My friends and I did a lot of hilarious, albeit weird, things in high school.
Dying bright red and purple streaks in our hair (one of us dated an emo/rock band member for a bit…) driving around with the pizza man’s delivery light on top of our car, playing Mario Cart in our sweatpants for hours, and holding regular meetings for our beef & cheese nacho, banana cream pie and lampshade hat club, all come to mind.
I KNOW.
Anyways, if we weren’t up to no good, we were usually out to eat. That’s the advantage of having a killer teenage metabolism and dancing nearly every day of the week, I suppose. You can eat all the crappy food you want, and never gain a pound!
Oh to be young…
One of our favorite restaurants to hit up was TGI Friday’s. I swear at one point, we were going nearly 3 times a week. My friend’s brother worked there and always drizzled extra chocolate and caramel sauce on our Oreo Madness for us.
REMEMBER THOSE??
For my meal I’d always order the same thing every time. Kid’s Chicken Fingers with honey mustard and a piping hot cup of cheesy, French Onion Soup.
It was this cup of soup I was thinking of when I decided to combine its rich beefy flavor with sweet, caramelized onions, then top it with creamy cheese and press it all between two slices of buttered bread.
It’s the absolute best of both worlds, people. Savory soup and crispy panini combine to make: French Onion Soup Sandwiches! 
I started my sandwich by making a “souped” up caramelized onion filling. First I sliced a jumbo, softball sized onion in half. Any sweet, yellow onion will do.
Then I thinly sliced each half into…slices.
Meanwhile I heated up butter, olive oil and worcestershir-sheer-shire, sauce in a medium size skillet on the stove,
to which I added the onion slices, a bay leaf and salt & pepper.
After tossing everything to coat,
(which is very easy to do with a pair of tongs)
I let the onions sit and caramelize for about half an hour, stirring every couple of minutes.
Normally when I caramelize onions, I add dashes of water into the skillet if they start to stick to the pan or burn. Today I used beef broth which, when combined with the worcestershire sauce and bay leaf, helped to mimic French Onion Soup’s savory, slurp-worthy flavor.
After half an hour later, I had this. MUWAHAHAHA!!!! Ahem. Sorry.
While the onions were cooking away, I turned my attention to the bread for the sandwich.
Great Harvest Asiago Cheese & Sundried Tomato Bread baked TODAY. Look at those cheese pockets!
I picked up a bag from the bakery after work, and the squish of the doughy-soft bread I felt through the bag immediately made me whisper “oh my gosh!” Out loud. To myself. In the middle of the bakery. Embarrassing.
I sliced myself a couple of pieces, then buttered ‘em up.
I flipped one piece over,
and layered on thin slices of fontina cheese.
I heart Trader Joe’s Fontina Cheese. It melts like a dream and the taste is mild but flavorful.
Leftover slice for the chef! 
Next I generously mounded the caramelized onions on top,
placed the other slice of bread on top (butter side up)
and pressed away in my Griddler.
A few minutes later the outside of the bread had crisped up, while the fontina cheese had oozed out, creating a golden halo of melted cheese around the sandwich on the griddle. ZOMG!
French Onion Soup Sandwiches
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 large sweet yellow onion
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
pinch of dried thyme
salt & pepper
1/4-1/3 cup beef broth
4 slices good quality bread
butter for spreading
4 slices Fontina or Gruyere cheese
Directions:
1. Heat butter, olive oil and worcestershire sauce in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cut the onion in half, then thinly slice each half. Add onion slices, separating the layers, into the skillet. Season with salt & pepper, add the bay leaf, and stir well.
2. Continue cooking the onion over medium heat, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown and soften. If the slices begins to burn or stick to the pan, add splashes of beef broth to moisten. Continue cooking until onions are deep brown and soft, ~30 minutes.
3. Butter one side of all four slices of bread, then flip two slices so they lay butter-side down. Layer on the cheese and caramelized onions, then lay the remaining slices of bread on top, butter-side up. Cook in a panini press or hot skillet until both sides are golden brown and cheese has melted.
You will gobble this sandwich up! It’s got all the flavor of the soup, but it so much easier to make.
The onions are sweet, yet savory, and that cheese takes it over the top!
On the side I served some roasted broccoli.
Fresh broccoli tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper, then roasted for 12 minutes at 425 degrees. BETTER THAN FRENCH FRIES!
MMM! This is one of those meals that leaves you so perfectly stuffed and satisfied afterwards. I couldn’t eat another drop!
Unless, of course, you were to place a slice of the epitome of “best of both worlds” in front of me. Ice cream cake. Mmmmmsweetsweeticecreamandcake…
Off to show my laundry a little TLC. I did like 60 loads this weekend and haven’t folded a drop of it yet. Oof!
Have a great night!
~~~~~
What were you like in high school?
My TEN YEAR high school reunion is coming up this weekend and I am still on fence as to if I’m going or not. Thoughts?
Oh my, this looks scrumptious!
Yum!
