Best Ever Homemade French Onion Soup

Well, it looks like snow is back on the menu for tonight into tomorrow—at least it is for us here in Pennsylvania— I'm hoping for a snow day for my kids, or at least a late start! 

What could be better for a snow day than homemade French Onion Soup, complete with crusty croûtes and bubbly, melted Swiss cheese? 

Nothing. Nothing could be as good as that because FOS rocks. So, don't wait for the next blip on the storm chaser website calling for snow to run out and get the ingredients to make this beautiful soup—instead, put the ingredients on your shopping list right now! And after you make it, be sure to come back and leave me a comment below and let me know how much you loved it, because this is the best recipe ever!

(complete recipe at end of post)

You will need 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

In a large soup pot melt 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of olive oil over low heat.

I use regular yellow cooking onions for this recipe, and a bakery baguette loaf.

Peel and chop 4 cups of onions. I like to chop them into cubes that are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in size.

How you cook the onions is very important. You do not want to cook them too fast on too high a heat, or they will not cook evenly and you will land up with burned onions. You want to cook them relatively low and slow, allowing them to become soft and translucent, and then golden brown. To do this, add onions to the pot with butter and olive oil and cook, covered, over low to medium low heat until onions start to turn translucent. Keep an eye on them and stir occasionally. Once they become translucent, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of sugar over the onions and stir, this will help the onions to caramelize. Continue to cook the onions until they are a beautiful golden color.

Onions beginning to turn translucent

Once they become translucent, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of sugar over the onions and stir, this will help the onions to caramelize. Continue to cook the onions until they are a beautiful golden color. If you need to turn up the heat to help brown them, go ahead, but don't walk away from the stove. Stand there and stir them to make sure they don't burn!

Now add: 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 heaping tablespoons of flour stirring into the onions until coated. Then add your beef stock: You can use either 2 quarts of beef stock or 4 cans of beef consommé concentrate with 3 cans of water. Only add the water if you are using beef consommé concentrate. I like to use a bit less water with my consomme and add 1 to 2 cups of white wine. If you do not want to add wine to your soup, then just omit the wine and add an extra cup of water -  be sure to taste during the process. You do not want to end up with watered down soup! 

Stir in the beef stock/consomme and water

Add wine and stir. I start with one cup of wine and then taste. Sometimes I add a second cup of wine if the consomme is a bit strong. Simmer over low heat while you prepare the cruets. 

Prepare croûtes: Slice baguette into 1 inch slices, cutting the bread at a diagonal to make elongated shaped slices. Lightly brush one side of each slice with melted butter and place on cookie sheet. 

If you would like to make croutons instead, just cut each slice into four cubes after buttering and then place on cookie sheet.

Toast in 300° F oven watching carefully and turning to brown both sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

To serve,fill bowls 2/3 full with soup. Top soup with croutons/croûtes.

Sprinkle croûtes with Swiss cheese and place under broiler until cheese melts and bubbles.

Perfect!

French Onion Soup

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups onions, peeled and diced

1/2 teaspoon sugar

4 cans Beef consommé

3 cans water

1-2 cups of dry white wine, to taste

2 heaping Tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

For croûtes:

Loaf of crusty baguette

2 tablespoons melted butter

8 ounces shredded Swiss cheese

In a large soup pot melt 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of olive oil over low heat.

Peel and chop 4 cups of onions. I like to chop them into cubes that are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in size.

How you cook the onions is very important. You do not want to cook them too fast on too high a heat, or they will not cook evenly and you will land up with burned onions. You want to cook them relatively low and slow, allowing them to become soft and translucent, and then golden brown. To do this, add onions to the pot with butter and olive oil and cook, covered, over low to medium low heat until onions start to turn translucent. Keep an eye on them and stir occasionally. Once they become translucent, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of sugar over the onions and stir, this will help the onions to caramelize. Continue to cook the onions until they are a beautiful golden color.

Now add: 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 heaping tablespoons of flour and stir into onions until they are coated. And your beef stock: You can use either 2 quarts of beef stock OR 4 cans of beef consommé concentrate with 3 cans of water (only add the water if you are using beef consommé concentrate.)

Add 1 to 2 cups of dry white wine (Chablis) to taste. Add ground black pepper to taste.

Stir and allow to simmer on low.

Prepare croûtes

Slice baguette into 1" thick slices, cutting the bread at a diagonal to make elongated shaped slices.

Lightly brush one side of each slice with melted butter and place on cookie sheet. If you would like to make croutons instead, just cut each slice into four cubes after buttering and then place on cookie sheet.

