French Onion Soup @ Home

I enjoy a good French Onion soup in the comforts of home pretty much any time of the year.
I start off by slicing onions into 'French' slices like we share in class.

Below are the ingredients used in our French Onion Soup.  (recipe is for 2 bowls)

RECIPE

(2) slices of bacon sliced into small pieces

(2) cloves of grated garlic

(1 teas) of Italian dry herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme)

(2-3) onions sliced

(1 teas) of balsamic vinegar

(1 TBSP) of wine of choice - also optional for wine

(2 cups) of beef broth

Take the ingredients in the order listed under the recipe and add them to your favorite pot to cook French onion soup at home. Once you add the onions (essentially the 4th ingredient to add to your soup pot) ideally if you can, you want to caramelize your onions for at least 30 minutes. Should you not want to wait the full 30 minutes to do so, you can do a longer sauté and begin to add the rest of the ingredients once your onions have cooked down & gotten softer.  Once you've added the rest of your ingredients, as your soup broth is simmering, you can take your favorite crusty bread, add a drizzle of any oil to your sliced bread, add some shredded cheese and bake to melt the cheese to add to the top of your soup. (375 degrees for about 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown slightly)  You can use shredded provolone, mozzarella, gruyere or swiss or any combination.

We hope you will enjoy making French onion soup in the comforts of home. 

Control Vs. Enjoy

So the question is...
Do you eat until you are full?
Do you eat until you are bored?
Do you eat even after you are full and can't hardly breath
but still grab that last piece of something?

The other day I read you should enjoy your yogurt
and eat it as if you are meditating on it. hmmm
I don't think I can do that but it did say to
eat your yogurt with a fork so that you can truly
taste every fork full and so that you won't scarf it down.
If you have the patience, time and will- I salute you.
Job well done.

Wings To Go- Secret

Do you enjoy chicken wings?
Remember those college days of living off fries, cold pizza and wings?

Have you ever had buffalo wings or nuggets from "Wings To Go"?

The secret... shhhhhhhhh is that they based their whole
business off of their sauce which is simply....
made from "Franks Red Hot" sauce.
                 
                                      

Add butter (Paula Deen style) in the pan, drizzle some
Frank's Red Hot and add some sugar. That my friends-
is Buffalo Sauce. Then, I usually just add the chicken wings
or tenders into the pan & mix it around or pour the sauce
into a mixing bowl adding the chicken and tossing it to get
some air into it.  No, I never worked at a Wings To Go.
But I do have restaurant connections.  Sweet!

Moo Shu Wraps

Mini Chinese burritos!
For the filling:
Take some shredded cabbage & carrots,
(or simply buy ready to go coleslaw mix)
chicken or pork strips and chopped scallions
and saute it all in a pan adding a little oil and
some chicken or vegetable stock.
Add some already cooked vermicelli noodles
with a little hoisin sauce. That's it for the filling.
Then purchase some soft taco shells as your
wrapper and spread some plain hoisin sauce on
your wrap and then spoon in the filling and enjoy!

Tequila Lime Fettuccine

Tequila Lime Pasta inspired from California Pizza Kitchen.

Ingredients & Procedure:
Pick a pasta of your choice (spinach fettuccine,
garlic linguine, penne etc...
or mix 2 pastas which is always fun and cool) 
Boil the pasta, rinse with cold water and set aside.
In a  pan- melt some butter (about 2 TBS)
Cut and saute some diced onions (maybe 1/4 of onion),
1-2 garlic cloves minced up, fun colored bell peppers &
1 jalapeno pepper  Next, add in 1/2 cup chicken stock.
Once all the onions have cooked up nicely almost to the
point of browning add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves,
a splash of Tequila, 1 TBS lime juice, 2 TBS of soy sauce.
Once everything has cooked and mixed well...
pour in the already cooked pasta with a cup of cream.
(heavy, light or half & half)   Cook for a few minutes on
low heat so the cream heats up and everything is
mixed well together because you were using your
stirring/tossing skills with preferably a tong.
Serve with a lime wedge and a couple
cilantro leaves as a garnish.

Cultivate Your Mac And Cheese

Try cultivating your mac and cheese into
cauliflower and cheese.
It's pretty simple... boil some water
and cook your cauliflower that you cut into
bite size pieces.  Then add in the cheese
you normally would for mac and cheese.
Topping some bread crumbs on your cauliflower
and cheese is always good!

OO IS Great But...

OO as in Olive Oil is great to use for sauteing
but for the warmer months when you want to
look your slimmest.... try sauteing your veggies
in vegetable or chicken broth and then you can
toss a teaspoon of OO after they are cooked
if you'd like!