French Onion Soup and Baps

Last night we had French Onion Soup with our delicious baps. It was a flavorful and easy meal. Next time I'll add more water, maybe another 2-3 cups. There were a lot of onions for the amount of liquid, and we needed more servings. Also, the recipe called for canned beef broth. I try not to use canned broth and usually use water instead. Since there were so few ingredients, I felt I needed to add some seasoning (hence giving in to the bouillon cubes and adding some herbs), so I just sprinkled in a couple herbs that I thought would be good. For the baps, this time I made them with half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. They turned out great!

French Onion Soup from "A Year of Slow Cooking"

INGREDIENTS
3 TBSP butter
2 yellow onions, sliced into rings
5 C water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tsp each of oregano and thyme
1/2 TBSP granulated sugar
1/4 C cooking sherry
1/2 tsp kosher salt
slices of wheat bread
swiss cheese or gruyere cheese

METHOD

1. Heat your crockpot to high and add butter to start melting.
2. Add onions to crockpot; break up the slices with your fingers, and rub them around in the melted butter.
3. Add the water, bouillon, seasonings, sugar, salt, and sherry.
4. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 10-12.
5. Before serving, broil sliced bread with cheese on top until melted and browned. Then place bread in soup and eat!

Yield: 4 servings

Blueberry Muffins

Over the weekend we needed some entertainment, so I made muffins with the little boy. In addition to being allergy safe, it was fun to make these muffins egg free since it allowed him to taste as much as he wanted along the way. We had fun, and I think we'll be doing this a lot more together now that he loves to "dump" ingredients in the bowl, as he likes to say.

Joyce's Blueberry Muffins from "Bakin' Without Eggs"

INGREDIENTS
2 C plus 2 TBSP unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 C granulated sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 C light cream or milk
1/2 C applesauce
1 C drained fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping
3 TBSP brown sugar
1 TBSP margarine or butter, room temperature
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease twelve muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 C flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, lemon peel and juice, milk, and applesauce; with a wooden spoon, mix until thoroughly combined.
3. In a small bowl, toss blueberries with remaining 2 TBSP flour just to coat (this prevents them from sinking), then fold them into batter gently. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling half full. Set aside.
4. To Prepare Topping: In a separate small bowl, with a fork, stir sugar, margarine or butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg until crumbly. Spoon evenly on each muffin before baking.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown. Serve warm.

Yield: 12 servings