French Onion Soup 1.12.14

Funny Story, when I was single, living on my own, I used to grocery shop, and buy things to make and pretend I could cook.  I thought I could, really, I thought I could.  But, then I met my husband and realized, he had his work cut out for him!  Back to the story... So during Lent I was bored of the plain old no meat Fridays, so I thought I would whip up some French Onion Soup.   So, off to the store I went, bought all the ingredients came home, made the soup, took my first sip and realized, beef broth, is beef, which is meat, and it is Friday.  Ya, whoops!  Religion aside, because this is just a 'light funny story' - that's just a total Melissa moment.  Needless to say I just had wine that night. 

At 10:30 this morning I decided we needed soup for lunch.  But I didn't want a pasta soup, but rather a strong flavor.  That is when I realized we have a dozen onions in the house.  Funny story again - if you say we need onions and both you and your husband grab them at the store, you then have a dozen onions... The thing about French Onion Soup is it is so simple, but you have to be patient.  For those of you who do not know me - I am not patient.... But I was determined.

Ingredients:
3 Large Sweet Onions, sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter
1 box beef broth, or your own homeade
1 tsp thyme
French Bread
Gruyere or Swiss Cheese

Instructions:
Add the sliced onions to the butter in the pan, and allow them to sweat out with the lid on.  Then, and now comes the patience, allow the onions to brown and caramelize.  This takes a good 1/2 hour.  In the meantime if you are like me, start a project, anything... Just do not rush it.  Then add in the thyme and stir it in the pan to wake up the flavors, last add the stock and bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Poor the soup in a mini crock with a piece of toasted french bread at the bottom, top with cheese and broil. 

Enjoy,
Melissa