French Onion Soup

Random picture of cuteness.  He's starting to look like
his Pappy. . . !

I'm not sure if I've told you about my bread this week, or if I just thought about telling you so much that I forgot that I didn't tell you (which I strongly suspect is the case).  So here is the small story about this weeks bread.  After I'd put all of the ingredients into the pan, I added a generous amount of shredded Cheddar cheese, garlic powder, ground sage and dill.  When I pulled the dough out to shape it, I found that the cheese had all melted while it was rising, so it looks like there is no cheese in it; so sad.  But the garlic and herbs made it smell (and taste) wonderful, and there is a hint of Cheddar in it.  And I decided to make half the dough into knots--instructions here.  With the exception of the cheese, it turned out just like I wanted it to.

The other day I found out that one of my old friends also writes a food blog (in fact, a lot of my friends seem to have food blogs, it's a really popular subject!), and she linked one of her posts on Facebook.  It was about French Onion Soup (read her post here!!), which I love, so of course I looked at it.  Her pictures looked so appetizing, and I could just imagine how it was supposed to taste; I was determined to try it at the first opportunity that I could.  Unfortunately, I was lacking two of the most important ingredients: red wine and cheese. 

When I asked Laurel about it, she said that I could substitute more beef broth for the red wine, so that was no problem; and we bought cheese the next day!  So tonight I did what I do best with my combination of recipe and spice rack--I improvised.  We don't buy olive oil, so I fried the onions in butter, which worked quiet well.  My beef stock was a cube of (low sodium) beef bullion, and I miss the flavors of thyme and bay leaves; but I did have garlic powder.  I didn't use much of the garlic because my bread had garlic in it. 

I poured the soup into my 6oz French White Corning Ware dish, topped it with two slices of bread and a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese, and baked it.  I cannot describe the joy of that smell when it came out of the oven--the smell of baking cheese! That's something you just have to smell for yourself.  But it was heavenly.  I couldn't figure out if I needed to eat it with a spoon or a fork, and I ended up using both.  The bread came out very soggy, it had sopped up all of the broth.  I'm making a second cup, and currently have some croutons toasting.  I think that will make a difference. 

When we were shopping, Nick said he bought the lemons because
he was craving some color, think this has enough?

Nick doesn't like French Onion Soup, so I made some vegetable fried rice for him.  And as soon as this next cup of soup comes out, I'll be done for the night.  But I'm not upset about being tired tonight; we spent two hours at the park--before which I cleaned out the car.  After the park we wend to the library, and when we got home I cleaned most of the kitchen.  There's only one load of dishes left, all my pots are clean and there are leftovers for when Nick gets home.  And the boys still smell like fresh air and clean dirt!

Ciao!
Zizi