Recipe ~ What did you have for breakfast? (Simple Caramel Sauce)

What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Homemade gingerbread, vanilla ice cream, and homemade caramel sauce.
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200g superfine sugar
2Tb corn syrup
1/2 c water
Heat this, in a nonstick pan, stirring constantly until boiling.
Once boiling, stop stirring and cook until temperature is ~ 360F. (Get a good accurate thermometer- I like my digital meat thermometer) The color is going to be dark golden. You'll know if you've gone too far. If you have, start over. If not...
Heat 2/3 c heavy cream in microwave until hot, but not boiling.
Once syrup has reached 360F, carefully (oh so carefully) move the pot to the clean, empty sink.
At arm's length, carefully, and slowly add the hot heavy cream to the sugar syrup. It's gonna look like vesuvius in a pot, but if you're careful and lucky, it'll subside without incident.
Once all the cream is in, move the pan back to the stove, and simmer 3 - 5 minutes over low heat, stirring to dissolve any lumps that just formed.
Transfer the carmel to a small heat proof bowl and add 1 Tb Honey. Mix it in well, and let it cool for a bit (~15 minutes - 1 hour is plenty). You can put it in the fridge o/n, but be aware that you might get crystals forming if the sauce isn't cool enough.
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Awesome breakfast. I figure it's Friday, why not start it off right...

Recipe ~ French Onion Soup

The tried, and not so true.
This weekend, we decided to make french onion soup. As a last minute change, we also decided to try a vegetarian version.
Here's how it went:
Ingredients:
1.5 pounds red onions, sliced
1 Tb unsalted organic butter (Tillamook)
1/4 tesaspoon salt
(vegetarian)
3 3/4 cups organic vegetable broth
1 oz. red wine (cab/merlot)
(more trad.)
3 cups organic chicken broth
3/4 cup organic beef broth
~Bouquet garni
(Fresh organic flat leaf parsley, dried organic bay leaf, fresh organic thyme)
1/2 Tb Balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper to tase
(vegetarian)
1 1/2 Tb soy sauce
Topping:
Swiss and Asiago or just Gruyere
Baguette sliced on bias
+~+~+~+~+~+
The only difference between the veg and trad versions was that the veg had veg broth and soy sauce and the trad didn't
I found that this worked best in a cast iron dutch oven, but YMMV.

Heat the butter over medium-high heat until foam subsides, being careful not to brown it.
Add the onions and salt.
Carmelize the onions, stirring regularly. This will take about 20 minutes or more.
The steel soup pot was a challenge for this, the dutch oven, a dream.
Add the broth, wine and bouquet garni. Taste - pretty watery and kind of bland?
Simmer 20 minutes, gently loosening the fond that formed on the bottom of the pot during the carmelization.
Taste again - better? More body and fuller flavor.
Remove from heat, Carefully remove bouquet garni and discard.
Add balsamic, and if veg, soy sauce.
S/P to taste.
+~+~+~+~+~+
We had a dickens of a time finding a broiler proof crock for the soup.
Instead, we just put it into a bowl, placed the swiss and grated asiago on top, and nuked it 30 seconds.
I'm sure there's a good vegetarian french onion soup recipe. This just isn't it. I only put it here in case you were thinking it might be a good idea. It's not- there's a bit of work that need to be done with it.
On the other hand, the traditional beef broth soup was delicious. I hope you enjoy!
~e.t.~

Vaccaro's ~ Baltimore

The place for pastries, not gelato.

If you're jonesin' for some sweet baked goods, this is the place to go. Six types of Napolean's, Amarettini, Sfogliatelli... you name it, it's there.

I'd steer clear of the gelato though. It's a bit grainy and not quite right.