Alright after reading Ryan's recipe for his soup I figured I would give you one of my favorites. This is my take of the traditional French Onion Soup.
Your list of needed ingredients is as follows
butter or margerine
olive oil
salt
pepper
one container of beef broth
5 or 6 good sized onions
1 can or bottle of your favorite beer
cheese
Alright so far so good. I usually don't measure much so forgive me if these seems a bit haphazard.
Melt about teaspoon of the butter or margarine in a large sauce pan. Add a dash of the olive oil to the pot to keep it from burning. Now this is up to you. You can slice your onions super fine or make them thick, It is really up to how you like your soup. I prefer to get plenty of onion so I cut it fairly thin but then I use a lot of onion so you never get any spoonful with out them. Add the onions to the pan and cook until golden. I happen to like a dark onion soup so I go longer with them but if you like your soup light in color then stop when golden. I don't usually have fresh beef broth around and have a become a fan of Rachel Ray's broth because it is low in sodium and has a nice flavor but any beef broth will do, you can even use cubes if you desire. To the onions add the broth and salt and pepper to season and then add your container of beer and let boil. Once it boils bring it down to a simmer and keep covered and let it cook for about an hour.
Some people love toast with this and others use french bread cut and made into croutons. It is all up to you. My mother loved to make garlic bread croutons and put that into the soup. Added seasonings are a personal taste so I leave you the bare bones and let you fix it up how you prefer after you try it.
Final bit again is up to you. You can ladle the soup into bowls add the crouton and top with Swiss cheese. Or you can wait till about ten minutes before the soup is to be served and add the rind and cheese from Parmesan. My cousin adapted it and uses a Stilton Rind, and her daughter just dumps in shredded mozzarella. It all comes down to you and what you prefer in your soup. Either way people seem to think you spent hours on it, it tastes great, and you get to enjoy especially in the cooler months.