Sweetie Pie: French Onion Soup

My absolute favorite time of year is fall leading into winter...crisp cool air, sweaters, leaves, Thanksgiving...and then Christmas!! And of course lots and lots of baking happens in the fall, its only natural =) One of my favorite fall-ish foods in french onion soup...its so warm and homey, and really easy to make!! Already tired of summer (least favorite season of them all) I decided to do something to remind me of fall, so I whipped up this french onion soup. All you really need is about 5 white onions, some garlic, a carton of beef broth, balsamic vinegar, and whatever spices you want to add.
The first thing I did was take a heavy bottomed pot...I used the Calphalon 4 quart soup pot...put a little olive oil in the bottom and add your chopped onion...throw in a little salt to pull out the moisture and let them cook down until they begin to get limp and sweat.

After they begin to cook down they will look like this...

When they start to brown a little you can add a few splashes of balsamic vinegar and a little bit of sugar...I used agave nectar but I used a little too much and my soup was sweeter than I wanted it to be...so its better to use less and add more later if you wanted to...basically the sugar is just to help caramelize the onions...once they start to caramelize they will look like this...

Allow them to continue to cook...stirring occasionally to make sure they all get evenly browned and caramelized...

Once the onions look like the above picture you can add the carton of beef broth and whatever spices you want...I got a little spice happy haha and added a whole bunch of different things...dried basil, paprika, red pepper, nutmeg...
Cover the soup and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes...after its finished simmering ladle it into crocks and add croutons or slices of french bread...