French Onion Casserole

This recipe has a few moving parts, so get your chef hat on!

First get a one-pound box of macaroni noodles boiling in heavily salted water. Second, get a half stick of butter melted. Third, cut six superfat slices of bread, like 3/4"wide! Cut those slices into 3/4" cubes and set aside. Sourdough holds up really well for this application 😉! And now the fun begins!

Thinly slice 3 big onions and start sautéing those in at least a half stick of butter (add more if the pan's looking dry) for a long time on low heat. Watch for them to get soft and dark without browning/carmelizing. Add however much garlic powder you want to the onions when they are all done becoming a beauteous squishy mess, and then thoroughly mix in 1/4c flour to start making a roux with them. Add 2c of beef broth and at least 1/4c steak sauce and turn off the heat.

When the noodles are al dente or just under, strain them and put them back in the pot for mixing the rest of the recipe up in! Like the onion soup you just made! Dump that into the noodles and now you can use that same onion pan to brown up a pound of ground beef seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder and pepper! Add the cooked beef to your pot of cooked noodles and onions, mix it good and taste for salt.

Put the whole shebang into a buttered casserole dish or 13x9. I split mine between two smaller casseroles because I have an obsession with cooking everything in my toaster oven, plus then we can just eat one tonight and one tomorrow! Sprinkle the top with a layer of shredded cheese, I did cheddar but you can do gruyere or Swiss if you're fancy, or want to keep with the traditional French onion soup theme! Then put your bread cubes on top of that and drizzle with the melted butter, do your best to get some on each piece of bread! Finally!! You can bake it! 350° for 10-15 minutes, just to melt the cheese and brown the bread! Omg eat it with sweet corn, the perfect pairing!