With A Recipe In One Hand And A Box Of Tissues In The Other

There used to be a commercial on TV back in the early '90's for Triaminic.  It featured a little girl who has a cold and as she looks into the camera with her hand to her throat, she says, "I have a porcupine in my "froat".  My sister and I loved that line and used it whenever we had a sore throat.  In fact we still use that line!

Well, I have a porcupine in my "froat" and all I want is soup.  French onion soup.  It's my go to soup whenever I'm sick. 

I thought I'd make some this time instead of ordering take out (because it's just me and the kids (who are also sick) and I don't feel like loading everyone one up just to unload them at the restaurant to pick up my order just to load them back up to go home *deep breath* you get the picture.  I'm just lazy).  I also want (insert hand rubbing and evil laugh) leftovers.  So, off to my trusty repertoire of recipes to find one for soup and then off to the pantry to see if I had what I needed.

While the kids were eating their dinner, I started to assemble my ingredients.  I noticed that I had deviated so much from the original recipe that I think it's safe to say it's my own creation.  So I put the recipe back in the "soup" folder for another day.   I also don't think I can call it french onion soup anymore.  Try it out and let me know what you think it should be called :-)

Ingredients:

1 large Yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 large White onion, thinly sliced
10 large Mushrooms (reserve the stems and chop them up to add extra flavor), sliced
3 Tbs. Butter
1 Tbs. Sugar
1 Tsp. Minced garlic
6 Tbs. Flour
3 cups Water
50 oz Beef stock
2 Tsp. Sea salt
2 Tsp. Beef bouillon granules
1 tsp. Pepper
1 tsp. Herbs De Provence  (I was actually looking for parsley.  I can't believe I'm out!)

Slices of sourdough french bread
Slices of Swiss cheese
Slices of provolone cheese

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.   Reduce the heat to low and add the onions, mushrooms, garlic and sugar and stir.  Cook for about an hour and fifteen minutes and then turn the heat up to help evaporate some of the liquid from the mushrooms. 

Next, add the flour, and stir to incorporate. One at a time add the next six ingredients stirring after each addition.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.  Cover and let simmer for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 375F (while you're waiting for the oven to preheat lay you slices of french bread on the oven rack to toast.  Keep an eye on them you don't want them to burn).  Ladle some soup into some ovenproof  bowls or mugs.  Add a slice of french bread and then a slice of Swiss cheese (for flavor) and a slice of provolone cheese (for ooey gooey-ness).  Bake until the cheese has melted. 

I'm going to say that it serves at least 6 hearty servings :-)

Enjoy!

Note:  I used what I had on hand.  Feel free to make changes (i.e. beef broth instead of stock)

If you decide to give this soup a try, leave a comment and let me know what you think :-)