Sally, there is at least one northerner who does not put sugar in cornbread! Me! I learned to make it from my MIL who was raised in Va/W.Va. The few times that I have tasted cornbread in Oregon, it tasted like cake. In my opinion, cake and chili should not be eaten together.

Mary,
Smiling. We always used the recipe off the canister. Just recently we started putting two eggs in it. Makes it much more moist AND even more like cake :o)

The parlor really isn't all that cold. It only gets bad when there is a west wind and the overhead in the freestall area to the manure pit is open when the alleys are being scraped. Wind comes through the freestall and the parlor like a blue norther. LOL It wouldn't be bad if we didn't have to keep the return alley overheads open. There is an infrared heater over the pit, it was 49 in there this morning.

My onion soup is fantabulous.............I'd put it up against Sylvain's any day of the week!

Awesome Anna!
What kind of onions do you use? The only time I helped a SIL make it we used regular white onions. She didn't like to tear up so I got to clean all of them :o) It was good soup tho.

Vidalias if I can get them, otherwise just the plain ole "sweet onions".

Oh, Vidalias are the best. Yum! Now I'm hungering for onion soup.

me too says me pouting

Hi, everyone.

Anna, the situation with dad's house is convoluted, to say the least. My dad's 2nd wife died in August 2013. Dad has been living in the house since then. However, her will split the house into 3 equal ways between her 2 sons and my dad. Oldest son is the executor of the will. He took his sweet time putting the house on the market. When he finally decided the planetary alignment was auspicious, he forced my dad to move out so the realtor could show an empty house. Now, the house is empty, the prospective buyer can't seem to be able to obtain a mortgage and everything is at a standstill. We haven't told dad about living here yet. He worries about that house selling, or not selling. He is of a fragile nature when business transactions are concerned. Broaching the subject too soon would only compound his anxiety. He has expressed an interest towards living in an autonomous senior facility where he could come and go as he pleases, keep a private apartment and live independently. Of course, when the house finally does sell, we would love to have him live with us. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Anna, great avatar. Love it.

I make onion soup using large onions, any cultivar works because the recipe includes 1 tablespoon brown sugar. The onions are ground coarsely in the food professor and sweated at low temp in butter, salt, black pepper and the sugar. Then, the heat is turned all the way up until all the liquid evaporates and the sugar starts caramelizing and burning a bit. After that, a bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon), 1 cup of cognac (Courvoisier) and 6 cups boiling water are added. And the soup simmers gently for 2 or 3 hours. I top each serving bowl with a thickish (1 inch) French bread crouton, a mix of Swiss and Parmesan cheese and I broil the topping until the cheese is bubbly and nicely browned. Madame the duchess Marie-Caca deTaratata prefers it that way. Voila: classic French onion soup. Some people add beef broth to it. I don't. It doesn't need it, IMHO and wine makes it taste so much better. I told dad about it and he wants some. I have all I need to make onion soup, so I have a project. Gail loves that soup, too. With a salad, a quiche Lorraine, a bottle of red wine and a baba au rhum, it's a menu fit for a king. I'll get going on the baba au rhum tomorrow morning because yeast is involved. I love working with yeast. Come to think of it, that might be tomorrow night's dinner menu.

Lucy ate last night. YAY, what a good snake. I have to guess that all that hunting paid off. Dad was extra cautious to keep vewy quiet all day.

Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

See - Sylvain - a simple question about onion soup has staved off that dreaded "Adunno" for tomorrow's supper.

Ah, I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

oh dang, now, not only do I crave pictures of that snake, but I also crave some some of that soup! oh my

Hi Ginger! Yes ... Moses is correct.😜
Anna, I still have your onion soup recipe! It's very good!😋
Glad Lucy was a good snake ... and sorry about your Dad's situation! Such a shame! Okay ... hi to Sally and the rest.

I remember when you were paired with him and had to go for training. He really is quite handsome

Hi, everyone.

We have a saying in French: Chose promise, chose due., which translates as: "a promise is a debt.". So, before anybody accuses me of welshing on a debt, here are some pictures of Lucy 5 years ago. It's like showing baby pictures, really. She has grown so much. I may be partial, but she is still as cute as ever.

We have a picture of Lucy like she was trained to hang on to my left wrist,


And here is Lucy when she made the cover of Python Monthly



And finally, how Lucy hangs on with her little tail.


Please forgive me if it brings tears to my eyes. I'll get a picture of the mother-of-pearl belly scales next time I take her outside.

We are expecting strong storms tomorrow morning between 5AM and 10AM. I'll go put the cigar humidors in a safe place in the laundry room.

Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

Thank you!
Oh she is a beautiful Baby
I will be satiated for a little while now awaiting belly shots

How many large onions, approximately?
my honey is making soup for me tomorrow

I would enjoy meeting Lucy and would not wish her or any of her compadres any harm. However, I doubt if I would want a snake as a pet - maybe that just shows that I have never experienced any type of relationship with a snake and don't expect to do so. It takes all kinds to make up this world. I wonder how her brain processes the interactions with humans. I think I understand a bit how cats and dogs see the universe, but I do not have a clue how a snake views it.

I always buy the largest yellow onions I can find, aka lazy cook's onions. You get more onion to peel ratio with a large onion than small ones. And you work less, too. Quantity... 3 or 4 pounds onions should do nicely. As a rule of thumb, when the food processor's container is a bit over half full of chopped onions, I call it OK. You'll need 2 tablespoons brown sugar and please use freshly ground black pepper. You're worth it.

You need to stir often while you are caramelizing the onions, specially when the water is all but gone. I have a straight edge wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot well at that stage. It will stick slightly, but you need that fond to bring that added flavor dimension to your onion soup. If it doesn't stick a bit, you may as well open a can of condensed onion soup and save yourself a bit of trouble. When the soup is all done simmering, you won't need to scrub the pot. I guarontee. A bonus: it freezes well, too.

Sylvain.

So sorry, Stillwood. We cross-posted. I do not worry how Lucy perceives interactions with humans. She has a brain the size of a peanut and I am quite certain that quantum mechanics escape her completely. But she is no fool, either. All that matters is that she was always handled with kindness and respect. Lucy has never had any bad experience with us. You know, when Lucy falls asleep in the crook of my elbow and snores, I would bet my bottom dollar that Lucy feels safe and her world spins gently on its axis. And everybody is happy. I always say: snakes make awesome pets and good rearing certainly shows.

Sylvain.

Oh my, Lucy is beautiful! And snakes most definitely do have personalities. My sweet Baby was a very good natured boy. Never got snappy or aggressive. We had another snake for a while (found her another home after a bit) and she was NOT a nice girl. She would just a soon lunge at your hand as at her food. Baby loved to snuggle and would crawl up my neck and get his head between my ears and my glasses and knock them off my head. Unfortunately, all my pics of him are before the days of digital cameras. One of these days I'll track down the prints and scan some of them.