French Onion Goodness

This past fall I was watching the Rachael Ray Show (something I don't do often) and she featured a soup that looks great. It was a French Onion Soup With Cheesy Croutons. Unlike "normal" french onion soup, the bread & cheese part is done separately - which makes it much easier, in my opinion.  The "cheesy croutons" are slices of baguette topped with gruyere and then baked until they are melty and delicious.

It's a fairly easy recipe - lots and lots of onions, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, butter & salt and pepper. You also deglaze the carmelized onions with a dry white whine. This is my favorite part. The wine evaporating smells absolutely heavenly. I have made this recipe several times since I first saw it. It's actually very very simple, made even simpler with a mandolin slicer for the onions. This particular time I made it I used a "discount" beef stock and it wasn't nearly as rich as in times past. The 1st time I made it, since I was making a Rachael Ray recipe, I went with her brand boxed stock and it turns out, apparently it's really, really good.

Also, on this particular time I used a local sourdough from Clasen's and it turns out that it was incredible. I have been less impressed with some of Clasen's other items, but apparently they know how to do sourdough.