French Onion Soup

Ok Readers, I am SO sorry I haven't been keeping up with posting recipes. My life has been chaotic lately, but tonight I have time. =)

I made this recipe last week. Yum. All I can say is yum.

I appreciate a good bowl of French Onion Soup. As simple as it looks, it has such a rich, robust flavor. Leftovers keep well, and it can be transformed into an easy side dish (as I will show later).

This was a spin on a Tyler Florence recipe. Even though cut in half, this made enough for both of us + leftovers.

(As pictured, this soup has mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, and couscous in it. Aaron doesn't like runny, brothy soups, so I added literally 1/2 c. of couscous to the entire dish and it kept multiplying. I love couscous.)

Ingredients in order of use:

1/4 c. butter

2 large vidallia onions, julienned 

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

2 fresh thyme sprigs

sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 c. red wine (see wine tip below)

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 qt. beef broth

Toppings of your choice: baguette, cheese, couscous, croutons, etc.

First, melt butter, then add onions and cook until almost caramelized. Add garlic and bay leaf, continue to cook, stirring constantly so garlic doesn't burn (maybe 8 min total for this step):

 

Red wine tip: this is a great way to control the sweetness or boldness of the dish. I am not a wine connoisseur by any means and I really hate wine to drink (except sparkling moscato- mmm). But for this dish, I used Marsala wine. It has a sweet, plummy flavor. The bottle I got was $3.99 at Kroger. I am certain it will be in our fridge for a while.

Add wine and thyme and continue to cook until wine is reduced by half.

Once the wine has reduced, sprinkle the onions with flour, stir to avoid clumps, and cook another minute or so. Finally, add beef stock.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

At this point, remove herbs:

Taste test here and see how much pepper or salt it needs.

I added 1/2 c. of couscous to that whole thing and it turned into this:

Unexpected, but nice.

I also made roasted asparagus. Easy enough! Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over asparagus. Sprinkle with sea salt & fresh pepper. Roast about 10-15 minutes until desired texture. I like mine with a bite to it.

Final dish:

 I hope you give it a try! It's especially great for cold evenings or evenings when everyone gets home at a different time. Just keep the pot warm on the stove. Enjoy!

Salmon Two Ways

TGIF!!! It's been a very long day and I cannot wait to go to bed in a few minutes. On days like this, we usually find ourselves tempted to go out to dinner. Then we spend $30+ on one meal with innumerable calories and feel miserable for the rest of the evening. Tonight, I wanted to make something easy that was also going to be completely satisfying and relatively healthy. Aaron took a picture with his tablet, but it didn't do the meal justice.

Basically, I purchased a large (4-5 serving) salmon fillet from Kroger. It was in the frozen seafood section. Wild-caught, as always :)  I lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and then greased it lightly with olive oil so that the salmon wouldn't break apart when I served it. I put the whole salmon (frozen) on the cookie sheet and drizzled it with a little extra olive oil. I seasoned each half differently. On one half, I caked it with lemon pepper seasoning and extra lemon pepper. On the other half, I sprinkled it with fresh thyme, herbs de provence, pepper, and garlic powder. I roasted that at 450 for about 35 min. The whole thing was delicious, but especially the lemon pepper side. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

I also made herbed mashed potatoes. I HATE instant potatoes. Mashed potatoes are so easy to make and there are like 100 ways to make them. Tonight, I used organic russet potatoes (5), washed and cut in fourths. Boiled them for about 15-17 min (from room temp water). While that was going, I heated a small egg skillet over very low heat (3 out of 10) and melted 3 Tbsp butter with the leaves of 3 thyme sprigs, 1 tsp rosemary (dried), lots of pepper, a little salt, and garlic powder. When the potatoes were done, I drained them, added the butter and herb mixture, and started mashing. I added 2% milk until I got the consistency I was looking for.

It was so good! =)