I was totally awkward in high school! Shew, glad those days are over! Ha!
Don’t miss your reunion – you will regret. Strut your stuff sister!
Girl – you go to that reunion – dye your hair or put some weaves of red and purple (wait – maybe you want to leave that out?) AND have a blast! – Stick your nose up at the stuck up kids that have since divorced and lost out on the importance of life – grab your bff’s – and have a good time!
You should go. You and the girls will have a load of fun, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve seem most of the gang from HS. It’s fun to see how much people have changed, or haven’t changed(!), especially the boys. You might even run into a teacher or two and that’s always fun too.
Sooo creative!
I wish I could hire you to do my weekly menu planning and grocery shopping!!! You always have such great ideas and I get stuck in the same ol’ rut each week.
These look awesome! You are beyond creative my friend.
And one can not beat ice cream cake! Best of.. allll worlds
Go to your reunion! I had a lot of fun at mine. It’s fun to see everyone and their spouses!
First off, holy yum that sandwich sounds delicious! I wish I could hire you as a personal chef.
Second, my 10 year high school reunion was this past weekend. I didn’t want to go for several reasons. I got along with everyone i high school surprisingly. I told myself that everyone I wanted to stay in touch with I still do and all the others I can see on Facebook! People were trying to convince me to go but I decided to not travel back home for it.
Yesterday a couple of friends that went called me to give me the scoop and shared a link to pictures of the reunion. And I saw people I had forgotten about that I would have loved to have seen! It looked like loads of fun and I regretted not going. I will definitely be hitting up the 20 year reunion! So go lady! Dress up and have fun with old friends!
Ho-LY heck! You had me at hello? This looks incredible! Seriously. This is a drop what you’re doing and go make it right now kind of recipe! Genius!
In high school, I was a super jock runner type. I ate a lot of hot pockets and pop tarts.
I went to my reunion even though I didn’t really want to go (I still keep in touch with all of my high school friends that I want to keep in touch with), and honestly? It was lame. I probably wouldn’t go again if I had the choice. Not because I regret it, but because I can think of other, more fun ways to spend my time. Ya know?
1) You are genius for thinking up this sandwich.
2) There’s no way that broccoli tasted better than French fries. Be honest with youself. That’s not the sounds of the girl I’ve come to love over 2+ years of reading your blog
3) I say go. My 10 year is in November and I’m going just for the hell of it.
IT’S TRUE!
This sounds fantastic, I love french onion soup. If I don’t have one of them there fancy dancy panini machines, what are other options? Cast Iron skillet and a brick wrapped in foil? Or should I just treat it like a grilled cheese?
Just like a grilled cheese!
My 10-year is next year and I’m so torn! I only keep in touch with a few people from high school, and went to a really small school (our entire high school was 500 people!!), so the people who stayed in our little home town are (still) super cliquey. On the other hand, my husband’s 10-year was in 2010 and he didn’t go – his class had over 1,500 people – so he keeps in touch with his close friends from school and didn’t really “know” the other people enough to go back. I do feel so old thinking that we’re coming up on/passing our 10 year reunions!
I am so making this…thank you so much for all the yummy recipes!
This looks SO amazing… I’m thinking about trying it with goat cheese and veggie broth…
Please come bring me one of these. My college belly is crying.
These look amazing! Great idea.
Your paninis always make me so jealous of the griddler! I need to ask for one for Christmas. I am currently making my paninis in my waffle iron.
A little ghetto I know….
I was a TGI regular, too! Was my fave restaurant. Haven’t been in years now, though. Why oh why did they get rid of the Oreo Madness?!?! My daughter & I ALWAYS split one! And then they had to go & get rid of the fried chix salad, too (you know the one – w/ the hot bacon honey mustard dressing)! I agree – their french onion soup is to die for! Sandwich looks AWESOME!
that meal looks OUT OF THIS WORLD incredible. I might make it like…tonight.
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I have changed my whole dinner plans for tonight just so I can make this. It’s only 10:00AM and I’m going to be thinking about it the rest of the day now…..
Holy yum. Need to make!!!
kristen, i was wondering what heat settings you used to cook this?? thanks!
High!
Yay! I saw you on KCCI this morning, and you were great! I am going to try this recipe; I love carmelized onions too. My husband Mike and I are both loyal fans of yours. We don’t get to Trader Joe’s in DM very often, but when we go, we always look for you.
Congratulations for your growing success!
Husband and I had these onions on grilled portabella’s and loved them. THEN. I was already planning to make your meatloaf/potato muffins and I decided these french onion soup onions would be a wonderful addition. I declare. WOW. Superb. These onions are officially a staple in our home now!
Ooo that is a genius idea! Did you mix them into the muffins or put them on top?
I debated on which option was best a) in the muffins, b) between the muffins and mashed potatoes or c) in the mashed potatoes. I decided to chop the onions up and put them in the meat mixture this go-round. I used honey chipotle BBQ sauce instead of the ketchup mix, which added a nice kick to the whole thing.
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