french onion soup

Has anyone else been exhausted this week? Between work, holiday madness, and the dog needing staples I feel like I haven't had time for anything else! One thing I don't talk too much about on this blog is food. I try to cook really good meals several times a week (the rest is leftovers/pizza/chicken nuggets,) but the last two weeks have been rough. I would be ashamed to tell you how much fast food we ate last week!

from my iphone, sorry for the quality. I was STARVING, you are lucky there is a picture at all ;)

I was determined to make French Onion Soup tonight because I LOVE french food and we needed something warm to help us forget how cold and dark it is outside! I was worried that it would be complicated and time consuming but Tyler Florence made it easy AND I could relax between steps.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (I love Challenge Butter, it stays really fresh)
• 4 onions, sliced (I used one sweet onion, then three big yellow onions)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped (psh posh, the more garlic the better, I used four)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (lots and lots, I ended up adding more at the end but I wish it had sat longer, so do it at the beginning)
• 1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle (a half bottle for the meal, a half bottle for me!)
• 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• 1 baguette, sliced
• 1/2 pound grated Gruyere (I didn't have Gruyere and I wasn't about to leave the house, so I used provolone and swiss)

* if your guy is a meat person and it just won't do without meat, I have a hankering that bacon would be perfect in this soup

Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes (it takes longer than 25, I let them sit closer to 40. Which meant 40 minutes of trashy mags). Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

 Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven (I turned my broiler to high) to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

So there you go, go ahead and amaze someone with your dish. If you want  a salad to pair it with, go ahead and make this. It is SO good