Around Home...cold spring days, hot beefy soup...

I was gazing out the office window this morning and saw a bunch of yellow tips in the backyard garden.  I really wasn't sure what they were, but upon closer inspection, I found they were the daffodils --  sun-deprived, pale yellow tips were pushing up through the ground.  Since the first part of the month, we've had colder-than-normal temps, and it seems every day there's a new inch or two of snow that has fallen.  It melts right away, which is good, but the constant cold makes for a slow-to-come spring here.  We aren't going to complain though.  Right now it's about the moisture.  It's what we've been asking God for, after all.  Squish-squashing through the mud and snow is a blessing.

 The tulip bunches are poking up too. 

 

 Hello!  Look at our red tips!

 Papa strung up a new wooden swing for the Littles to ride on.  I'm thinking of painting it.  What color do you think?  White would match the bird poo that tends to land here underneath the willow tree.

Since it is another cold, gray, breezey day, I thought a bowl of hot soup would be just the thing for our Sunday Dinner.  I put a browned beef bone from this week's pot roast in a pot to boil along with some veggies, pepper, salt, garlic and a splash of vinegar and let it slowly simmer itself into a good beef stock.  I'll admit that I had to add in a little bit of my secret ingredient, Better Than Bouillon Beef Base, to the broth after I strained it and set it back to simmer.  At first I thought I'd make a veggie-beef soup, but then I had the idea of French Onion Soup, my favorite.  So it was.

 

 I thinly sliced three yellow onions and tossed them in a skillet with butter and olive oil and let them get all brown and caramelized.  You can't rush this.  Oh, I love the smell!

 

The crusty bread was poked into the oven to dry.  After a little while it was buttered and garlicked-up and set back in the oven for a little more flavor.

 

The onions went into the beef broth and the soup was poured into bowls.  The crusty bread went over top along with a heap of grated cheese -- Parmesan and Colby-Jack. 
In went the spoon!  

Slurp, said the mouth.