French Onion Soup

This blog came about this evening as my family sat around our table slurping up our favorite french onion soup recipe, sopping it up with french rolls and feeling content and warm as the freezing wind railed outside our dining room window.

My husband, Dan, and my 5 and 7 year old kids, Julia and Ryan, have come a long way back to eating french onion soup on a cold night. Dan and I always enjoyed cooking and eating out before we had kids, enjoyed fine wines and tasting menus, and soups that cooked all day. We tried to make our own Ethiopian injera after a particularly good meal at a local restaurant, and roasted our own peppers over a gas flame to make a great antipasto. Then came the kids.

After our firstborn came into the picture we more than a few miserable dinners where I would cook for hours and dinner lasted about 90 seconds before meltdown. We simplified, kept great ingredients, tried not to eat steaming soup over a newborn's nursing head at the table. And then came the "Terrible Three's." My son who devoured any vegetable or fruit that came his way decided that he would eat nothing with a "speck" on it. That included grill marks, pepper, or any variation in color of any kind. He also decided that he loved peanut butter sandwiches, but couldn't bear to eat the crusts. He wanted the crusts, separately, after eating the crustless sandwich. I started buying chicken nuggets to serve him while we ate "good" food. I was a failure. Serving my child junk, and continuing to eat dumbed down food to include my one year old in our family dinners.

I finally decided we were all going to eat the same thing. And we were NEVER going to eat reheated chicken nuggets. I was going to figure out how to CREATE adventurous eaters, and our family was going to eat great food.

I have some ideas that might help some families, and if anything helps another family get out of the terrible three's bad eating habits I'll be happy! So my first post will be my recipe for French Onion Soup, adapted from a Cooking Light Recipe from over a decade ago that has copied over several times in my well used recipe book.

Roasted Vidalia Onion Soup

3-5 large Vidalia onions cut in wedges
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
32 oz fat free chicken broth
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
a shake of ground red pepper
finely shredded gruyere or swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 425 F. Place 13x9x2 inch roasting pan in oven to preheat with oven.
Add onions, sprinkle with oil stirring to coat. Bake uncovered until golden and tender, stirring twice, about 50 minutes.
Stir in garlic, bake 2 minutes. Add broth and spices, stir, cover tightly with foil, bake 20 minutes.
Remove foil and bay leaf. Transfer to large bowl and blend with stick blender until pureed.
Serve hot with rolls or toast points and a bit of the shredded gruyere. YUM!