Some super comfort food: "French onion soup" grilled cheese

Well, amici, we HAVE been through a whole lot haven't we?  OH MY.  Locked at home, not working, not seeing friends, lives upended.  Annalena may have been pushed into retirement slightly earlier than she expected, which is not necessarily a BAD thing.  Perhaps the hardest thing for all of us is to accept, is that this monstrous thing is very much out of our control.  Stay well, friends, Annalena will wish you that again.

We are all cooking more, because, well, we have no choice.  Annalena likes to go out on the weekends.  Not happening.  So, we cook.  And Annalena wants to focus today and tomorrow and Sunday, on foods that bring us comfort.   This recipe, brought to Annalena by the NY Times, combines two of her favorites:  grilled cheese, and French onion soup.  It is as easy as you can imagine.  All you need are a few ingredients, and time.

First, let's look at our starting ingredients:

What you see are 2 pounds of onions:  use all red or all yellow, if that's what you have, and salt and pepper.  Slice the onions: 

Take them, and add them to the pot with the butter  :  that's four tablespoons more or less, and a good pinch of salt and a few shakes of pepper:

Our next ingredient, is time.  See the flame below?

You don't want that.   Lower the flame to the lowest you can possibly can.  Cover the pot for about 3 minutes, and then, we begin cooking.  Let's follow progress.  Here we are after 5

Doesn't look like much, huh?  Well, keep with me kindern.  Stir the onions at the 4th minute, and each of the following steps  (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, ), do the same thing:

Do you see how they've cooked down and browned?  Onions have more sugar in them, than any other vegetable.  You can see that here. 

For the last five minutes, add a glug of a dark vinegar.  Annalena used cheap balsamic, and cook for another five minutes:

What we have, at the end, is here: 

 Quite a reduction, huh?

So, now we're going to make sandwiches.  The onions above, will make four sandwiches, but Annalena could very well eat the whole portion.    Put  half of those onions into a bowl, and grate about 4-6 ounces of good quality cheese - Annalena used aged cheddar, and mix.   Then pile the stuff onto two slices of bread.  Annalena had some homemade European sourdough around (of course she did), but you can use any good bread you have.  Then, put those slices into a pan, where you've melted a few tablespoons of butter, and fry for 3 minutes: 

The cheese will begin to melt, and the bread will toast up.  Now, cover the stuff with new slices of bread, and flip them over into that pan.  Add more butter if you see fit, and fry for another three minutes.  You'll get:

 They're a bit unwieldly to eat as they are.  So, if you want to show some manners: 

Perhaps if you made this for dinner tonight, you'll show us.  DARN IS IT GOOD.  And you probably don't have to shop for the ingredients. 

FRIENDS, WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS.   We have gotten through worse.  As a lady who shoveled shit in AIDs wards in the 80s, Annalena knows your concern.  And she knows your fear.  She would give you inspirational music, but find your way.  And eat well, ragazzi.  Again, repeat after Annalena:  WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS.