Vodka Crust, French Onion Soup

So here's the baking the last 24hrs...

First I've been dying to try the 'America's Test kitchen" Vodka pie crust, because I suck at pie crusts.... It's basically a food processor crust which gets extra wet with the vodka, and because the vodka evaporates, it is easier to roll out because it is extra moist without retaining the moisture when the vodka evaporates... if that makes any sense...anyways...here is a cross section of some of the crust (long story but I made another one, that one I forgot to put pie weights and it shrunk down into bottom and got too thick to use...) It's nice and flaky ... .

They don't usually let you see the recipe unless you subscribe to the website, so here's a backdoor way of getting it, someone wrote it in their forums

http://www.americastestkitchen.com/ibb/posts.aspx?postID=215231&postRepeater1-p=6#218552

Also, made the america's test kitchen french onion soup recipe. It's very long to make, and was good, but maybe not worth all the work? Start with the onions, I put a little over two pounds, you slice off both ends, and then cut in half and then make slivers (if that makes any sense). You put in a dutch oven sprayed with cooking oil and some butter dabs in bottom. Throw in a dash of salt to bring out more moisture. Put lid on and 400 degrees for an hour. Then vent the lid a bit and stir the onions, then an hour and a half more. (I got too sick of waiting so I pulled it out and did next step sooner). You will have the sugars caramelizing around edges of pot and that is what you want to make broth dark. I put on stove top and cooked onions down until the bottom gets a sugar coating and starts to brown, I was afraid to let it burn so I always did the next step a little earlier than recommended, but I didn't' want to ruin it after all that work. So you throw in a bit of water, and scrape all the brown off the bottom, and you cook off water again and do that three times, they say that's where the flavour comes from, the brown on the bottom. The last time, put 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 beef broth, how ever much you want, I think I put 1 cup and half of each, and some sprigs of Thyme, and it could have used more broth, it was a bit too much onions for the amount of broth. Let that simmer for a while. I grilled the french bread with a bit of olive oil then placed on top of the soup in oven safe bowls, and sprinkled more than the recommended amount of cheese! (and I just used Mozzarella, I didn't want to go out and buy Gruyere just for this..). I put under the broiler and browned top and melted cheese. Served with some extra grilled bread. Not sure if it's worth all that work for some soup, but it was very tasty...guess it depends how bad you are craving French Onion Soup. There was some extra stuff they did like deglaze the pot with dry Sherry but I didn't have any so I didn't' use it.

Just found this link for some good information on caramelizing onions...way better than my sad description above!!! http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/007395how_to_caramelize_onions.php