French Onion Soup

Ever have those days where it's pretty much impossible to warm up? My FIRST preference would be to stay under the covers all day long, refusing to do anything.  Since that's absolutely impossible for me to do, I go with option two...
My girls and I stay in our pajamas, (granted there is nothing on the agenda for the day) turn on the fireplace and get out our favorite blankets.  Then we turn on the music and start the ovens. One is used for baking our favorite muffins, breads or cookies.  The other is used to prepare the most satisfying French onion soup.  Ever.  I've tried a lot of recipes for French onion soup.  A LOT.  My taste buds just always found fault with each recipe.  It was never as good as the kind I could get at a restaurant.  After screwing around a bit, I finally came up with a recipe that I personally think tastes better than some of the bowls I've had in some pretty great restaurants.  If you're looking for a delicious French onion soup, then you, my friend, have come to the right place.  However, while this recipe is easy, it does take awhile to make and will not work out with any short cuts!  The time is worth it.  Trust me.





Here's what you need:

*2 large onions

*butter (4 tbls)

*beef bouillon cubes (6)

*1/4 cup red wine (you want to use the same wine that you would drink)

*1/3 cup water

*2 cans Swanson beef broth (or use home made beef broth if you have some on hand)

*1 tbls parsley

*bay leaf (3)

*pepper

*shredded fresh parmesan cheese

*sliced provolone cheese

*baguette

Set your oven to 300. Grab your onions and cut into them to hollow out the center.  I usually cut a square about 1.5" and then use a spoon to scoop down inside the onion to hollow it out.  Don't go through the onion all the way to the bottom though.  I'd say about 2" down or so, depending how large the onion is. Then cut a few pats of butter off of the stick, and push one down into the onion. Top it with a cube of bouillon. Top that with another pat of butter and two more cubes. Do the same with the second onion.  Wrap each onion in foil and place in an oven safe dish.  Bake at 300 for about three hours. 

This is were you'd want to snuggle up on the couch in those favorite blankets while the time passes...

Remove onions from the foil and cut them up. You can cut them with a fork because they will be SO tender... AND delicious!  Dump the onions and all the juices into your soup pot. Add the red wine and simmer for a few minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and let it all cook together on low for about one hour.

I usually cut off a few pieces from the baguette and put it in the oven for a few minutes to get extra crusty while I let my soup cook.  Spoon the soup into oven safe bowls.  Top with a few pieces of crusty bread.  Sprinkle with a few tablespoons of fresh parmesan and then top that with one of two slices of provolone cheese.  I REALLY like this combo of cheese with my soup, but feel free to experiment with yours!  You might find something you like even better!  Set the oven to 375 and bake for about 10 minutes or so, or until the cheese is nice and melted.  OR if you'd rather broil it to get the cheese to brown, feel free to do that. I baked it in the picture, but sometimes I broil. Either way, it's insanely good. Also, I'm not a huge fan of thyme, but that's a very popular herb people add to it.  If you choose to, throw some of that in! I just like to leave it out of mine.


Enjoy, friends!