Tag Archives: homemade croutons

French Onion Soup

Posted on by October 26, 2014

I blame the cold, but I’m off task again with this classic French Onion Soup. It all started this morning as I wrote up my notes for the Cranberry Margarita. See, it’s a frozen margarita. And in general, I don’t even like frozen drinks (but this one’s great). I just came in from walking the dog. It was really cold. I started trying to say something positive about a frozen drink. I couldn’t. I started looking at old photos and thinking about what I wanted for lunch. Hint, it wasn’t a frozen drink. The next thing I knew, I was defrosting French onion soup and digging through the cheese drawer looking for a good melting cheese. Voila. French Onion Soup. Just what the weather ordered. Aren’t you glad I’m off task, and you’re seeing beautiful French Onion Soup. 2 pounds onions 3 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ – 1 teaspoon dried- but the fresh is WAY better) 2 bay leaves ¾ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (optional- slightly thinner but gluten free) ¾ cup dry white wine ⅔ cup dry sherry (I like to use a fino here) 4 cups beef (or veggie) broth (no … Continue reading →

Classic Caesar Salad

Posted on by January 20, 2015

A few weeks ago I noticed an old jar of anchovies wrapped around capers in my fridge. The truth is, I don’t really like anchovies that often, so who knows how long they had been there. And I only like them on pizza with olives or in Caesar dressing. Then last weekend I made a grapefruit tart with champagne meringue that left me with a lot of egg yolks. Finally, the weather got really hot and local lettuce became plentiful. The perfect storm of anchovies, yolks and hot weather demanded a Classic Caesar salad. So I set to work. Of course, I needed to make homemade croutons, which was fine, since panzanella season follows local lettuce season. And I needed to perfect my Caesar dressing. And I’m pleased to say, I really think I did. At least for my taste, it’s creamy, the good cheese really makes it, it’s salty, and not too fishy, but you know the anchovies are there, all in all, I nailed the balance. I will warn you, this makes a lot of dressing, and it doesn’t keep that long, so you might want to cut the recipe down by a third, or have some company … Continue reading →

Croutons

Posted on by January 20, 2015

I hate throwing away good bread and because Marc love French toast with an intensity rarely seen, we don’t really have a lot of extra bread lying around our house getting stale. But there are other things to do with good bread, aside from making French Toast (shhh… don’t tell Marc, he’ll be heartbroken) and one of these such things, is making homemade croutons. And if you’re like me and you attempt to make salad season a year round thing, sometimes you need a little help, with come fun toppings, like cocktail nuts and homemade croutons. I love to have homemade croutons on hand, especially in the summer. I absolutely love Panzanella. And I guess you really do need them around in the Winter, for Homemade French Onion Soup. But after this week, you’re going to want them around for another reason altogether. I’m going to share with you another classic salad that absolutely requires croutons. This Friday, a Classic Caesar Salad. And if you’re going to the trouble of making homemade dressing and creating the perfect Classic Caesar, you really shouldn’t skimp on the croutons. Pull out all the stops and make some homemade croutons. They keep for a … Continue reading →