#2,456 French Onion Soup.

This week and next are going to be some of our hardest weeks left of filming season 1, and I’m in disbelief that we’re already so close to the end of filming. We started in May and on November 1, we’ll have our final reveal and that will be the end of this first leg of our journey. Time is flying, the early mornings and long days on my feet will catch up to me in about 10 days when we finish this first gauntlet of house tours, demo days and interviews about our new homeowners. Tonight I made it home by 6:00 while Ben still had a few hours left in the woodshop and decided I was starving for my favorite French onion soup in the world (from Lee’s Coffee and Tea downtown), but since they close in the evening, I had to just make a big pot for myself and hope it would compare. I was happy to make dinner tonight, which I so rarely get to do, and have something warm on the stove when Ben finally came home from work, soaked in sweat, his hands calloused and scraped up from a night spent organizing mountains of lumber in his shop before shooting tomorrow.

French Onion Soup
(Makes 8-10 generous servings)

Ingredients:

4 Tbls. butter (I use light butter) – melted in a huge stock pot
1 tsp. garlic powder (add to butter)
1.5 tsp. beef base
1.5 tsp. chicken base
5 red onions (chopped to spoon-serving size)
3 cups water
1 cup cream
2 mushrooms, chopped
2 c. spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons basil paste (or just dried or fresh basil if that’s all you have)
3/4 cup chopped black forest ham
1 Tbls. Greek seasoning
1/8 c. red wine
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

Combine together in your big stock pot, simmer for 1 hour, then serve with Swiss or Italian cheeses and buttery garlic croutons. For the best results, make it a day ahead and serve the next day after it’s had 24 hours to all sit together and get super flavorful. It’s always better the next day.

P.S.

We watched this 9/11 documentary from CNN tonight and it was so very devastating. Our visit to the 9/11 memorial and museum in 2014 will make it impossible for me to think of that day without feeling deep sadness for the people who lost family. If you ever get the chance to see the museum, GO.