The Second Course

In between the courses, there were four, I gave them little gifts. The first gift was a little note card I made with five reasons why I love me some them. The second were a box of chocolates because they both have serious sweet tooths. The final gift to Babe was this little pink and red bracelet because she has really gotten into accessories as of late. Big E received a mug with Char.lie Br.own on it as his final gift. The Pea.nuts crew was his favorite cartoon and comic strip growing up.

The second course was this most delicious soup. This soup is a breeze to prepare and doesn’t take many ingredients. Since the onions take a bit of time to cook I cooked them the night before; saved a ton of time the next day. I added milk to the soup but with the addition of the flour I could have left it out.

The onion slivers are optional but they went over really well. I took some sliced onions, dunked them in buttermilk then into seasoned (salt pepper smoked paprika cayenne) flour. I deep fried them in vegetable oil until browned, drained them then topped the soup off with them right before serving. This will make enough soup for about 3-4 people

Caramelized Onion Soup w/Fried Onion Slivers

What You Need:

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3-4 medium to large onions sliced or diced
• 2 cloves of garlic diced
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 quart low sodium chicken OR beef OR vegetable stock
• ½ cup whole milk (optional)
• ½ cup Swiss or jack cheese (don’t use mozzarella it is too stringy)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon honey mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

What To Do:

• In a medium boiler over medium heat, add butter and olive oil and let it melt. Add all of the onions and garlic. Stir to get a good coating of oil and butter on the
• Cook the onions, stirring often, until they are good and brown, NOT burned. About 20-30 minutes
• Sprinkle with flour; stir to coat. It is OK if the onions begin breaking apart as you will be pureeing part of the mixture
• Increase the heat to medium high and add broth. Bring to a boil then reduce to low. Sauce should begin to thicken. If it gets too thick for your liking add more broth
• Carefully remove 1-2 cups of the thickened onion mixture and add to a blender to puree (if you have a stick blender use that instead and puree the mixture to your liking)
• If using a blender, add the pureed mixture back to the rest of the soup that should be still simmering on low
• Add the milk, if using, cheese, cayenne and mustard. Stir until cheese melted.

Serve warm.

Cook.EAT.Repeat.