Monday, November 24, 2014

Lessons from the Kitchen: French Onion Soup


I've posted a couple of Instagrams since Jon moved to DC that have alluded to the fact that Jon and I have very different cooking styles and so we rarely cook together.  To be honest, the real issue is that I'm a control freak and I can't share without micromanaging, but beyond that we do subscribe to different schools of thought when it comes to cooking.  I'm not always terribly adventurous when it comes to experimenting; Jon, on the other hand, is a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cook.

It drives me crazy, and a crazy woman in the kitchen is a recipe for disaster.

(See what I did there?  I am so clever.)

Anyway, over the weekend I followed not one but two of Jon's culinary suggestions, and let me tell you: the result was delicious.

When he came to visit last April, we hosted a seder and, after the meal, scooped up all of the gravy and leftover bits of carrots and onions and beef from the brisket pan and put it in tupperware and froze it.  When we had my parents and sister over for dinner in October, we made the chicken carcass into stock and, though I was wary, we dumped almost all of the leftovers from the roasting pan into the pot to flavor it - vegetables, stuffing, and all - and then put that into tupperware and froze it, too.

This weekend we decided to make French onion soup and, instead of putting in the suggested eight cups of beef stock, we used what we had in the freezer: four cups of that super rich chicken/vegetable/stuffing stock plus four cups of the brisket bits, pureed in the Cuisinart.

Oh my goodness, dear readers.  We topped it with slices of toasted asiago bread piled high with grated cheese, and it was the most decadent French onion soup I've ever had.   Even more notably, though, I admitted to Jon that, sometimes, everything but the kitchen sink tastes pretty good.


8 comments:

  1. dont you hate it when they are right ;) haha h always gives me cooking tips but i pretend to figure it out by myself...so stubborn. xo jillian - cornflake dreams

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  2. Oh excuse me, I'm just drooling on myself right now.... you've helped me decide on what I'm having for lunch! Heading to an old college favorite for a bowl of their amazing French Onion Soup!

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  3. Well, that sounds pretty amazing if I do say so myself! My husband and I are complete opposites, too, in the same way as you and Jon! So, needless to say, I completely understand where you are coming from!

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  4. I wish I liked french onion soup. It always looks and smells so good!

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  5. I LOVE a good French Onion Soup - bookmarking the recipe for later!

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  6. Hehe I loved that pun you just slid in there. Sounds so good! It has been very cloudy/gloomy here lately and even though it isn't cold, soup sounds amazing!

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  7. I can cook with Fredrik but doing laundry with him is just like this, I have everything in neat little piles and he just throws it all together and gives me heart palpitations.

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