Much like me a lot of the time, the weather this weekend couldn’t decide if it wants to be sunny and warm, cloudy and cool or send down some snow flurries.

Friday night was the Scissor Sisters concert. It was so much fun! I hate The Electric Factory, the place where the concert was. It just has terrible acoustics and is hard to hear at times, but for 25 bucks I shouldn’t complain. We had a great view point of the stage and band as we got there early. They were so much fun!

On Saturday Emily came over. We did some shopping then hung out and played Nintendo Wii. Oh we also hit the Macaroni Grill for dinner 🙂 We both ate a little too much 🙁

The French Onion soup was sooooo good! However I will change a few things next time I make it, which will be this week probably. Here is the recipe I used from my cookbook. This was 1 of 2 recipes the book included (they were very similar, the main difference was the broth and the amount of onions used). This recipe claims to make enough for 2, but really it’s more like 1 big soup bowls worth. The recipe also said it was for a small round crockpot. I had a medium oval, it worked fine. I think the cooking time was just a little less for the onions. If your using a larger crockpot then you may have to watch even more carefully. If you double the recipe to make more, you may have to increase the cooking time for the onions.

French Onion Soup – Crockpot Style

First turn the crockpot on low. Put in 1 1/2 teaspoons of flavorful olive oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons of unsalted butter. Let it melt.

You’ll need either 2 medium onions or 1 large onion. I used yellow onions, though apparently white or red are the best to use. Take the skin off, wash and cut each onion in half. Then thinly slice them into half-moons.

Place the onions (about 2 heaping cups full) into the cooker. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. Toss the onions around so they all get coated.

You’ll need to cook the onions for about 10-11 hours on low. Stir them once or twice, but don’t overstir. The onions will caramelize on their own and shrink down. You want them to be a dark brown color but not burnt. Mine took about 8-9 hours to get here, so keep an eye on the pot when you are nearing the end! Again adjust cooking time for the size of the pot and amount of onions if increasing the recipe.

Add in 2 cups of homemade beef broth or 1 14.5 ounce can of good quality store bought broth. You’ll let this sit for another hour or two. Add salt and pepper for seasoning. You can also add in 2 tablespoons of dry white wine and 2 teaspoons of Cognac (I didn’t do this).

Before serving slice some French or other white rustic bread and toast it. Put the soup into a bowl, add some shredded Gruyere cheese. Then add the bread and add more cheese on top. I like lots of cheese, how much is up to you.

Put the bowls in a heated oven (around 400 degrees) to melt the cheese well.

Serve and enjoy!

If you can’t find Gruyere, a shredded Mozzarella or Swiss will suffice.

It was very good, but next time I will cut the beef broth. It was a little too rich, which hit my stomach an hour after eating. Another recipe in the boiok states you can mix half beef broth with half chicken broth. This is what I’m going to try next time. I also felt there needed to be more broth than the one can/two cups.

Another recipe in the book calls for 6 cups of onions (yikes) in a medium cooker cooked on high for 9-10 hours. Should you increase the amount of onions and still cook on low, you may have to increase the cooking time.

Anywas I’m off to enjoy TV night. It’s time for new episodes of “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers and Sisters.”

Dustin