When I first inherited these adorable little soup crocks from my sister I knew the perfect use for them: French Onion Soup. Of course that was the middle of the summer and so they were put away in the back of the hutch and almost forgotten. But when my favorite new cookbook author’s recipe for my favorite soup popped up on Facebook I knew that it was time to stop settling for the restaurant version and make my own. So here is the first of 12 new items I’m going to attempt this year!

French Onion soup is delicious for many reasons: It’s full of flavor with minimal ingredients, it is affordable to make, it’s topped with bread smothered in cheese, and it fulfills the greatest thing about soup which is hours of stirring, adding, adjusting, and simmering – all with an end product that was well worth the time. So, with Snowmageddon on the horizon, pull out those onions hiding deep in your pantry, pour a glass of wine, and set aside the afternoon. It will be therapeutic to stir in the way risotto can be and dinner will warm you up to your toes.

I followed this recipe step by step – only leaving out the Brandy/Cognac and didn’t miss it. The one tip I have is don’t OVER stir the onions. I was giving them a good stir every 30 seconds or so, and really you are okay to wait a minute or two. They need to start to get a little crisp because that good browning will speed up the caramelization. Since I over-stirred it took closer to an hour for mine to finish. If you aren’t as hyper-vigilant as me it will be closer to the 30-40 minutes Deb promises. Also I used all Parmesan because Swiss is the one cheese I can’t stand :)

Hope your snowed in weekend is fun and full of delicious crocks of soup!