some reason, French Onion Soup came to mind. I poked around on the Internet and the recipes were all too big or had too many ingredients. I wanted something easy and sort of quick. I messed around in my pantry, and this is what I came up with. It is pretty tasty for only having a handful of ingredients.

Lazy French Onion Soup
Serves 2 generously.

2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 medium to large onion, cut in half and then sliced thinly
1 packet French Onion Soup mix
2-2/3 cups water
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese (or Swiss, or Jack, whatever white cheese you happen to have.)
2 slices stale rye bread
1 clove of garlic
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Melt one tablespoon of butter over med-low heat in a medium sized saucepan. Add sliced onions. Cook onion until soft and caramelized, around 15-25 minutes. (Really. Don't rush this. The more patient you can be, the better the soup will taste.)
  • When the onion is soft and brown and sweet smelling, add soup mix, water and wine. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer for five minutes.
  • While soup is simmering toast bread.
  • Crack the clove of garlic and scrape the broken edge over the warm toast. Butter toast.
  • Ladle soup into two ovenproof bowls. Float garlic toast, butter side down, on soup. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the toast.
  • Bake in preheated oven until cheese is melted.
  • Dig in, but remember, the bowl will be hot! Don't burn yourself!!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Handy Housewife Hint


I am a fan of silicone bakeware. I love how it flexes so you can pop things out. This comes in especially handy with mini muffins. I love how you can turn a pan inside out to wash the corners. It is nice how you can cram it into the dishwasher.

A cool thing I do with my pans is use them as liners in between my fry pans to preserve the non stick coatings when I stack them.