What's Cooking Wednesday - French Onion Soup

I cannot. Cannot. Stop making soup. Seriously. I think I may need a twelve step program. I'm not sure what the fascination is. Maybe it's this endlessly lingering winter. A nice warm bowl of homemade soup really hits a spot on those chilly evenings. And hey did you know, homemade soup kicks canned soup's ass? Honestly. Michael told me so just the other night. So you know it must be true. Funny thing was he wasn't even talking about french onion soup. No, he was talking about an entirely different soup I made. Which was also different from the soup I made tonight. See I told you, it's becoming a serious problem.



French Onion Soup

2 tbsp butter or stick margarine
4 medium onions, sliced
2 cans (10.5 oz each) condensed beef broth
1 1/2 cups water
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
4 slices french bread
1 cup shredded swiss or mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a 4 quart non stick Dutch oven over medium high heat. Stir in onions to coat with butter. Cook, uncovered 10 minutes, stirring every 3 - 4 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 35 - 40 minutes longer, stirring well every 5 minutes, until onions are light golden brown.

Stir in broth, water, pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove bay leaf.

Set oven control to broil. Place bread in 4 oven proof bowls or individual casseroles. Add onion soup. Top with swiss cheese, top with parmesan. Place bowls on a cookie sheet or pan with shallow sides.

Broil with cheese about 5 inches from heat 1 - 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown. Watch carefully so cheese does not burn.

Recipe Notes: Yep it's that easy. I left out the bay leaf because they are apparently hard to come by in these parts. This one scored high marks because it's one of Mike's favourite soups. Abby, well she acted as if I was giving her a nice hot bowl of poison. Soup is yet another food that falls into Abby's "I'll eat it when I'm older" category and it's getting pretty crowded in there let me tell you. 5/5

Still hungry?

How about some of Louise's Banana Cake over at bleeding espresso...

And hey more SOUP! Karen and I are totally in tune, yes we are. Golden Harvest Soup at Virtually There

And Delores' picture perfect Black Forest cake and a shout out for Leslie's first attempt.

And hey more CAKE. Chocolate cake at So Much To Do So Little Time.

Want to play along? On Wednesday post a recipe (pictures optional) on your blog. Don't forget to let me know you're playing so I can add you to the list.