Toast in 300° F oven watching carefully and turning to brown both sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Once cool, store in a food storage container or bag until ready to use, or to store extras.

Shred Swiss cheese.

To serve: fill bowls 2/3 full with soup. Top soup with croutons/croûtes, sprinkle with Swiss cheese and place under broiler until cheese melts and bubbles.

Pin this post! 

What do you think? Are you a fan of French Onion Soup?
Have you ever made your own?

Have a great week!

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs

Article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2018

all rights reserved

How To Make Authentic Homemade Pierogies - Family Recipe!

There is nothing in the world better than an old family recipe of comfort food. I can't even begin to describe the amount of yum going on here today. Have you ever had a really REALLY good homemade pierogi? If you have, then you will already know what I am talking about. If you haven't, then you are missing out!

The recipe is simple, and does not take very long to make. I think a lot of people don't realize this, because if they did, you would hear about people making homemade pierogies all the time! 

For those who've never heard of them before, pierogi (aka pierogies) are a kind of dough dumpling stuffed with a filling; most commonly potatoes and cheese. They are often pan cooked with onions in butter and served with sour cream on the side.

To make pierogies you first make a dough and set it aside in the refrigerator, and then make the filling. Then you put them together, boil them briefly in boiling water, and then pan fry them or keep them in the refrigerator until ready to use. Most importantly, be sure to share some with family or friends! 

Below is our recipe to share. My daughter and I made these on Christmas eve. I figured I would snap some photos while we were making them so that we could share the recipe and process with you. Be sure to get everyone in the house to help! 

Here's how you do it:

First make the dough: 
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (kosher or sea salt are best)
Mix all ingredients together to form a dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until smooth. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes while you make the filling. 

Next make the filling:
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cubed (I use 3-4)
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Place cubed potatoes in pot, cover with water, and add 1 teaspoon salt to the water. Cover and simmer until potatoes are fork-soft, about 10-15 minutes.  Drain potatoes and add to mixer (you can also mash them by hand in the pot using a potato masher if you prefer.)
Add 1 T. butter, the shredded cheese, 2 T. milk, and salt and pepper to the potatoes and mash until smooth. 

This filling looks perfect!

Now let's make the perogies:

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. 

We split our dough into two balls and rolled them out one at a time to make it more manageable.

 

I like to roll it to just under 1/8 in thickness. Not too thin or you will get holes in your pierogies —too thick and they will be too doughy. Practice makes perfect!

   

Use the rim of a glass, cup or cookie cutter to cut circles from the dough that are about 3 inches in diameter.

Use your fingers to press the dough circles a little larger if needed. Our first ones were a bit thick so we either stretched them out a bit, or re-rolled them. 

Now it's time to fill them! Get a custard cup or small bowl of water for your workspace. Scoop up about a tablespoon size dollop of filling and roll into a ball. Place filling inside your dough circle. Brush the edges of your dough circle with a few drops of water. Fold one side of your dough circle over to create a half-moon shape.

Press down on the edges to seal, making sure to also gently press the air out. Use a fork to gently seal the seams.

I place a clean linen dishcloth on a cookie sheet and place my filled pierogies on it while I work. 

These are ready for the next step - boiling them in water to cook the dough. Make sure all seams are closed and that there are no holes in the dough, or the filling will come out when you boil them.

Fill a large soup pot about 2/3 full with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add about a teaspoon of salt to the water. Once the water is boiling, carefully add your pierogies, in batches of 5 or 6 at a time, and boil for about 3-4 minutes. 

Remove the pierogies from the boiling water with a slotted spoon. I place mine in a colander that is on a plate to drain them. Next, drizzle the cooked pierogies with a tablespoon or two of olive oil so that they do not stick together! 

How I cook my pierogies:  I melt 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium sized fry pan on medium-low heat and then add a small chopped onion. 

I cook the onion slowly, stirring occasionally, until it begins to turn translucent, and then I add my pierogies and cook, flipping once or twice, until both sides are slightly golden brown. Serve with sour cream.

If you like, you can cook them for a shorter period and have softer pierogies. I like them kind of crispy and with my onions dark. It's just a matter of personal preference! 

This is how I like mine! 

Pierogie making in action!

Pin this post! 

Have you ever made homemade pierogies?

What do you think?

Have a great week!

