Crying Over French Onion Soup

Classic French Onion Soup

Today I was crying for a solid 10 minutes. The boys walked into the kitchen and said "Mommy, why are you crying?" I said "Don't worry I'm not crying because I'm sad, I'm crying because I'm slicing all of these onions!" My mascara was running down my face and I couldn't wipe my tears with my hands because they were covered in the juice from the onions. I said "Hurry, get me a napkin so I can wipe my tears." Nate said "Mom, I saw on u-tube that if you chew gum while cutting onions you won't cry." I was like "Nate, how and why in the world do you know that gum prevents you from crying when cutting onions?" He said "Mom, I know a lot of things...just call me the human Wikipedia." I said Nate this sounds crazy but I'm willing to try anything because I still have a lot more onions to cut." So Tyler ran to find me some gum. Coincidence or not it worked! As I'm writing this post I'm still not sure about Nate's claim that gum chewing really prevents one from crying, so I googled it. Well I'll be darned, Nate was right! Here's what I found from WikiHow: 

Chew bread or gum. Many people report that chewing, especially gum, 

helps avoid tears when cutting onions.

So after I stopped crying I was able to continue making my French Onion Soup recipe. I love this soup and I haven't made it in a very long time. I remember having Dave's Grandparents over for dinner when we were first married and I made them French Onion Soup because I knew his Grandfather always had soup before dinner. I served them in these adorable soup crocs. I probably served french onion soup to them just so I could use those crocs. Whatever the reason, they loved my soup. I still have those adorable crocs and used them tonight for our soup. The boys thought they were the coolest. And of course Zachary loved the ooey gooey cheese that was melted over the tops. This is a classic french onion soup that will be a family favorite for years to come. Salute to crying over French Onion Soup!

Caramelized onions

Toasted baguette 

Just out of the oven

Classic French Onion Soup: (Click to print recipe)

Preparation and cook time: An hour and a half

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs onions, thinly sliced
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 tb minced garlic
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1/2 t dried thyme
• 1 tb Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 t sugar
• 3/4 cup dry sherry
• 8 cups beef stock
• 6 slices of baguette bread
• 6 slices of Gruyere cheese or provolone

Using a medium soup pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onions, garlic and salt n pepper, and cook until soft and golden. Stir often and make sure they cook for 40 minutes or until they are caramelized.  Add thyme, worcestershire sauce and sugar, stir until blended. Add sherry and beef stock and cook on low for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven on broil. Broil slices of baguette bread on a cookie sheet on the middle oven rack for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side until lightly golden. Arrange oven proof crocs or soup bowls on a cookie sheet and evenly spoon the onion soup into each bowl. Add one baguette slice in each croc on top of soup then add slice of cheese over the top. Broil for 1-2 minutes or until cheese melts and is bubbling. Serve immediately.

Food Impressions:

Tyler: "Oh my gosh, Zachary look at those bowls and the cheese it melted all over. This is really good." (Tyler ate everything and had fun eating the oozy gooey cheese)

Zachary: "I love this soup. Can you make this again?"

Dave: "The best french onion soup you've made. It's a quintessential classic."

Andrea: Super flavorful.

Tyler enjoying the ooey gooey cheese!

Zachary in heaven with the ooey gooey cheese

More interesting factoids from WikiHow: 

Why do onions make you cry?

Onions are made up of a tunic of outer leaves (the brown layer), scales (the white firm juicy edible part), and thebasal plate (often called the "hairy part" or the "root"). Onions make you cry because:

1. When you cut the basal plate or shoot, they release an enzyme.

2. That enzyme reacts in the rest of the onion to release a gas.

3. When that gas combines with water, it creates an acid.

4. If that water is in your eye, you have acid in your eye. That makes you cry.