Tuesday, January 30, 2007

All Over the Place

I have completed my membership application and have fully joined the mac cult. I was a little frustrated with blogger lately because when I was at home I couldn't really post with all the features and I haven't had much time at work to post using a PC. But, I went for one of my brainwashing sessions --- I mean tutorials --- that come with the purchase of a new mac (and a donation of $100 to the needy mac folks). They taught me how to use blogger on my new computer - so here I am, blogging happily at home. On to something about food...

On Friday night I made French Onion soup, fitting for the ridiculous cold day we were having. I sauteed 3 large onions in butter for about 45 minutes until they were nice and brown. Next, I added 1/2 cup of wine, a few splashes of brandy, 3 cups of beef stock, and a cup of water, some salt and pepper. All was left to simmer for 30 minutes. I got a bunch of saffron for the holidays (my family knows me well) so I added some of that as well.

The best part of FO soup of course is the cheese and crouton. I toasted a few slices of French baguette. As they were toasting, I ladled soup into my FO soup bowls (you know the brown ones with the little handles on the side). I layered the toast on top, and the best part, put a few slices of Gruyere and a sprinkle of Parmesan and placed for a few minutes in the broiler.

Delicious if I do say so myself, although I am going to experiment a little with the soup - I think I want a little more depth of flavor.

Because soup always needs a salad, I made a chopped salad with roasted beets, radishes, arugula, watercress, carrots, and celery. A little Dijon vinaigrette and we were good to go.

And having enough veggies for two more meals of salad is always a plus.

I'm sorry not to have pictures, the camera is out of batteries. I got a $5 coupon from Duane Reade today so I am going to buy a camera battery tomorrow and I'll be back with some photos.

I am also looking for a new, inexpensive, small camera that has a rechargeable battery since the one I have is pretty big and I feel weird bringing it to restaurants. Any suggestions? It doesn't need to be fancy, because the one I have has a lot of functions. This would just be supplemental.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always use half chicken, half beef for FO soup, and I prepare the onions by melting butter and cooking them, covered, for 15 minutes. Then I uncover them and add a teaspoon of sugar and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes. I add peppercorns, bay leaf and 1/2 cup of dry white wine to the broth, and brandy at the end. Munster or Gruyere are my favorite cheeses to use. I guess the only difference is the chicken stock and sugar.

JRoinNYC said...

Good note about the sugar...will try that next time.