Who doesn't love french onions?

Or rather, the classic dish French Onion Soup. As anyone whose ever attempted to make the deeply flavorful soup can tell you, directions are usually filled with words like "time consuming", "slow caramelization", or "2 hours of simmering". Yes, caramelization of the onions is KEY here, but I speed it up a bit and am eating delicious soup in about 50 minutes rather than 2 hours. I use two different types of stock in this, beef for the deep rich base we all know and love in french onion soup, and chicken for that lighter and salty note. Please excuse the terrible cell phone photo. It was a late night craving. Oh, and you're welcome in advance for the soup.

What you need:

3 large spanish onions sliced

3 tablespoons salted butter

3 large crushed garlic cloves

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 very large thyme sprigs tied together with butchers twine

Dash of crushed red pepper

3 cups good quality (preferably homemade) beef stock

1 cup of the same quality chicken stock

About 1/4 cup cognac

Italian bread or some day-old baguette from dinner the night before, cubed

Gruyere or much less expensive swiss cheese, shredded (hey, we're on a budget here)

Here we go:

Heat the butter in a large heavy bottomed skillet and melt. Add in the sliced onions and turn the heat to medium low, here's where we need to pay the most attention because we don't want to burn the onions. Stir continuously until the onions start to soften and color, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, and red pepper.

Saute all together for about another 5-10 minutes or until the onions are nice and brown. Add the stocks. Ready? Leave it alone! Let it simmer together for about 20-30 minutes, depending on how impatient you are. Stir in the cognac 5 minutes before

the end of the cooking time.

Serve up the soup in oven safe bowls, top with the bread and cheese and throw under the broiler until they become brown and bubbly. Time varies on the broiler, mine takes about 3 minutes.

Enjoy!

I can't really think of another soup I want more on a cold winter day. Well to be honest, any day. Leftovers just gain in flavor, so I make double batches to whip out for a quick lunch or dinner.

Onion soup in about 50 minutes? Sign me up.

A Southern Style Soup.

Hello one and all!

Or rather, a select few...

I know I had stated that I would write immediately upon arrival to my southern culinary journey, however, complications occurred and the possibility of doing so was gone.

I am back! Here now with documentation of my exploration and many things to share.

First up on the chopping block:

Southern Style Butternut Squash Soup.

Our first night in Virginia it seemed a soup was necessary. The comfort of warmness in your stomach when you're in a new place is and was wonderful.

Here's my recipe with a few additions:

You will need about 4 pounds butternut squash (2 large)

4 cups chicken stock (or more depending on how you like the thickness of your soup to be)

1 bunch of sage leaves

2 medium yellow onions minced

3 cloves garlic minced

2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil (to prevent burning)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 or more cups of chopped cooked ham

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Peel and cube the butternut squash into a good size, about 1 inch cubes.

Place the squash onto a sheet pan and coat in 2 tablespoons olive oil, sprinkling liberally with salt and pepper. Place the squash into the preheated oven and roast until tender, about 45 minutes.

After the squash is nicely caramelized, in a large saucepan heat the oil and butter until nicely hot

Saute the onions until translucent, adding the garlic next to prevent burning. Burned garlic is a foul taste and you might want to consider starting the onion mixture over if it occurs.

Add about 5 chopped sage leaves to this and cook until sage is no longer raw.

Add the squash and stock, cook until flavors meld together, about 20 minutes.

In 2 batches, place the soup in a blender and puree until desired thickness. Failure to do this in batches may cause a large mess! Hot soup expands as it blends, so you may make your own conclusions. You may also use an immersion blender if you have one.

Add the blended soup back to the saucepan and introduce the ham. Cook until well heated, altering seasonings where your taste desires.

You may garnish with sage leaves and some more freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy!

I generally find butternut squash soup to be very sweet. The addition of sage gives it that classic familiarity we associate with butternut squash soup, and the ham adds a wonderful saltiness along with much needed texture.

I sincerely hope you love this soup as much as I did!

After all, soup should always be shared.