French Onion Soup

Today is kind of a special day in my life... Five years ago today,  the coldest day of the year in 2006 by the way, Kris and I were both dressed and getting ready to go.  She looked beautiful, me well I looked like me.  All of our kids were there, dressed in their finest.  We loaded them into Kris' van on the way out the door I kind of sheepishly I asked if I could drive.  She smiled at handed me her keys, she was wearing her wedding dress after all and it just seemed right for me to drive.

Yes folks today my beautiful wife and I celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary!  We had a very small wedding if you include the bride and groom I think we were about 18 in total.  After the ceremony we came to our house for a reception catered mostly by me and my friend (and best man) Scott.  We didn't have a honeymoon either we just fell into our lives together.  After Kris and I were together for really only a few days I (I think we both) knew that we were going to be together and like my adopting Miss Lu really the ceremony was just a formality. 

So you ask, What are Bryan and his beautiful wife doing to celibate their special night?  See if you can guess...

1. Get a sitter and make reservations at a great Chicago area restaurant where we will be pampered and have a wonderful romantic meal.
2. Get a sitter and have a romantic dinner at home followed by... well you know... before we pick the kids up.
3. Get a sitter for one of the kids and spend the evening at our church attending first communion class with Miss Lu then eating Domino's pizza with a bunch of people that we don't really know.

Bet you guessed ;-)

Well maybe we will get a chance for that night out sometime soon.

This recipe is completely unrelated to the rest of this post but I know that I have been slacking in the blog world lately, I'll talk about that in the next few days.  I have been working on one of Kris' favorites for a while, French Onion soup, this week I think I got it!

1 Large onion
3 Medium yellow onions
3 or 4 Shallots
1/2 Stick Butter
2 Bay leaves
1 TBS Flour
Some chopped fresh thyme (I had some and it sounded good)
2 TBS white wine
1 Quart Beef Broth
8-10 slices of Ciabatta sliced and toasted
several slices of Swiss cheese

The choice of onions may or may not be the ideal flavor combination but they are what I had in the house.  Start by melting the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat, peel the onions and cut them in half and slice them thin.  Put the sliced onions, shallots and bay leaves in the pan and saute until translucent and very soft, about 40 minutes (yes really 40 minutes).  Add the flour thyme and wine, cook until the liquid is mostly gone (3-4 minutes) then add the beef broth.

Stir together and simmer for about another 20-25 minutes.  While that is cooking I painted a little olive oil on my sliced ciabatta and toasted those.  When it is time to serve, dish the soup into oven safe bowls then float the toast and top with Swiss cheese and put under the broiler for a few minutes until you have what you want.  This really is a great comfort food on those cold winter evenings.  Kris and I were both surprised by how sweet this was when we finished.

Vidalia Onion Jam

It was a few weeks ago, that the kiddos and I packed up and went to one of the local farmer's markets.  I wanted to catch that and then take a look at the new Whole Foods in my neighborhood... What kind of grocery store has a full bar?  Anyway the adventure to the Farmer's market is where I am going today we were about half way there when it started to storm, the weather went from partly cloudy and pleasant to sheets of rain, thunder and lightning the whole show, but that didn't stop us.

By the time we got there the rain had let up a bit so Miss Lu, Mr.Man and I hopped out and started to poke around.  Past the mini donut tent (farmers market or neighborhood fair?) and into the heart of the market then the rain came again.  We ran into the nearest shelter where the guy selling his product  insisted that standing under his tent meant ready to purchase stuff.  I wasn't going to argue because he actually did make sense and was a lot bigger than me so by the time that the rain let up I had three small containers of Olives and my wallet was $16.00 lighter.  On to the rest of the market... the kids picked up some flowers to plant in our sad little garden and I got several items among them Vidalia onions.  I like Vidaila onions but they seem to be another vegetable with such a short season I only see them for a few days each year.  I have had a recipe in mind for quite awhile but really wanted to try it with these sweet onions.

Vidalia Onion Jam (yes really):

2 TBS Butter

3 Vidalia Onions halved and sliced thin

2 Cloves of Garlic minced

2 TBS Apricot Jam (I used Smucker's simply fruit)

1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar

Salt, Pepper to taste

Melt butter then saute the onions and garlic until soft (about 8-10 minutes) then add the rest of the ingredients and heat up cook for about 15 minutes more use to garnish your favorite  meat, I served it with Pistachio Crusted Pork Tenderloin.  I have had a bit of a run with my favorite  meat so bare with me please.  The onion jam is wonderful sweet and filled with flavor and really works well with the crunchy crusted pork medallions.