That was harder than I thought....

Well, some tweet zero'd me for saying messing up the onions cannot be fixed.

But that is true, the heart of french onion soup is the onions.

Yes, but while you are right that you can destroy the onions in the browning stage, it is also true that you can ruin the soup by trying to boil them after. It must be a simmer below a boil.

Yes..

but all about onions. Someone thinks I'm slamming boomer for not getting any of this, or being snotty - when Boomer is cooking this soup for a first time.

Oh, well. Soup is good. With or without some cheese or toast.

I replied to this but the text didn't take. Yes, of course, no boil.

HAH!

When you get tired of sloppy joe, you toss in a can of spaghetti sauce and another can of diced tomatoes and right before your very eyes, you've got spaghetti sauce.

Might not be your Sicilean Somethinorother, but it's darn good.

I dont like pasta much, I go in the direction of Chili.

My son makes an incredible french onion soup - he learned how cooking in a pub. It takes him about thirty minutes to get it all together- I've tried to follow his directions to the letter (which is hard because he doesn't follow a recipe - he just says 'chop about this many onions and then add this much stock'
' and I'm like - 'chop how? Dice, mince, slice...how many? What kind?....' and he gets impatient with me, so I've actually stood there and watched him do it from step one to the end, but his always comes out way better than mine - so I let him make it.
He's a very instinctive and talented soup maker. His french onion soup - I could just drink the broth plain- it's delicious. When we have any broth left after all the onions are gone - I use it to make onion gravy. I think in general I'm as good a cook as he is - and we're both instinctive cooks - but he's way more innovative.

But as for the thread subject, I can think of two things that I thought were harder in the end that I thought they'd be:
1) giving birth was way harder than I thought it was going to be. I was not at all afraid of labor, in fact thought, 'Women have babies every day all over the world - my mom had SIX- and she never moaned about how hard it all was - yeah, it'll be a rough day, but I'll get through it just like everyone else does, and then I'll get to see my BABY!!! I was even looking forward to going into labor.

Well, when I had my first real down to business contraction I was like, 'Holy fuckin' ****...what was that?!' (That's a quote- my doctor still laughs and says how surprised he was to hear that coming out of my mouth - I explained to him that my New Jersey roots always reassert themselves when I'm under stress or surprised).
Anyway, he said, 'That was a really good, strong contraction..and here comes another one...'
When I could breathe again I said, 'And this goes on for HOW many hours?'
He said, 'It just depends - you're doing really good - now breathe...'

I was SHOCKED at how hard it was. I had had no idea. I felt like a lamb having been led to the slaughter.

In the end, I guess it was better that way because I didn't sit around and worry about it for nine months...but yeah - that was a lot harder than I thought.

The other thing that is and has always been harder for me than it looks to be for other people is using scissors. I CANNOT cut a straight line. Even when I DRAW the line with a ruler first - I CANNOT cut a straight line.

I don't know why.

I have often wondered how many women get right to the finish line, and say something like "Wait a minute. I changed my mind".

I was just talking to a woman about it yesterday. Her first baby is sixteen months old and I asked if she wanted any more children. She said, 'I do - but not anytime soon - it's all still too fresh in my mind.'

And I can remember thinking that I was looking forward to labor and delivery not only so I could finally see this little person I'd been waiting to meet, but also so I could get back to 'normal'. I felt fragile and vulnerable physically at the end of my pregnancy and I wasn't used to that feeling and didn't like it. I like feeling that I'd be able to react to anything and take care of myself whatever the circumstance.
When you're lumbering around with a huge belly and swollen ankles - that's sort of hard to envision- being able to physically react to a situation and take care of yourself.

I'm glad I did it though - it was a nine month transformative miracle and I got to watch it.
But boy - I give my mother credit for going through it six times. She grew in stature in my eyes about a hundred fold after I'd been through it once myself.

One of my friends tried determinedly to leave the hospital, having decided in stage 2 that she no longer wanted children.

Nor her husband...but that was somewhat secondary at the time.

This is quite common!

"Childbirth" was my first thought when I saw this title, too. And I was prepared, or I thought I was. I went to childbirth classes, I saw the videos, I did a passel of research, I talked to a bazillion people about their own childbirth experiences. And I expected that it would be hard. It just managed to be even hardER than I expected. (Then again, I hadn't talked to many people who had a 56-hour labor... sigh.)

While everyone told me that the second birth is usually much easier than the first, it was certainly an element of why I only had one kid. Not the only element, I would've done it if I thought it was the right thing to do. But man, that was rough.

aidan, I'm sorry it was so awful and painful but your post had me laughing out loud!

I went to child birth classes with my wife and a woman showed up alone dressed entirely in pink..and I mean entirely....hair ribbons and shoes. As the lecture/discussion progressed, her face screwed up more and more until by the end she looked like she was going to cry except she was in too much shock. As classes are in the third trimester, obviously it was too late for her to change her mind. I remember thinking this will not end well but she never showed up again.

Today's the big day! French Onion Soup day is in full swing. I have my three potions (beef stock, chicken stock, carmelized onion) starting to simmer in a big dutch oven. I'm going to slowly let it simmer together for many hours.

Pretty soon I'll know if it was all worth it.

photos!

Food porn!

The house smells divine and I'm nibblilng on FOS at 9 AM. It turned out really good!!

Now I just need to make some creme brulee and the birthday feast is nearly ready.