I woke up to this.

I was ready to start my day because I had a plan, an agenda. Today was going to be Garage Day. Our garage had become a catch all ever since Christmas. Ya know all the stuff I had gotten rid of to donate? It is sitting in my garage. Bags of used wrapping paper from Christmas. Yep, in the garage. Halloween and Christmas decor? In the garage waiting to go up into the attic. I don’t even want to post a picture because it is beyond embarrassing. But I always said I’d be honest, so here it is.

It is HORRIBLE!!! After I took this I grabbed two of the big black garbage bags and filled them up. I even found a bag of stocking stuffers that I had forgotten to put out in the stockings.  Want to hear the worst part? I cleaned it out right after Halloween. Between decluttering the inside and holiday throwing up all over it, I look like an episode of Hoarders.  It gives my anxiety just to step foot in it. My laundry closet is out there. I do not want to even go out there to do laundry.

Which explains this.

This is the laundry that I haven’t wanted to do because of the anxiety I get in the garage, but the laundry gives me anxiety too, so all it is, is one big vicious circle.

I decided that I could kill two birds with one stone. I’d do the laundry while I sorted through the garage. All I needed to do was get all the empty boxes together to break down and recycle. Put all the holiday decor tubs in one place so Donny could help me get them back up in the attic. Put all  the donations in one place so I could load them in the car and get them to the thrift store. Easy, right? Wrong. It was freezing and I got overwhelmed. I needed Donny’s input on some of the things out there. He’s off tomorrow. Perfect.

I decided to do something that I like to do.

It was a cold day and what’s one of the best thing for cold days? Soup. French Onion soup. Which is just about my favorite soup in the whole world. I had found a recipe for my Instant Pot on pinterest. I would post the link, but I changed some of the ingredients and added others to make it the way I liked it.

 

I have never made French Onion soup in my Instant Pot before. Melt butter and oil on the saute setting. It’s 3 T butter and 1 T olive oil.

Add 4 thinly sliced onions and saute until they are brown. This part takes the longest because you want to get the brown “crust” on the bottom.  Don’t rush it. This can make or break your soup. I would pat them all down, let them cook for a few minutes then move them around and pat them down again.

These still needed to cook a while longer, but you can see they are starting to brown.

After the onions are browned, scrape the brown crust off the bottom and mix it with the onions then add 5 cups beef broth, 1 tsp salt, 2 bay leaves and pepper to taste. Put the lid on and use the manual setting for 10 minutes. Do a natural release.

After it’s released, slice french bread and toast on both sides in the oven. Spoon your soup in an oven safe dish, put the toasted bread on and place the cheese on top.

I get this cheese at Aldi. I love that it’s round and fits perfectly on my bowl. You can use whatever cheese you like best. I normally use provolone or swiss.

Place your bowl on a baking tray and put it under the broiler until it’s nice and bubbly. That’s it! Super easy and just as good as any fine dining restaurant.

I normally let my cheese brown more, but I was starving and couldn’t wait. This will definitely be my go to French Onion soup recipe from now on. I ate this whole bowl and probably could have eaten two more. It’s that good.

Nothing is better than hot soup on a cold day. Especially when your plans don’t go exactly as planned.  Comfort food at it’s finest!

Tomorrow we storm the garage!

Wish us luck. You saw it, we need it.

P.S.  I did get all of the laundry washed, dried and put away, so there’s that.