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French Onion Soup (Soupe a l'Oignons) It has been one of those weeks around here. Michael came home with yet another cold/upper respiratory infection. He was feeling so bad on Friday he actually canceled students. That's something he very, very rarely does.

So, since he had to work all day today I decided to make him something special for supper. He loves French Onion Soup and always is very excited when we dine out and the soup du jour happens to be French Onion. While he was home for lunch and napping I decided to run to the market and get the couple extra ingredients I needed to fix some for this evening.

This is one of those recipes that takes a fair amount of time but really is not that labor intensive. The biggest part of this is leaving your onions alone to caramelize. If you can manage to make yourself put them on and just walk away you've accomplished half the battle. Luckily for me the Clemson game happened to be on ESPN here in Arizona so I put on my onions and settled in to watch them take on FSU. (Go Tigers!)

Michael seemed to enjoy this version of the classic French Onion Soup despite the horrid cold so I hope you'll give it a try. It really is a great soup to have in your repertoire. 

Pommes de Terre à la Boulangère Recently, I discovered a new cooking show I enjoy immensely. It's French Food at Home with Laura Calder and was originally produced by Food Network Canada. It's now made its way to the Cooking Channel here in America.

I've really enjoyed Calder's take on French cuisine and particularly her use of rather simple but delicious dishes rather than the more intimidating and overly involved ones normally presented (Sorry, Julia.)Additionally, Calder has an enjoyable style that keeps her explanations on track so her audience isn't confused. In addition, the music on the show by an Ontario musician, Mike O'Neill is quirky and fun. I recently tried to find his music online because I thought it would be perfect to put on when cooking. Alas, Mr. O'Neill created the music specifically for the series and has never released it, despite huge numbers of foodies begging for an album of his quasi-French Jazz sound.

This recipe was recently featured on the show. Pommes de Terre à la Boulangère (literally "Potatoes from the Bakery" or Bakery Style Potatoes) is actually a very simple recipe that packs a lot of taste punch. This is one of those French cafe classics that you can prep in no time, pop in the oven to cook, and forget for a couple hours. It's baked rather low and slow. You will find versions that ramp up the heat to ungodly temperatures and zap it in minutes! I think that high heat method kills the dish because you want the flavors in this to meld together and the potatoes to become soft in the centers and underneath but crisp on the top and edges. Zapping it at 450 or 500 degrees defeats that purpose and you'll end up with a super crispy top that is too brown.

Michael really enjoyed this simple French classic and since it's rather easy to do we'll be revisiting it often for supper.

I made only a couple slight changes to the recipe presented on the show. For one, I added leeks to the onions for a bit more depth of flavor. I like the subtle onion flavor of leeks against the more prominent onion flavor. I also used Yukon Gold potatoes which have the most wonderful creamy texture when cooked. I happen to like Rosemary with potatoes so used that instead of thyme (or herbes de Provence). In France this is sometimes served with a light cheese topping. I chose Parmesan to top the dish, but you can use Swiss or other cheeses that you enjoy - or leave the cheese out entirely. 

Tailgatin' at Home 

My first attempt was using Ina Garten's 

Ina's Roasted Chicken Breast 

Ina Garten 
Banana Coconut Smoothie