This is time of year is difficult for me. I like to get up with the sun. When the sun goes down and the weather turns cold, I like to crawl in bed with a good book.
But my almost-87-year-old mother has a different idea: “Let’s go out on the town!”
My sister Lee Ann was visiting a few weekends ago. When I explained the situation, she suggested I do what the Danes do—light the house with candles to lighten up the mood, give the house a festive air. Her daughter Ansley was an exchange student in Denmark several years back and the family she lived with used candles to get through the long, dark winter.
The same Danish family had a special technique for making French Onion Soup—the easy way. My last newsletter on the Onion Johnnies dredged up the recipe in Lee Ann’s mind, and she shared it with me.
We had a lazy Sunday and all the fixings, so I gave it a try.
Danish French Onion Soup
Slice 2 large, sweet onions as thinly as possible. Saute in olive oil slowly in a frying pan until tender and slightly golden.
Toast slices of crusty bread and top with grated Gruyere cheese. Melt cheese under broiler, set at low. Cut cheese toast into bite-sized chunks.
Heat up beef broth in soup pot and add cooked onions.
Place cheese toast into the bottom of individual soup bowls, ladle steaming broth and onions over top, and serve.
Simple. Delicious. A sure way to take the chill off a November evening.
By 6:30 p.m. or so, the pots and bowls were in the dishwasher, the counters wiped clean, and off we went down the dark bedroom hallway. Fifteen minutes or so later, my mom and Sandy were nestled in her bedroom and I was climbing into my bed, ready for a few chapters of The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. Then, I heard my mother call in the night: “Hey, you tricked me. It’s not even 7 o’clock. What am I doing in bed?”
I guess next time I’ll try the candles…Laurie Lynch
Fleur-de-Blog 