American Onion Soup

I don't like to cook, which is unfortunate because I love to eat.  I can't quite put my finger on what it is about cooking that I don't like.  Maybe it's that I always think I'm doing it wrong.  Why do the recipes tell me it will take an hour when it clearly took me three and a half? Additionally, I think I'd like cooking more if there were some sort of guarantee that what I make would be delicious.  Otherwise, I whittle away three and a half hours (somehow) and my creation tastes like Tums-flavored cookies (which, incidentally, is not a joke - Matt once made me a whole batch of peanut butter cookies that tasted like strawberry Tums - and my polite sister ate them all.  Although, this wasn't because he did something wrong, per se.   He intentionally added the Tums to work as a leavening agent instead of baking soda, which he didn't have at the time.  Something about the chemistry behind the two being the same, so he knew it would work.  In the end, he was very proud of his scientific thinking, and I was very sad at cookies that tasted like science).

Needless to say, neither Matt nor I are great cooks.  Since getting married in September, my mom often asks me "What are you making your husband for supper?" to which I respond "Uhhh...... (silence)"  Since moving to France, Matt and I rotate three different dinners: pasta and sausage, rice and turkey cordon bleu, and vegetable soup.  After awhile, this gets boring.

Last weekend, while sitting down to a meal of pasta and sausage, there was a knock on our door.  Matt got up to answer it, and returned with a large bowl of homemade soup from our friendly neighbor Chris.  "She gave us this onion soup to eat," he told me.  Looking in the bowl, I saw the familiar onion and beef broth concoction with cheese on top that one can order all across the USA known as "French Onion Soup".  Apparently, our neighbor Chris, a Frenchwoman, only knew it as "Onion soup".  (Perhaps in other countries, there is a meal known as "American Chicken Noodle Soup".)

Needless to say, the soup was wonderful.  In the first place, I like French Onion Soup quite a bit.  More over, when you're accusomed to eating the same three meals on a rotation, it is amazing to have an unexpected new food option! 

The next day, I was disheartened by the fact that we would have to return to our usual dinner choices as we were out of soup.  "Wait a minute," I thought, "We have a whole bunch of onions and some beef bouillon.  I'm going to make French Onion Soup today!"

After looking on the internet for a suitable recipe, I began the process.  Cut the onions.  Saute the onions. (Incidentally, sauter is the verb "to jump" in French).  Add the beef broth.  Reading ahead, I realized I needed two key ingredients.  Bread and Cheese.  "Matt, could you go buy bread and cheese?"  I asked.  He agreed, knowing that the store is literally a 15 second walk from our apartment.  Unfortunately, it was Sunday afternoon.  No stores are open in France on Sunday afternoon.  And we live in Paris, not some rinky-dink little village.  P-A-R-I-S.  But it doesn't matter.  Nothing is open.  No grocery stores.  No bakeries.  No cheese shops (of which there are many).  After an hour, Matt somehow found a baguette.  But no cheese.  "But we need cheese!  It's French Onion Soup!" I whined, saying the words "French onion soup" as if they contained the word "cheese", making the connection between the two obvious.  "Ok", Matt replied.  After a second failed attempt at cheese buying, Matt returned, empty handed.  "There's no cheese to be had today, and I'm done looking" he growled.  "Ok, ok" I said.

As it turned out, the soup was pretty good even with out the cheese.  Basically, it became more of a condiment for the bread, but hey, what is soup really, anyway?  The fact of the matter is, I am now an expert chef.  However, I'm not sure that the soup qualifies as "French" onion soup.  It's true, it was made in France, but it was made by an American.  With no cheese.  A cheese-less American, if you will.  And so, our new, fourth meal in our rotation is now "American Onion Soup".