Monday! Graduate school starts today! And my new IPad is not working. It froze and I had to retype this entire diary. And the pictures are on the IPad. Curses.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday:
BadKitties
Tuesday:
ejoanna
Wednesday:
Caedy
Thursday:
art ah zen
Friday:
FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:
Siris
Sunday:
loggersbrat
A friend of mine got food poisoning, sadly, and for some reason that made me crave French onion soup. Which, if you have never made it, is a giant pain. Mainly because it takes forever for the onions to caramelize and turn into a mess of sweet goodness.
During the summer, another friend had told me that I could nuke the onions and cut the cooking time in half. So I sliced four onions with a mandolin, added butter, and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. I put it in the microwave for ten minutes, hoping that this would not result in a disastrous bowl explosion.
It didn't. The onions were softer and a lot of liquid had been released, but they were not browned at all.
So I dumped them into a pot to brown. added two by leaves, four sprigs of thyme, some minced garlic, a tiny amount of salt, and a lot of pepper. And stirred and stirred and stirred. Zzzzz. At least I had the lunar eclipse to distract me :)
This was a very, very slow process. But, finally, the onions were browned and thoroughly caramelized.
I removed the bay leaves and thyme twigs, sprinkled a small amount of flour on the onions, and let them cook for about ten minutes. Then I dumped in half a bottle of red wine, let it boil, added a big splash of cognac, and then added two quarts of beef broth.
While it was heating, I shoved the take-and-bake baguette into the oven. At this point I was utterly exhausted and rather hungry. So I sliced the Gruyere instead of grating it.
I plopped the slices of cheese on top of of the baguette slices and put them under the broiler. Normally I would have put the crocks in the oven, but I didn't this time.
This is the recipe that i used, with the addition of cognac.