Onion Soup

Last week one of our patient brought a bunch of onions to the office. (It seems when harvest time comes around, everyone's giving away food). I decided to take a couple home. I allready had 2 onions in the fridge and so I decided I'd try to make some onion soup out of them. (I really don't cook with onions very often......like hardly ever.) Anyway. From the second I got home from work I was chopping and cooking. I had Parker pick up some french bread on his way home from work. I'd looked up a couple recipes on the internet, and was kinda making a goo-losch of all of them. They were all pretty much the same. LOTS of chopped onions. Beef broth. Some spices. 2-4 tablespoons of butter. Easy right? Well. As the onions started to soften, I did a taste test. It was pretty good. A little bland though. A little more beef flavor? Plus maybe a little more butter? That should do it. Well. That "a little more butter" ruined it completely. Every bite tasted like a stick of butter. Ick. I tried to dilute it, then add more beef broth. It wasn't working. Ok. I thought maybe I'll chop ANOTHER onion, cook it in a SEPARATE pot, and then pour it all into the soup. That should give it the flavor it needs. Nope. It still tasted like BUTTER. Completely frustrated, and 2 hours later; I dished up 3 bowls with a side of steamed green beans the neighbors had given us, and the bread Parker had brought home. Caleb and Parker sat down. I warned them,
"Guys, it probably doesn't taste that great......you won't hurt my feelings if you don't want to eat it."
Parker took a bite.
"Well?" I asked.
"It's not bad....."
"Really?"
"It's not GOOD...."
.....sigh. I look over to Caleb. "Well, what do YOU think?"
Caleb scoops himself a heaping bite and stuffs it into his mouth.
"I don't like it mommy." As he pushes it away.
Parker looks at me and says, "I'll eat the entire thing if you want me to. You NEVER mess up dinner, and it's not terrible...."
"No. You don't have to eat it."
I took a bite myself and gagged.
We ate beans and bread. Then here's the bad part. We were all still hungry. I started to cry. I hate making dinner on a work day. And I just WASTED two hours on a worthless meal. Caleb saw my tears and said, "Mommy.....thank you for making this beautiful dinner."
Now I'm sobbing.
"I'll take another bite, even though I don't like it mom...." and he heaves another bite of butter soup into his mouth.
Wow. What a sweetheart!
Crying even more, I gave him a hug.
My day was RUINED. I definately wasn't going to spend MORE time in the kitchen making something else......it was 7:30! And the kitchen was ALLREADY a big mess from the butter soup. Parker was right. I never mess up dinner. I mean, I've made things he doesn't care for as much....but I've never completely BOTCHED a meal before. Maybe I don't take enough risks....but do you SEE what happens when you do?

I spent another 5 minutes feeling sorry for myself. Then I looked at my family.
"Who's still hungry?!"
Parker and Caleb looked at eachother....
"Meee!!!" they yell together
"Who wants McDonalds?"
"Meeeeeeee!" they yelled again.

So I loaded the family up and we had fries and burgers for dinner. If only we'd just done that to begin with!! I don't think I'll ever look at onions the same way.....