The craving I had to satisfy!!

I was in Vegas this past weekend and one of my girlfriends had french onion soup as a midnight snack.. I never actually saw the soup... But just hearing about it made me think about it this entire gloomy day! Luckily lakers were playing clippers tonight so we couldn't go out to dinner.. Which meant I would get to satisfy my craving all... Just the way I liked it! With EXTRA CHEESE!!! Mmmmm yum! I started first by looking through several allrecipe and used a combination of the French onion gratinee recipe, the French onion V recipe, some improvisation and imagination. I loved the soup a lot... And it totally hit the spot... I didn't want to risk it getting too salty.. I would advise adding a little more salt though and I've made changes to the recipe below. Also..  I decreased the amount of onions from 4 to 3 for future reference, because it was too much for my liking.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients
3 onions ( I used a combo of red and yellow)
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp ap flour
1 tsp peppeR
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup red or white wine
1 14.5 oz can beef broth
1 32 oz carton chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp bayleaf (or one bay leaf)
1 loaf of French bread
12 slices of Swiss cheese
8 oz shredded asiago

1. Brown onions with butter in a deep non stick pot for about 15 minutes.
2. Add flour, pepper, sugar and mix into a pasty mixture.
3. Add wine and vinegar to the pot and allow it to cook for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in beef and chicken stock, parsley, salt, thyme, bayleaf and bring to a simmer.
5. Turn oven on broil and toast both sides of sliced bread.
6. Divide soup into individual portions filling bowls 2/3 of the way.
7. Top each bowl with one slice of toasted bread, two slices of Swiss cheese.
8. Cover cheese slices with 1/4 cup of asiago cheese and sprinkle parsley flakes.
9. Place under the broiler for 5-7 minutes or until cheese bubbles and browns.

Testing... 1...2...3

After a wonderful birthday weekend filled with friends family and fun I decided to give my new toys a test run! As usual I spent the entire day thinking about what I wanted to make first and tossed a couple ideas around.. and eventually settled on something safe. I was short on ingredients and the rain kept me from visiting the grocery store. However, I did have a new bottle of cream of tar tar that I had purchased last year when one of my best friends was in town. I was set on making her a batch of her favorite snickerdoodle cookies but her trip came and went too quickly.. and the tartar remained unopened.  The recipe is below and is from all recipes and is pretty similar to the one from smitten kitchen. I stuck with only butter since thats all I had.

As for the stand mixer... the same friend mentioned above asked me today.. "what exactly does it do... besides.. mix..." It is a baker's best friend... usually I make a huge mess when I bake.. which is why i prefer to do it when no one is awake.. no one to nag me about the drippings and clean up... and no one to fight for space. Anyway, point is.. it does all the grunt work.. in a clean and simplistic manner.. it uses only one bowl and all the measured ingredients go directly in. No mixing, no kneading! I'm IN LOVE! thanks guys!

Snickerdoodle Cookies 

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup white sugar

1 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose

flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

You have scaled this recipe's ingredients to yield a new amount (24). The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield (48).

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

3. Mix the 1 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Thick like Molasses

Every time I bake with molasses, I remember a college friend telling me "our friendship is thick like molasses..." At the time I had no idea what molasses was and if you don't know, think fragrant dark honey. Anyway,  after watching hours and hours of "The New Girl" and "Gossip Girl," to celebrate my well earned free time, I finally ran out of episodes to watch.  It suddenly occurred to me that I needed to redeem the time and enjoy the holiday season before it slips away like summer did...What better way to celebrate the holidays than with some holiday cookies! These are a little different from the ones I encountered in the past. They did not require flattening before entering the oven and they spread A LOT!! so spread 'em!

Molasses Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger

1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, 1 cup sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses add lemon zest and fresh ginger. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger; blend into the molasses mixture. Cover, and chill dough for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Roll dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks