French Onion Soup

I have a pretty good story about French Onion Soup. You know the soup I’m talking about–it’s on every menu on the planet and features softened onions, giant croutons and gooey cheese on top. EVERYONE knows what French Onion Soup is.

Anyway, so Andrew (who greatly dislikes *most* cheese and insists he’s lactose intolerant) ordered himself the ‘onion soup’ while we dined at a little bistro while in FRANCE a couple years back. It didn’t hit me until the waitress left that the onion soup on the menu was most likely FRENCH ONION SOUP, since we were, you know, IN FRANCE.

Sure enough, Andrew’s soup arrived covered in cheese and swirled throughout the onions. Apparently in France, it’s just known as ‘onion soup.’ Good grief.

Which brings me to point of this post: I made French Onion Soup last night. More accurately, I made Ellie Krieger’s Triple Onion Soup, which is found in her book, Comfort Food Fix.

It turned out quite well and, despite Andrew’s severe case of a summer cold he’s fighting off right now, was enjoyed by both of us. I omitted the bread topping (I didn’t feel like it and Andrew wouldn’t have appreciated homemade croutons in his sickly state) and, of course, only put cheese on my bowl. I’ve made French Onion Soup before and not been a huge fan, but this particular recipe worked. Next time you have an abundance of onions (like we did after we both bought bags of them at the grocery store unbeknownst to the other), give it a try!

St. Paddy’s Day

Did you know it’s ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ or ‘St. Paddy’s Day,’ but not ‘St. Patty’s Day?’

I didn’t, until yesterday. Good thing I’ve always gone with the full name out of ignorance. For a moment there, I felt like I did as a kid when I found out that my ‘ValenTIME’ was really ‘ValenTINE.’

I have no idea why I like March 17 so much, since I’m not Irish nor did my family ever do anything special growing up, but nonetheless, I love it. I wear my green and make Irish Soda Bread without fail.

(Andrew always comments when I wear this shirt on St. Patrick’s Day… I get to wear it ONE out of 365 days a year! What, does he think I’ll forget and not wear it?!)

We started our day with shamrock shakes.

(Points for green apples and a green mixer in the photo, too!)

My soda bread was cooling on the counter by 7 a.m.

Before leaving for school, I prepped and loaded the crockpot with the goods for corned beef, cabbage and veggies. I think the addition of potatoes and carrots technically makes it a ‘New England Boiled Dinner,’ (according to Betty Crocker) but I’m going with Corned Beef and Cabbage.’ It’s more Irish.

The corned beef turned out wonderfully, which was an added bonus since it was my first time attempting it.

The soda bread was perhaps my best. I’ve been using King Arthur Flour’s Irish-American Soda Bread recipe the past couple years, but I started out using Martha Stewart’s. Both are great.

On the side, we had the boiled veggies and cabbage. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the cabbage wasn’t very good. Perhaps it was a bit overdone? It was mushy, as opposed to just slightly crunchy.

Mr. Nye joined us, as Mrs. Nye is currently out of town. Mr. Nye even came sporting a green clover-leaf necklace. Way to get into the spirit! Hadrian’s ears are back there, too.

For dessert, I SO wanted to make some sort of green-mint-chocolate concoction, but Andrew would never go for it (which would just leave me with a ton of leftover dessert) so I opted for another ‘Irish’ favorite: apple crisp. Not exactly sure why so many apple crisps came up when I googled ‘Irish desserts,’ but it’s got to be the oats. I went with Ellie Krieger’s Apple Crisp from one of my cookbooks, and I’ll be honest–it wasn’t that great. Don’t get me wrong–it was sweet and warm and tasty–but if you’re looking for an amazing apple crisp, it’s just not it. (For amazing, try Barefoot Contessa’s Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp.) It’s just too darn healthy. I did like that it used three different kinds of apples WITH their skins (more fiber!) and I ended up using hazelnuts in the topping instead of almonds.

So what does one do with a too-healthy dessert??

They top it with ice cream and GREEN whipped cream!

And tonight, we’re having REUBENS with the leftovers!

chicken and dumplings

‘Chicken and Noodles’ is something Andrew and I came to dread when we lived in Ohio. It was goopy, tasteless, colorless and just blah. Granted, it was usually cooked in massive amounts to feed a herd of hungry, less-than-picky Midwesterners. It’s not like I was expecting gourmet, but still.

Anyway, so when I found a recipe for Chicken and Dumplings from Cooking Light’s newest book, ‘Lighten Up, America!’ I don’t have the book, but the recipe was featured in a recent issue of the magazine. In that same vein, I don’t get the magazine anymore, either. (Not enough time to read it with school!) So, all I have is my magazine cut-out.

ANYWAY. I decided to give dumplings a try. Why not?

Glad I did–Andrew loved it and I enjoyed making it.

Basically, it’s a recipe that takes you from making your own chicken stock as the base (with extra for the freezer!) to plopping little flour-and-buttermilk dumplings into the simmering stock.

I loved that for basically the cost of a 4-lb chicken and some basics (onion, celery, carrot), I got 16 cups of stock and three or four meals out of it, two of which are bagged and labeled in the freezer for a busy night once school starts. You simply boil the chicken with celery and onion, then strain it all out and shred the chicken.

I also thought this was an excellent way to make chicken noodle soup by omitting the dumplings and adding egg noodles, or whatever noodle you like.