For my first Foodie Tuesday, I'm posting my 'recipe' for French Onion Soup.  I'm an 'eye-ball cook'; if it looks right, I'm going for it. So that is why this isn't a traditional recipe. And I enjoy being slightly irreverant in the kitchen - seems to be the one place I can poke fun at myself - so don't be offeneded by the language or whatnot.

 Hope you enjoy this lovey, perfect-for-cool-fall-nights soup.

French Onion Soup

Equipment
- medium saucepan with lid
- knife or madoline*
- spoon - one for stirring, one for eating (or use one for both - i do)
- oven safe bowls
- stove/hotplate and oven/toaster oven

*a.k.a slicer-dicer - my fav is the Borner V-Slicer. It is the best $35 I spent on a kitchen tool ever. You can find them at home stores, county fairs and tradeshows and on Amazon.

Ingredients
- medium bag of yellow onions (you can use sweet ones like vidalia or walla walla if you want to, whatever's cheap)
- grease of some kind: butter, marg, oil, bacon fat (mmmm....bacon fat)
- 1 box of beef broth (16oz/1L)
- glug of white wine (nothing expensive, but something nice - i use whatever is floating around the fridge)
- dijon mustard
- all-purpose flour
- salt and pepper
- stale bread (any kind will do, even crutons)
- cheese! (traditionally the recipe uses gouda, I like swiss. try stuff out till you find what you like)

Directions
1. Peel and slice onions thinishly. about a 1/4". chop the rings in half if you don't want big strings of onion.

2. In the pot, add the grease and melt. it should be enough to coat the onions. you can add more after you put the onions in if there isn't enough.

3. Fill the pot 1/2 to 3/4 full of onion and slowly sautee (fancy word for browning) until they are limp, translucent and carmel-coloured. At medium-low heat this takes about 20 mins. It's worth the wait! And it's the longest part of the whole process.

4. Add a spoonful of flour to the onions and stir to make a roux. Add flour until all the grease is soaked up and stir until the flour-grease starts to brown a bit.

5. Add a spoonful of dijon. More mustard, more kick. It's better to err on the side of less to start, you can add more later.

6. Season with S&P. More P than S because of the salt in the broth.

7. Add broth and simmer. Add glug of wine - this can be omitted with little issue. Also, VIP!, the alcohol will burn off in cooking so don't worry about that part.

8. Taste after about 30 mins. Season more if you wish.

9. Ladle into bowls, add bread and cheese. Pop under broiler until cheese is golden and bubbly.

10. Eat. Make someone else do the dishes. :) Store the remainder in the fridge (when you do that the grease will congeal on the top - don't scoop it off.)