Superstorm Sandy French Onion Soup

When Hurricane Sandy came through we found out we had Monday off of work fairly early on Sunday afternoon. Elliot and I decided a crock pot dish would be perfect on a potentially super nasty day so we went on a search for recipes. The final decision was French Onion soup.

The following is the ingredient list we settled on:

6 tablespoons butter

4 large yellow onions, sliced and separated into rings

1 tablespoon white sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup cooking sherry

7 cups beef broth

1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

Loaf of white mountain bread

1 package sliced provolone cheese

 

On Monday morning I got up and keeping one eye on the weather I started on the onions:

 

Heat butter in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat; cook and stir onions until they become translucent, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle onions with sugar; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions are soft and browned, at least 30 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

The onions cooked down nicely, but it definetly took all of 30-35 minutes

Once the onions were done:

 Stir sherry into onion mixture and scrape bottom of pot to dissolve small bits of browned food from the pot. Transfer onions into a slow cooker and pour in beef broth. Season to taste with sea salt; stir in thyme and bay leaf. Cover cooker, set on High, and cook 4 to 6 hours. If desired, set on Low and cook 8 to 10 hours.

 

I put the pot on low and let it go. I stirred the pot throughout the day mainly because I was working at the kitchen table next to the kitchen and it smelled amazing. When dinner time finally came around I spooned two bowls full of soup, added a hunk of bread, and topped with a slice of provolone. I put them under a low broiler until the cheese was brown and bubbley.

 

This was one of the most delicious bowls of french onion soup I have ever had. It took some time to let the onions cook down before the crock pot, but if you have time in the morning to do that this is an awesome chilly day dinner. I obviously paired it with a spinach salad and it was fantastic!

 

 

Autumn Apple Cobbler

After 2 loaves of bread, a pork and apple pie, and many raw apples in lunches I still had a silly amount of apples left.  The gang was coming over to carve pumpkins and watch Halloween movies so I decided to use another few in an apple cobbler.

I grabbed this recipe and got started.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Generously grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2. Arrange apple slices (I used Golden Delicious) in an even layer in the baking dish. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup pecans. Sprinkle mixture over apples.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together egg, evaporated milk, and melted butter. Pour milk mixture into flour mixture all at once, and stir until smooth. Pour mixture over apples, and sprinkle top with 1/4 cup pecans.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes.

Just before it went in the oven!

This recipe was very quick and easy. The only hang up was the baking time. I pulled it out at about 48 minutes because it was starting to smell burnt. It was very brown on top but it did not have a burnt taste. Next time I will start the timer at 45 minutes and go from there. All in all though it was a tasty dish that wasn't too sweet and I got to use another handful of apples!