French Onion Soup-bon appetit!

This week my recipe was French Onion Soup! I'm actually a HUGE fan of this soup, but it was going to be interesting because Adam has never tried it before. When I told him it was pretty much broth, onions and soggy bread you can imagine he wasn't too enticed! Our guests this week were my Dad (also a HUGE fan) and his wife Glenda. Everything started, yet again, at Kroger and luckily this time I found all the ingredients I needed. I've never really bought fancy cheese before so the only shocker for this recipe was how expensive Fontina cheese is ($6.50 a package). Other than that, everything was fairly simple and easy to find! I came home and first things first was to get all 4lbs of my onions prepped. Of course chopping and peeling onions reeked havoc on my eye balls and nose! It was taking me forever to cut them because I kept having to walk away to wipe my nose and wash my eyes off because it burned so bad. So my husband, being the wonderful man he is, equipped me with a respirator to cut the remainder of the onions. I looked silly, but trust me it worked wonders! If you don't have a respirator I've heard there are other methods for cutting back the onion tears you can do. So once the onions were chopped into half moons, into the pan they went layer by layer: Butter, Onions, Salt, Onions, Salt, Onions, Salt...you get the idea. Then you have to let them "sweat it out" for 20 minutes or so before you do your first stir. Then it says to stir occasionally for 45-1hr to get onions to a dark molasses color. Of course 45 minutes goes by and my onions are still white and some are maybe translucent. Then an hour goes by and still nothing! It says to keep it on low heat as to not scorch the onions, but at the rate I was going we wouldn't have been able to eat the soup until Monday. So I turned up the heat and after about another 45 minutes (yes a total of 1hr 45min passed) my onions were finally PERFECT! This was the "hardest" part of the whole recipe because after you get the onions to perfection, you just throw everything into the pan and let it sautee another 20 or so minutes! I did improvise on 1 thing and that was the bouquet garni. You are suppose to take fresh thyme, bay leaf and parsley and tie them together. Instead of buying them at the store and tying them together, I had them already in my spice rack, so I cleaned out a tea bag and placed them all in there and tied the string around it so they couldn't get out and placed it in the pan to simmer. It worked perfect and I'm sure if you don't drink tea you could also use a coffee filter. Once it was done sauteing, it was time to toast the bread and grate the cheese. Of course I had the oven on broil and put my 4 bread pieces in and got to grating the cheese and completely forgot the bread. Even though they were in there for a minute and a half they were "crispy" to say the least! Luckily I came equipped with 2 French loaves so there was plenty to spare! Second try was a success and the bread was perfectly toasted! So I ladled the soup into my nifty little soup crocks I got at Bed Bath Beyond (also WAY expensive $30, ugh! But I do love them) and placed the toast, toasted side down and topped with cheese. Then in the broiler they went for another minute or so until the cheese was golden brown. The recipe does have Cognac as an optional splash to the top, but I didn't think I would like that, so I opted out! We served the soup with grilled chicken and steamed veggies. You can't forget dessert either...we had Key Lime pie one of my Dad and Husbands favorites! Overall everyone said it had great flavor and they loved it! Adam wasn't too keen about the soggy bread, but loved the cheese. My challenge to you for this week...Open a cookbook you rarely use to a random page and make that recipe and share with me what you make and any adventures you have during the process!

Recipe Rating: Easy
Good Leftover: Only if you do the bread and cheese the next day. Don't save ALL put together
Tip: Have some febreeze handy, the onions do make a stink of things!
Stay tuned in 2 weeks- Pressure Cooker Chili

You can find the French Onion Soup recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/french-onion-soup-recipe/index.html