French Onion Soup

I had French Onion soup in an airport during a layover earlier this year, and ever since then I've wanted to make some myself.  Of course, summer isn't really the time of year for eating hot, cozy soup with melty cheesy bread, so I waited until fall to try out this recipe.  There are tons of recipes for French Onion soup, and I think I'm going to search around for some different ones, but this is a nice basic one for the crock pot.  We had some for dinner and then I froze the rest so we can have it all through the fall!

(recipe adapted from Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook)
INGREDIENTS:
3 large onions, sliced (appx 3 cups) 3 tbsp butter, melted 3 tbsp all purpose flour 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp pepper 4 14.5oz cans beef broth Sliced French Bread Shredded Mozzarella cheese (and some parmesan if you have it!)
1. Mix the onions and butter in a 3 1/3 to 6 quart slow cooker,  cover and cook on high for about 30-40 minutes, until the onions begin to slightly brown around the edges.
2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, and pepper.  Then, stir the mixture along with your beef broth into the slowcooker full of onions.  Cover again and cook it on low for 7-9 hours, (or on high for 3-4 hours), or just until the onions are tender.
3. Cut some slices of french bread, put some grated mozzarella on top and stick it in the oven on broil for a few minutes, until the cheese is all gooey and melty.  I also threw some shredded cheese in the bottom of the bowl before ladling the soup in, so there'd be a cheesy surprise at the bottom.  Put one of your cheesy breads on top of each bowl of soup, and consume! 

Interested in Sponsoring?

Fall is well on its way and October is upon us.  This time last year I was running around getting everything ready for our Nov. 5th wedding, so this year it'll be nice to be able to relax and just enjoy the season.

I'm accepting sponsors for the upcoming months, so if you're interested in driving more traffic to your blog or shop, sponsorship is a great way to do so!  Delightfully Tacky has a solid readership of friendly ladies who enjoy personal style, adventures, delicious treats, and pretty vintage things, so if you're looking to draw a demographic such as that to your awesome blog, site, or shop, consider sponsoring!  I've got four different ad sizes at different price points, so if you're just starting off and don't want to make a huge investment in terms of advertisement, but still want to get more exposure, try something like a mini ad.  If you want a bit more exposure, the small and large ads come with the option of offering my readers a giveaway.  The Featured ad space, which is located at the top of my right sidebar, gets the top spot all month long, and also comes along with the option to both offer a giveaway, and you'll be featured in a sponsored blog post.

If you have questions about the ad spaces/sponsorship in general, check out my sponsorship page and see if your question is answered there.  If not, feel free to email me!  If you're ready to go and definitely want to sponsor, just click here, pick your ad size & duration, and go through the checkout process and you're on your way!

Uncommon Finds

Transitional seasons are the most exciting ones.  We should celebrate the new year on October or April 1st, not January 1st.  Nothing about January 1st screams "new life! new opportunities! turning over a new leaf!"  It's cold and dead and the anticipation of Christmas is gone.  Fall and spring seem like much better times to celebrate transitions and new goals.  New year's resolutions quickly fade... I wonder if resolutions made during fall and spring work out better.  It seems like so many people are making fall goal lists.  
Even if a wonderful season, like summer, is on it's way out, I really to love that little twinge of exhilaration that I feel when I can smell the fall nip in the air.  It's like the whole of existence is simultaneously making a shift.  Trees are changing color, animals are preparing for winter, the temperature is slowly dropping.  Resisting the change would just be silly.  I was sad to see summer go, and I'm still a bit sad, but how can you not dive right into that change?  I think even though we've got all these fancy modern things to keep us warm and comfortable, our bodies still know that the change is happening.  Humans have felt the rhythm of seasons for thousands of years.  Maybe that sense of change has been built into us by now.  Either way, I'm excited for the next few months.
dress/courtesy of modcloth :: belt/thrifted :: shoes/courtesy of blowfish shades/vintage :: necklace/courtesy of peerless charm :: vest/thrifted + diy
I feel like finding a denim vest that is cropped and fitted is relatively difficult.  Then, the other day I was in the little girls' section at the thrift store and there were a bunch of denim jackets that were super cute. I realized that if I just cut off the sleeves, it'd be a great little cropped denim vest!  Voila, perfection.  So, if you're pulling your hair out trying to find a cropped, fitted denim vest, just head to the thrift store and look in the little girls' section for a denim jacket and whack the arms off! Sometimes it seems like the most uncommon pieces in my closet become some of my favorites.  This dress was definitely a departure from my typical style of more vintage shaped, shorter dresses.  I absolutely love the color and pattern, and the sheer maxi skirt almost has an ethereal quality to it.  I have yet to hem it, so I've always worn it with these heels, which are the perfect height.

The Remix Archives // Free People Skirt

Back in 2010 I won a Chictopia contest with RevolveClothing.com, and the prize was both a photo shoot in LA and a gift card to Revolve.  Most of the stuff on Revolve is more edgy-LA/NYC than I wear, but I found my way to the Free People section and that's where I found this little gem of a skirt.  I remember I had been looking for a button down skirt for a while and this one had a great little print on it too.  It's nice because even though it has a print, it's pretty non-intrusive, so it's easy to mix with other bold colors and prints.  I often find myself wanting to pair orange with it to tie in with the tiny orange flowers in the print.

The Art Professor

This outfit made me feel like a professor.  Maybe an art history professor.  Blazers just add that little zing of professionalism.  Like my floral blazer, this one is also a more casual fabric, almost sweat-shirty in nature, but it's so thick, warm, and structured.  When the temperatures drop, this will definitely be a nice layer to have.  Fall is still hiding around the corner, but my wardrobe is definitely wanting fall to come.  I was in H&M yesterday trying to find some stuff with Dan and I was captured by the bins of scarves and hats trying them all on.  I've had the same scarves for a couple years, so it'd be nice to get a new one, all big and cozy to wrap around my neck a few times.  Scarves are especially nice when riding bikes to keep the wind from nipping at your neck.

blazer/courtesy of modcloth :: skirt/courtesy of ruche :: shoes/seychelles

top/vintage :: lady tie/courtesy of flapper girl :: photos by Dan

Back in the fall of 2008, my boyfriend had just broken up with me and I took a trip to Seattle for fall break to visit some friends over there and get out of town to escape the post-break-up blues.  It was just a little trip, I don't think it lasted more than a few days, but I remember it very fondly.  I stayed with one of my friends in Seattle and she had this perfume that I spritzed on myself every day during that mini-vacation, and upon getting home I decided that I was going to go out and buy that perfume and it was going to be my scent.  I think it was one of those post-break-up things where you decide you're going to become ______ sort of person.  Well, I decided I was going to be a perfume sort of person and I picked that perfume as my first "signature" scent.  Well, I'm not a perfume sort of person, and I still have a mostly-full bottle of Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker sitting on my dresser as a sort of monument to that period in my life.  The scent itself kind of reminds me of a re-imagining of the classic perfume scent, or rather: perfume that smells like something an old lady would wear.  It's... new old lady.  I wear it very infrequently, but every time I do I think of that weekend in Seattle with friends, leaving heartache on the other side of the state.  Piecing together a halloween cat costume from borrowed makeup and black nylons as a tail.  Making caramel and pumpkin cookies. Cruising down Chuckanut Drive in a car full of amazing women and laughter.