French Onion Soup Tutorial - Complete with pictures

The beauty of soup is that you can change the amounts of any/all the ingredients to taste and still end up with...soup!  I put my measurements out to the side for those of you who prefer an amount to go by.
Cut up onions (3 lbs)
Saute in butter (1 stick)
Cook slowly for 20-30 minutes til translucent
Add 6-8 cups beef broth....I didn't measure.
This brand is from Sam's (keeps a long time in the frig)

At this stage, your soup is thin and light colored.










Add 1 Tbsp. or more of Kitchen Bouquet to soup to darken.
This is that thing your mom always had in the spice cabinet...
good luck finding this at the grocery store!
Whisk 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp. corn starch into a cup of water.
With the soup on medium, pour in and stir til thickened.










Add Bouquet Garni spice to taste.

I get a blend from the Spice Shop in Soulard Market.

Consists of oregano, thyme, and bay leaves among other things.

This soup is generally served with a slice of French Bread topped with Gruyere cheese.  This is then placed under a salamander heater/broiler til the cheese is hot and bubbly.  A simpler substitute is swiss cheese on thinly sliced bagels baked for 10-15 minutes at 375.

This is the secret ingredient!
A few shakes of this makes a huge difference.

Break up a couple pieces of bread in your bowl.
Top with soup and enjoy!

Day 10...time to make the goop into something edible.

 Turn this








into this

Day 1...making Amish Friendship Bread Starter

I tried these at Whole Foods:  http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/pantry/afb-cran-nut-rain-crisps and decided I had to make them for myself.  OK, yes, it was because they were $10 a box.  I was surprised to find a recipe on-line.  It calls for Amish Friendship Bread Starter...and since none of my friends have brought me a bag of 'goop', I decided to make my own.  It will be ready in 10 days, so check out this page:  http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/recipe-box and find a recipe you want to try.  Reserve your bag of starter...I'll probably have 4 or 5 to give out.

Salsa...for lunch.

Most days, I eat salsa with Scoops for lunch, so I thought I'd share the recipe.  It makes a huge batch!
I also added a link to the Renaissance Rescue Ranch...a place that does good things for horses.  My girls like to visit them regularly.  It's a good place to visit for a service project.  You can visit their web-site and make a donation with PayPal.

Trying to teach myself to blog....bear with me!

I'm not a writer, but I do like to share good recipes and other miscellaneous items of interest.
Please check under the recipe pages for a few of my favorites that I deem worthy of sharing.