Since people ended up posting recipes, and i typed this out for someone, i'll post it here too
French Onion Soup!
Buy:
Gruyere Cheese (~2oz per bowl)
Rustic Sourdough Baguette
a whole mess of onions!!
good beef boullion (make your own broth or try and get better than the herb-ox cubes)
fresh thyme, bay, and parsley (do not chop, you want whole sprigs)
a bottle of really cheap white wine (i used savignon blanc)
some butter
some salt
some pepper
get soup crocks that can be broiled
prep onions
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/h...e-hacks-109536
melt ~2tbsp+ butter in large pot on medium heat
throw onions in the pot when the butter starts to get hot
throw some salt on the onions (maybe 1/2 - 1 tsp), and give the pot a good stir to coat the onions with butter/salt. Your pot should be completely full with onions!
caramelize the onions.. this is a game where you have to leave them alone for long enough to start browning, but stir them enough so they don't burn.. a good rule of thumb is stir every 15-20 minutes. This process should take 90 minutes or so, maybe longer. The end result should be deeply golden brown onions with hints of dark brown/black. It's OK/desireable to have the onions burn A LITTLE. At this point, your onions should have cooked down a LOT and only take up a small percentage of the pot.
deglaze the pot by pouring enough white wine to completely cover the onions, turn the heat to medium high. stir more often, and reduce the wine to a thick syrup (theres should be very little liquid in the pot when yer done)
add enough broth to make the soup, about 8-10 cups in a medium/large pot
reduce heat to low/medium
make your bouqet garni: tie sprigs of thyme, parsley, and bay together in a bundle, make sure it's fairly secure (i use sewing thread)
add the bouqet garni to the pot, cover tightly, and simmer for 2 hours or so
remove the bouqet garni from the pot, making sure to get all the onions off with a fork, and discard
add pepper (i like to add a tbsp or so, judge for yourself), simmer another 30 minutes or so
serving:
grate the gruyere
slice bread on a fairly extreme bias into 1.5-2 inch slices
broil these slices on one side only, till they JUST start to burn, remove from broiler promptly
ladle soup into crocks, leaving at least 1 inch
put a piece or two of the bread on top of the soup, toasted side down
put some cheese on top
put the crocks into the broiler, till the cheese melts and everything is JUST about to burn, remove promptly
Crocks will be HOT, handle with care!
Enjoy!