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs

Article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2018

all rights reserved

My Favorite Steak & Veggie Shish Kebabs

One of my favorite things about summer is grilled food! I know lots of folks use their outdoor grills year-round, and I try to stretch my grilling season as far into autumn as I can, but summer is prime grilling time at my house. I grill chicken at least once if not twice a week. It's so convenient to grill up enough for a few days and have it ready and waiting in the fridge to have with salad or rice or to mix into a quick chicken salad. Other days I'll grill up some pork chops like these Adobo Rub Pork Chops that I featured a few years ago. But steak and veggie kebabs are probably my favorite grilled food. Each time I make this recipe it gets rave reviews! And it's so simple. The only real work involved is chopping the veggies, and if you do some of the work the night before when you put the meat in the marinade, preparation the next day is a snap.

For the best taste, marinate the meat overnight. If you can get beef sirloin cubes from a butcher, use those. Standard beef steak cubes from a grocery store are fine too. I've used the ones marked stew cubes, and those are fine too, but they tend to have extra fat on them that I always cut off just because I like my steak lean. When I make this recipe I make a lot. If I'm going to go through the trouble of all that choppin', I make about 2 pounds of steak cubes. With all the veggies added it makes a lot of kebabs, as you can see in the photos below. Make sure you have lots of metal skewers! If you are going to use the bamboo ones, you have to soak them in water before you use them so they don't burn on the grill. I just use the metal ones because the bamboo are a pain. Literally! Sometimes they splinter when you are skewering your meat and veggies on them and omg it hurts when you get stabbed with one and if you've ever done this you will know exactly what I am talking about so no, you don't want to use those unless you are desperate for kebabs and have no metal skewers. Remember, Laura warned you about those bamboo skewers! 

Okay, the first thing I do is mix up the marinade in a bowl. I never measure it, I just kind of eyeball it, but for the sake of putting it in writing I mix up approximately these amounts:

Marinade for steak kebabs

For each pound of meat, whisk together in a bowl:

About 1/4 cup Soy Sauce

6 Tablespoons of Olive oil (you can use Canola oil if you prefer) 

About 2 teaspoons of ground Paprika 

2-3 cloves of fresh crushed garlic

1/4 teaspoon Black pepper

A couple shakes of Worcestershire sauce

On a cutting board I separate the steak cubes and trim away any fat, and cut any that are too large into smaller sized cubes. Then I put the steak cubes into a gallon-sized ziplock bag, add the marinade to the bag, seal the bag and then squish it around a bit so that all of the steak cubes are coated with marinade, and then refrigerate overnight.

Next, wash and clean the vegetables. I like to use a variety of colored peppers. I usually get one of each: sweet red, orange, yellow, and green peppers. Two to three Vidalia onions, a medium sized bag of mushrooms (or two of the 8oz packs), and a package of cherry tomatoes. If you can pick them fresh from your garden, do so!

Clockwise from top left: this is the meat that marinated overnight and is ready to skewer, Vidalia onion cut into quarters, peppers cut into skewer-sized pieces, and mushrooms washed, halved, and if very large, quartered. Yes, depending on how large the mushrooms are I will sometimes cut them into halves or quarters so that everything on the skewers is pretty much uniform in size. I also usually trim the bottoms off of the mushroom stems (about 1/4") just because they can be a bit woody or dirty. I skewer the cherry tomatoes on whole. 

One note about the onions: Once I slice the onions into quarters, I separate the layers, put them into a microwave safe bowl, and then microwave them on high for 1-2 minutes and then let them cool before I skewer them. I find that they cook much better on the grill if I microwave them a little bit first! It gets rid of that raw-onion crispness and instead they get juicer, soft and sweet. 

Time to skewer! As you can see in the photo above, I have my cut up veggies in bowls, and it's simple production-line work! Use an old broiling pan or any large pan with a bit of a lip to stack your skewered kebabs on. There is no right or wrong way to skewer. I find for some unknown reason that I always start with a piece of pepper. No idea why, it's just my thing. Remember to use all of the vegetables. Don't cross-contaminate. That means once the veggies get the raw meat marinade on them you have to grill them, so use all of the veggies! 

Aren't they pretty? These are ready to go on the grill. Heat up your grill for a few minutes and get ready to cook! I grill my kebabs on low, watching them carefully every few minutes as they cook, and turning them once or twice. I like my meat medium-well done and my veggies soft and well-grilled but if you like them crisper then grill them for a shorter period of time.  

These are just about ready to come off of the grill. Be sure to use grill tongs and an oven mitt so that you don't burn yourself, and place them on a clean pan. 

That's all there is to it! Yum! Enjoy! 

I hope you have a great week! 
Love, 
Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and images ©Laura Beth Love 2016