“I KNOW HOW TO BOIL WATER; I JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN IT'S DONE": Honeymoon French Onion Soup

Monday, August 22, 2011

Honeymoon French Onion Soup

1/3 cup vegetable oil

6 cups thinly sliced onions

(onion of choice, yellow, white, Bermuda, or Walla Walla)

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

6 cups beef broth

8 slices French bread (cut thick and toasted)

butter

garlic salt

1/2-1 cup Swiss cheese

In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over onions. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently until onions are caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add broth and pepper. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Meanwhile, spread butter on top of bread. Place bread on cookie sheet, sprinkle with garlic salt. Broil bread, with oven door ajar so as to watch that the bread only gets toasted, not burnt. Flip bread over and toast other side without the butter and garlic salt.

Ladle soup into individual “oven proof” soup bowls. Place a piece of bread, garlic butter side up, on top of the soup and sprinkle with cheese. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.

Yields 4-8 servings, depending on size of bowls.

Enjoy! Élvez! Piacere! Gustirati! Radosť!

You ask “Why honeymoon soup?”

Well, because Duke and I had a bowl of this amazing soup to start each dinner when we were on our honeymoon in Acapulco. For that reason, we refer to it as “Our Honeymoon Soup”---------Oh, the beautiful memories!

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Natural Resource

Beginnings

It was tradition in my family that soup was served almost every Sunday. There were only a handful of Sundays where soup wasn't part of the menu. On those days, we probably took a trip to Rivesville, West Virginia to visit with my Grandma, who usually had her own pot of soup on, and homemade bread to sink our teeth into. Sundays started with Mass, and after returning home, we would have breakfast. One of my favorite morning dishes was palachintas (yum). Mom would already have soup on the stovetop, and between noon and 2 o'clock it was time for the "soup feast." You could tell time at our house by the Sunday meal plan. A lot of them were based on the time of the football game, or other sporting event. Soup was always served as the noon time meal, followed by a hearty meatloaf, roast beef, stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikas, or the like, at suppertime (usually around 4 o’clock). It seemed like all we did on Sunday was eat and relax. You would wonder how you could be hungry for supper at 4 or 5 o’clock. Amazingly, you were. There were times I would remember that if there wasn’t enough roast beef to make you content, Mom would give you a slice of bread on your plate and cover it with gravy (Gravy Bread). What an added feast we thought we were getting. Little did we know, there probably wasn't enough meat for seconds, and who cared, because there was always plenty of gravy for that "oh so special" Gravy Bread. I really don’t remember a lot of desserts. I know we probably had them from time to time, but even if there were, I don’t know how one would find, or want to find, the room to fit it in. Well, all this talk is making me hungry. Go turn on the water and let’s get started!

Dedication

I dedicate this website to the 4 best cooks I know: My mother, who nourished me from the day of my first breath, both physically and spiritually; my mother-in-law, introducing me to her family favorites and customs; my husband’s grandmother, who had a unique, physical and verbal way of teaching me all her different techniques, to pass on traditional dishes; and last, and foremost, my heavenly mother, Mary, who is always by my side guiding me with spiritual intervention every step, and ingredient, of the way. It is with a deep love of my heritage that I also dedicate this collection of recipes to all the cooks who are just starting out and continuing the tradition of using recipes that are "family recipes." I hope that this website will serve to preserve some of my "family recipes" and to kindle an interest in traditional cooking among the younger families in a not always traditional way.

Enjoy!
With much love, Beve