Cookin' en Amérique

Not that I thought you guys were chomping at the bit for a food email from me, but it's been a while. I spent a week cooking the kind of dishes that take several hours to prepare while Jonathan was here (meatball assortments (Buffalo chicken is still the fave), braised lamb shanks, duck and brie pizza, paella, etc), and once Kara got home, we grilled a beer can chicken and made awesome oven-fried chimichangas with the leftovers.

One of Kara's favorite meals while in Paris was French Onion Soup (I've read that it's the only truly Parisian dish in French cuisine). I found a recipe in Cook's Illustrated that had me thinly slicing 5 lbs of onions (thank you, onion goggles!), roasting them for a couple hours, and then standing over the stove, deglazing the pan with sherry and various stocks for another hour. After even more stirring and simmering, I put it up in the fridge for a day or so before serving with broiled Gruyère-topped baguette slices. The soup was terrific and the house smelled amazing for DAYS. Vive la France!