Foodie Friday :) French Onion Soup

Hello friends!  I've been waiting for this all week.... the first post for Foodie Friday!

This week's meal was French onion soup.... Mimi's Cafe style!

I was inspired by a girls date I had with my two girlfriends, Sarah & Tina- we had coffee and headed to Mimi's for a delicious lunch... I had their famous French onion soup- I started thinking about how I could recreate this for my family... and here we are!

I started out by slicing up 4 yellow onions and gently caramelizing them over low heat in a drizzle of some good quality olive oil.  Next I added half of a finely chopped garlic, 3 stalks of chopped celery and 1 tbs. of sugar- I continued to sautee all these ingredients until the onions were almost translucent and totally caramelized.  Salt and pepper to taste.

In a stock pot bring 8 cups of broth, beef and chicken, to a rolling boil- you can use equal parts of both broths, or if you life just use beef... I found that using both types of broth gave the soup a super intense flavor :0)  Most online French onion soup recipes call for vermouth or white wine, but I had reisling on hand, so guess what I used? REISLING! Add 2 cups of whatever sweet(ish) wine that you have on hand and lower heat.

Let the stock mixture simmer for a few minutes and add the onion mixture and continue to stir till all ingredients have blended well.

Let the  soup simmer on low while you get the yummy bread part of the recipe started!  I used texas toast- most recipes ask you to use a crusty baguette, but texas toast is more cost effective and works just as great. Brown your toast or frozen garlic bread or whatever you decide to use- and set aside.

Spoon soup into bowls and add one piece of your toast or bread right on top of soup and generously sprinkle with cheese- I used mozzarella, but Gruyère or fresh Parmesan would work just as good- make sure your bread is piping hot so the cheese melts nicely- next..... SERVE IT UP!

The verdict for this recipe was pretty awesome- the kids liked it a lot- which totally surprised me, the hubby said and I quote "this is really really good. really good!"  And I have to agree, I tweaked the recipe some, it wasn't exactly like Mimi's but it was pretty darn tasty!

What restaurant meals have you always wanted to recreate? What are you waiting for, get creative and get it done! Happy eating!