Fluffed up French Onion Soup

ERMEGHERD!  You know how sometimes just a simple idea becomes a project that results in something
wonderful and unexpected?  Well, that is exactly what happened here last week!

It all began when my friend Mike brought me a big bag filled with ox tail bones...
He promised that they would provide a delicious bone broth, after several simple steps....
I followed his directions and roasted them on high heat for 2 hours to render a very thick fat. This was not easy to clean, by the way, but well worth the end result.
The next day the bones spent 11-12 hours in the largest crock pot I own, along with carrots from the garden (stems and all) celery slices (leaves and all) and an entire onion (skin and all).
I let the crock pot cool and placed it in the fridge overnight.  The next day I scraped the fat from the top and heated it back up long enough to strain the bones and veggies from the rich broth.
I can tell you now that our dog has never ever been happier at meal time.  The bones are soft enough to eat fairly quickly. She seems to have a deepened devotion to me this week.  I can't blame her :)

Now, if you intend to make this soup or any other that calls for beef broth, I encourage you to make your own.  Bones can be found via your local butcher, and will provide you with a much more nutritious stock, and much less sodium than bouillon or canned broth.  Adding just a bit of vinegar, during the simmering process,  will aid in the release of
the many minerals gained from a bone broth.  Here is an interesting read on the health benefits of bone broth:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/337123-bone-soup-nutrition/
At the time I made this soup I was fighting a cold, and I am sure this broth was part of the reason I was able to win!

Once the broth was strained and ready for a job I remembered the delicious french onion soup we served at My π  pizza, and this made me drool.  The food there was memorable enough that it makes me melancholy.
Next step was a quick search online for basics, which are readily available.  Facebook friends graciously chimed in with their preferences.  It seems to really boil down to two things...good broth and well caramelized onions.  The cheese and croutons and other ingredients can be altered with positive results.  This is my augmentation:

I wanted the soup to be a bit more hearty, as it was to be our dinner.  A quick visit to the local store included some rather lean cubed beef, and fresh button mushrooms.  A quick visit to the garden provided some tender broccoli spears and a very small carrot.  This photo was just the second portion of onions browned for the soup.  The trick is to really caramelize them, in lots of real BUTTER! which brings out that deeply sweet and pungent flavor.  I used a very large onion per quart of stock. Half a stick of butter was used, although many recipes called for more...this turned out to be enough, for me. Add well browned veggies to your stock while completing the next step, allowing it to simmer on low.  Flavors will meld and marry during this time.
Next I browned the beef cubes, first quickly on high heat to add flavor, and then slowly, with some of the broth, to tenderize.  The beef is completely optional, as are the broccoli/carrots.  The beef was simmered, on low,  for an hour or more, sliced mushrooms added toward the end of the process to soften and flavor.

To assemble the finished product, a couple of cubes of the beef were added to each oven proof bowl, followed by a ladle or two of the rich broth and onion/veggie mix, then a section of dark rye bread (which had been toasted with butter in the oven).  Topping it all off was a slice of mozzarella, which is what we had on hand.  I truly believe any good melting gooey cheese will take one back to the experience of french onion soup at their favorite old haunt.  Memory in a bowl!

Please let me know if you try this, or if you go in your own experimental direction!  I'd love to hear your results.  Bon appetit and happy planting!
P.S.  In this case, this was a 3 day process, however if you make your own bone broth from something other than ox tails (which are quite fatty) it might be doable in one single day with dinner as the goal.  The ox-tail demi glace I began with was quite gelatinous, so I thinned it with water to cut down on calories.  After all, the flavor comes so much from the onion/butter combination and caramelization. I didn't want someone to try this all in one day.  You'd be eating at midnight!