Saturday, October 16, 2010

Cooking Lean

Recently, some wonderful changes have occurred. I'm focusing on my ultimate goal of becoming a physician assistant and I am no longer employed as the hand of evil for unreachable entities (in other words, I did all the dirty work for a discount price) that I was working for previously! The stress was not worth it and although I did learn a lot about prescription drugs and insurance, I am now committing all my time to studying for the GRE and submitting applications. B and I are now on a tighter budget now so I have been cooking at home recently all... the...time! By "Cooking Lean" I meant on a budget..just to clarify..don't expect to lose weight on these recipes...but do expect your mouth to water. Also, keeping the windows open and enjoying the fall air rather than using our AC. Definitely a small price to pay in my world because I love cooking and I love fall. Also, I have some sort of crazy infatuation or obsession with getting the best prices and DIYing. Plus, I find that food is usually better when you do it yourself anyways. All good things.

As a result, I decided to post the many meals that I have been cooking lately. Most of these recipes I get from other people. I will definitely give credit where credit is due in those cases. This first recipe I made I actually starting craving after I had an amazing version of it at a French-themed wedding. Now I don't know about you all, but I never had a real bowl of French Onion soup until I went to this wedding. Basically, I thought French Onion soup was onions in beef broth. I had no idea that it involved cheese and crusty bread and that it was incredibly delicious. So I found this recipe by none other than P-dub. Here's a link to the recipe to make it easier (but I'm sure everyone knows where to find PW).  French Onion Soup Recipe

French Onion Soup

Start with these ingredients (or check the recipe for reference)


Chop about 4 onions into thin strips.


Have a good cathartic cry.

In an cast iron pot or other oven-safe pot, sizzler a stick some mouth-watering butter until it's completely melted in all it's gloriousness.


Put the onions in the pot and cook on the stove for 20 minutes. Stir and stick them in the oven for an hour. Stir at least once during this time so that nothing gets stuck to the pot.


While you are waiting for the onions to cook, watch the latest episode of Glee.



You may also want to sample the wine to make sure it's dry and sweet and good. Like a chardonnay. You may need a refill the glass depending on your mood.



When things are brownish and crispier, add the wine (now that it's been approved).


Add chicken and beef broths and Worcestershire sauce. Dice up 2 cloves of garlic and add. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, get some stuff done. 

Cut a French loaf into pieces and spread butter onto each piece. Put in the oven and then the broiler to make crispier. Watch the broiling though, so that your crispy toast doesn't end up turning into pure carbon burntness.

Grate your expensive cheese. Gruyere cheese is stringy and perfect for French Onion soup when its melted but you can mix it with mozzarella to make this delicacy last a little longer. It's just as good this way if not better!

I didn't have ramekins or oven safe bowls for the cheese to melt in (adding another reason on my list to tie the knot...hello wedding registry..) so I had to ghetto rig the operation up a bit.


I put about 2 bowls worth of soup into the green pot (for me and my honey). Then I put the grated cheese in the cast iron pot on top of the rest of the soup (oven still on low). I separated the green pot worth of soup into bowls and then placed cut up pieces of toasty bread on top. Once the cheese was melted in the cast iron pot I used my ladle to place said cheese on top of the toast and soup in the bowls. *Whew* that round-about thinking was like one of the geometry problems I've been practicing for the GRE (I hate geometry and haven't done it since 9th grade). 

It worked!

While B was gaming, I placed this bowl on his desk:



It is amazing!!! Please try it. Comfort food to the max.


1 comment:

Lee said...

Nice blog! I like your food. I'm doing practice GRE here: masteryourgre.com . I hope it's useful for GRE test takers.