Here is a free picture of Murray for your troubles. The length of his eyebrows is a different kind of technical difficulty.

Lovingly,

I have been desperately needing to post this recipe from Ladies’ Night from a few weeks ago. It has suddenly been balmy outside (umm..well….30 degrees…I’ll take it!), so I need to share this before soup season has ended. Please don’t tell me that we’ve got a long way to go. I like denial.

Anyway.

This French Onion Cider Soup (featured on Simmer Till Done) is so yummy. It’s different. I didn’t know what to expect with the chicken stock and apple cider combo, but the flavors are at once light and deep, and the good, golden cheese on top is a perfect finish. Here are the directions, from Simmer Till Done.

French Onion Cider Soup

• 2 small onions, thinly sliced
• 1 Golden Delicious apple – peeled, cored and diced fine
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 16 oz apple cider
• 1 quart (32 oz) chicken broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt & white pepper
• nutmeg
• crusty bread
• sliced Gruyere (or other Swiss cheese)

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat and add the onions and diced apples.  Stir briefly to combine, then cover to let ingredients steam, about 5-7 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally.  Remove cover and stir mixture frequently, until onions are deep golden brown and apples soften completely, almost disappearing.

When mixture is a deep golden brown (bottom of pan will also have browning) turn heat to low, then add flour and 1/2 cup of the apple cider, stirring constantly to form a sticky, combined mixture.

Add chicken broth, white wine and remaining apple cider to the pot, deglazing browned pan and stirring onion-apple mixture into broth.  When onions have broken up into the broth, partially cover soup and simmer on low for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown, slightly reduced and thickened.  Season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste.

To serve:

Preheat broiler. Place oven-safe soup bowls (2-4, depending on portion size) on a rimmed sheet pan.

Place thick chunks of crusty bread (toasted is even better) in bottom of oven-safe soup bowls.  Ladle warm soup over bread to almost, but not quite, fill the bowl.  Top with slices of Gruyere cheese, allowing a slight overhang.  Slide pan with soup bowls under hot broiler to melt cheese.  Watch carefully – cheese will frequently melt, brown and bubble in less than a minute.  Remove carefully from oven, and serve.

Soup (minus bread and cheese) serves 2-4 and keeps, refrigerated, for several days.*

* this is a good soup to make ahead, as flavor only deepens the next day.  Re-warm soup before assembling the bread and cheese bowls, then ladle and serve as directed.

Abbie brought this Upside-Down Tomato Basil Bread (also from Simmer!). Mmm.

Speaking of Abbie, the honorary Homage  breadmaker – she just started her own food blog with an adorable name: Simple Kneads. Check it out for great step-by-step tutorials on breadmaking, essays on healthy living, and other fun tidbits

Here are Abbie’s buns. Hehe.

Have a delicious Thursday!

Today is dedicated to a fabulous little cookie with a sweet crunch.

With a small list of simple ingredients, these cookies are easy to make and perfect to gobble up – just watch out for the inevitable powdered-sugar fingerprints all over your clothes.

Lindsay’s Coconut Cookies

• 1/2 C butter
• 5 T sugar
• 1/2 C oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 C flour
• 1/2 C coconut
• powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter, sugar, oil, and vanilla together. Add the flour and coconut; mix well. Form the dough into balls (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter). Flatten the cookies with a fork and bake for 18 to 20 minutes – do not brown. Let the cookies cool and then sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

If your cookies turn out a lot less golden brown than mine – don’t worry. I was feeling healthy and replaced half of the regular flour with whole wheat flour. Okay. That’s a lie. I realized half-way through the recipe that I didn’t have enough white flour, and thus the whole wheat. But! They still turned out amazing, and the texture was not changed at all!

I think the whole wheat really does something to counteract all the butter and oil. Yes…

I should probably be making some obvious resolutions right now instead of blogging.

With powdered sugar on my face,