Weekend Recap #2

hope you all are recovering from a long relaxing weekend. we made the most of our long weekend by sticking close to home, running errands and catching up with friends.

our weekend kicked off on saturday with a play date with some of our favorites. the mama's got to drink wine, the babies (i mean toddlers but i'm having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that my little guy is a full blown toddler) got to drink milk. and while the mama's got to catch up on a gossip, the little ones engaged in their own entertaining version of "peek-a-boo!" 

sunday was all about football. sadly our seahawks lost (albeit an awesome comeback attempt) but we made sure to start and end the day with football. breakfast was festive and on point with blue and green pancakes and fruit to get us in the mood to watch our team play. little man was dressed in his jersey and we were ready to cheer our team on to victory. they apparently didn't get the message. 

so to lift our spirits we had a build-your-own-pizza night and little man got to make his first personal pizza! i see plenty of nights like these in our future :) it was pretty cute watching our little pantless chef go to work on his pizza  and you can be sure that more toppings ended up in his mouth than on the pie ;0) 

we all had monday off (mommy from work and daddy from school) so we started our day with a walk to the park. unfortunately, lincoln didn't realize where we were headed and promptly fell asleep one block away from the park, so we turned back and made our way home. at least we got some exercise in ;0) 

the rest of monday was spent running errands, more rounds of peek-a-boo! and getting ready for the week. little man found his way into daddy's desk and promptly decided to cover himself in little "sign here" stickers. the things that entertain our little guy always crack me up! 

cheers to a short week! 

Best Ever French Onion Soup

my absolute favorite soup in the whole wide world is french onion soup. there's something about the carmelized onions topped with crusty bread and heaping amounts of melted cheese that just makes me go yum!

so i was ecstatic when i was reading Lunch in Paris and found the best recipe in the whole wide world for french onion soup. the best part about it...is that if you have some time (it takes about 4 hours total to make) it's the easiest thing in the world.

all you do is slice up a bunch of onions and toss them in a dutch oven with some butter, evoo, thyme, salt, pepper and a bay leaf and let the onions carmelize on their own in the oven.

chop 'em and leave 'em. what's easier than that???

this is the perfect dinner to make on a lazy sunday (when you're stuck inside watching football with your husband all day ;0) ) and especially a lazy cold sunday.

what's your favorite fall (or anytime of year) soup?

Best Ever French Onion Soup
Serves: 8

8-10 medium onions
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
sea salt
a few twigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 c dry sherry
8 cups chicken broth
8 slices stale baguette or sourdough bread (if you don't have any stale bread around, you can dry yours out in a warm oven in about 20 min. just set the oven to warm (about 200 degrees) and set your bread on the oven rack)
8 oz grated gruyere cheese
8 oz grated comte cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a dutch oven combine the onions, butter, olive oil, salt, thyme and bay leaf. Cook, covered in the oven for 1 hour.

Stir onions and leave the lid slightly askew and continue to let cook for an additional 1.5 hours.

Transfer the dutch oven to the stovetop and cook until all liquid is evaporated (about 20 min). Add the sherry and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broth and make sure to get all the bits of the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Spoon the soup into 8 oven safe bowls and top with the baguette and a generous amounts of cheese. Pop in the oven under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until the cheese is melted, browned slightly and nice and bubbly.

Enjoy!!