Skip to main content

A Recipe for a Cold Day

Its cold outside. Not just a little cold, like it dropped below zero and will not be going much higher for quite sometime, COLD.

Soup weather? I think so.

The hubs is not much of one for soups, unless they are a thick, hearty stew, that you can pretty much eat with a fork. So this is a soup I make for myself.

Literally.

I waited until every, single child, husband, attention demanding, creature in this house was in bed. Then I stayed up and made this for myself.

It's what I do to unwind.

Then I leave all the dishes in the sink to wind me up again the next day... but I digress.

I hesitate to post recipes, because I am not a rule follower. I use what I have, I use what sounds good. I rarely measure. And soup is perfect for this kind of cooking.

Soup is forgiving.

So be daring, be brave, take this recipe as a starting point and jump.

Here's a quick walk through of my version of an easy French Onion Soup with bacon!

In a large pot fry up some bacon, always a good place to start. I made this for one person, add more for each additional person you will be cooking for.

Then remove the bacon, save some grease and throw in a bunch of onions thinly sliced, not diced.

Cook the onions on low-med heat, add some butter, add some dried rosemary, throw in some salt and pepper. When the onions start getting really soft, and smelling really good, throw in some minced garlic (from a jar is fine, we are not food snobs here) a little goes a long way. The slower and longer you can go with the onions, the better. If you are in a hurry, turn up the heat a little and go faster, it'll all be ok.

Pour liquid into the pot. Use what you have. I had chick bouillon cubes that I added to some water, added a little worcestershire sauce and the last of a dry red wine sitting on the counter. But if I'd had beef stock, I would have used that instead.

Let the onions and broth simmer as long as you've got, at least long enough to come to a good simmer.

I cubed up some old bread threw it in a pan with some butter and salted it generously and tossed it around in the pan till it was toasted.

Put the soup in a bowl, top with toasted bread cubes (otherwise known as croutons), add some cheese, (if you want to throw it in the oven to melt the cheese, even better, I was in a hurry and hungry) and finally sprinkle on the crumbled bacon.

It's such a great soup for a cold night. It feels like home. It tastes like comfort.

Here is an approximate recipe for those rule followers out there.

Quick French Onion Soup

Serves 2

Four pieces of bacon. 

Half an onion, thinly sliced (Red is good, but white or yellow is fine! I like to combine different kinds.)

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp minced garlic

4 cups broth

Bread cut into 1 inch cubes

1 TBLS butter

Cheese for topping

Fry bacon in a pot (a dutch oven works great). Remove, bacon, reserve 1 TBLS grease. Add onions, rosemary, salt and pepper, after 15 mins add garlic. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add broth. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for at least 10 minutes.

While it simmers add bread to separate pan with melted butter and toast them. 

Pour soup into bowls. Top with bread cubes, sprinkle with cheese and crumbled bacon. 


Go make some soup, love your people, and stay warm friends!


















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Changes

I was cleaning today, which gave me time to think, and thinking always leads me here. The house is 'weekend messy', so decided to clean my floors, because The Nester says if your floors are clean the rest of the house feels clean too, even if it isn’t.  I have found that it is pretty good advice, so when everything else feels chaotic, I clean the floors. Of course for me, cleaning the floors also means picking up the toys, shoes, clothes, etc. so that I can even begin to vacuum, which naturally leads to a cleaner home as well.  While cleaning up I began to think about how this blog has evolved over the years, from a desire to write like The Nester about home, into what it is now.  I started writing this blog when I was dreaming of building a new home. Then plans changed, life took turns, and we ended up in a home so different than I expected and so perfect for our family. Somewhere along the way I realized that home wasn’t in the walls that went up or in the co

From My Christmas Wish List to Yours!

One of my favorite stores, West Elm, has now opened a special section called The Market. It specializes in kitchen, garden and personal care. Lets just say I am in love. If I had unlimited resources to spend in one store to do a total overhaul on my house, it would be West Elm, and now with the new Market, I am in lust too. So here are a few of my favorites. Check it out and maybe you'll get some great Christmas ideas for someone on your list. Or maybe my hubby will see this and get a great idea for me! Hint, hint! Enjoy! Incredibly large, amazing cutting board . I've seen these boards doubling as art hanging on the wall, then they take up no storage space! Cast iron Dutch oven . Great for one-pot meals. These glass jars come in varying sizes. I'm thinking they would work well for brown sugar with that rubber seal. I would definitely get plenty of use out of a cheese knife set during the holidays and all year round. Copper measuring spoons . Seriously? Fantastic

Happiness

I am a New Years girl. I love goals and check lists and I love the feeling of a fresh start, but resolutions have never been my thing. A few year ago I began picking a word for the year and I found that it works really well for me.  Setting a word for the year has helped me to focus on a quality that I want to grow in myself. Last years word was ‘ intentional ’. It was a full year and in a lot of ways a really hard year. Being intentional with my words, thoughts and actions helped me to really lean into the relationships in my life. The past year felt somber though. It was good and I grew more than I could have imagined, but it also felt serious and deep. I need some relief. This year after praying over it and considering what I would like more of in the coming year, I knew that my word for 2019 had to be 'happiness'. I want more laughter, more spontaneity, more fun in 2019 and none of those things come naturally to me. I thought about words like joy and contentment b