Good morning, it’s Monday.
I have been loving this unseasonably mild weather. If winter in the Northeast consistently brought temperatures in the 30s and 40s, I would be a much happier camper. This is perfect running weather – not too hot, and not so cold that you can feel neither your face nor your hands after about an hour.
But since the only thing that is permanent is change and winter is, well, winter, I know this is unrealistic. Looking down the pike, we have some 20 degree days ahead of us, so we should really enjoy this gift of relative warmth while we can.
One of the (few, in my opinion) bonuses of very cold weather is the extreme comfort and joy that comes from consuming comforting and warm foods. Winter is soup season, full stop.
I have had my share of cold soups – gazpacho and chilled melon and Vichyssoise. I have enjoyed them all. But they don’t hit the spot, I find, or nourish the body and soul like a steaming bowl of chili or chicken noodle or tomato or lentil does on a cold day.
As an aside, I will confess to being one of those extremely annoying people who send their soup back to be microwaved when I eat out. Usually, I try to preempt this by requesting this upon ordering.
I inherited this marginally toxic trait from my material grandfather, I think, who – like me – enjoyed his soup boiling hot. This is the same reason why I only make halfway through a cup of hot coffee, which loses its appeal to me as soon as it becomes lukewarm. I also like a lot of ice in my cold drinks, which I know is very un-European of me.
I’m sure I’m ruining my palate in this manner, but it is what it is.
I have yet to find a soup that I truly didn’t like. There are some I enjoy more than others – I’m not a big fan of Borscht, for example, though it will do in a pinch. And still others I only like when they’re made well.
This is definitely the case when it comes to French onion soup. Nothing is sadder than a rubbery hunk of half-melted cheese that hides beneath it a slice of mushy bread atop a mound of semi-cooked onions bathed in overly salted broth. Just no.
When done right, though, French onion soup is revelatory. Unfortunately, I have been disappointed too many times, and so I pretty much never order it anymore, even though it’s on the menu fairly frequently. I have also never tried to make it myself, perhaps because I do not own those signature brown crocks that this soup seems to require.
French onion soup, even though it’s a staple on many pub and diner menus, has a fancy feeling – maybe it’s because of that special crock, or the cap of melted Gruyere (traditionally) cheese, ideally cooked to a combination of crispy, bubbly, and gooey. Its roots, however, are quite humble.
Onion soups – soupe à l’oignon, in French – date back centuries, and were long considered peasant food because their main ingredient – onions – were cheap, readily available and plentiful. It wasn’t until the 18th century that this lowly dish got a glow-up. The addition of butter, booze (usually sherry, vermouth, cognac, wine, or, legend has it, champagne) and a cap of melted cheese turned the simple into the sublime soupe à l’oignon gratinée.
A note on the bread: Ideally, it should be grilled and cubed, with crispy croutons holding their shape even as they are drowning in rich oniony broth. And the cheese cap doesn’t have to be inches thick, but rather a hearty sprinkling to bring an added je ne sais quoi to the finished product.
Today, for some reason I cannot unearth from the depths of the interwebs, today is International French Onion Soup Day. Happy slurping!
As mentioned up top, it has been on the milder side, which is lovely, though the temperature does drop down low enough at night to freeze whatever water is on the roads and make driving potentially hazardous. Stay alert. Today we will see highs in the mid-to-high 30s, with peaks of sun in the morning giving way to mostly clouds in the afternoon.
In the headlines…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a probe into the Federal Reserve’s ongoing renovation of its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a statement that the DOJ served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment related to his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June.
The investigation, which is said to center on renovations of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington, signals an escalation in the long-running clash between President Donald Trump and Powell.
A severe crackdown in Iran on protesters challenging the government has led to a sharp rise in the death toll in recent days, with rights groups reporting casualties in the hundreds and no sign that the authorities are relenting.
At least 544 people have been killed during the demonstrations over the past 15 days, including eight children, according to an update from the Human Rights Activist New Agency (HRANA), the news service of the organisation Human Rights Activists in Iran.
Trump said that the U.S. military is considering “strong options” on Iran as the country’s regime cracks down on growing nationwide protests.
A number of options presented to the president have centered on targeting Tehran’s security services being used to tamp down the protests, the US officials said. Trump said yesterday that Iran called him on Saturday to negotiate.
Trump said in a social media post that “no more oil or money” would be going to Cuba from Venezuela, and that the United States military would be involved in enforcing distance between the two countries.
References to Trump’s two impeachments have disappeared from the text describing his first term underneath his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian.
The Trump administration will send “hundreds more” federal agents to Minneapolis “today and tomorrow” to support the work of ICE agents, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said yesterday, days after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman there.
The day after an immigration officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, the Trump administration reinstated limits preventing lawmakers from making unannounced visits to immigration facilities, according to a court filing made public over the weekend.
More than 2,000 anti-ICE demonstrators packed a corner of Central Park yesterday in the latest massive protest since an ICE agent fatally shot Good in Minneapolis last week.
Billionaire Bill Ackman left a hefty $10,000 donation on a GoFundMe for the ICE agent who fatally shot Good — and said he had intended to similarly support the slain mother’s respective fund, but apparently missed his chance.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is planning to push state lawmakers to pass legislation banning political campaigns from using images made with artificial intelligence, a tactic she said can mislead and deceive voters.
Last year, the Cuomo campaign released a video created by artificial intelligence that depicted Zohran Mamdani eating rice with his hands. Hochul wants to ban such tactics.
Hochul and her likely GOP election opponent Bruce Blakeman traded public barbs on his Long Island home turf Friday — as the two head full speed into what’s bound to be a heated election year.
Hochul is pledging to devote an additional $50 million into a program that is intended to help low- and moderate-income New Yorkers with their energy costs.
The state university system is now budgeting millions of dollars every year to pay for students to get real-life job experience.
A federal judge granted New York and four other blue states a temporary restraining Friday that will temporarily halt the Trump administration’s freeze of over $10 billion in federal funds intended to keep low-income families housed, fed and in child care.
The New York attorney general’s office is suing the Trump administration over its blockage of the state’s offshore wind projects.
The Buffalo Bills are characterizing the playoff run that started yesterday as the close of an era. It’s the team’s last season in the stadium it’s called home since 1973 — a new $2.2 billion facility is due to open in September.
Kids in New York’s juvenile detention centers were placed in solitary confinement in tiny cells for up to 24 hours a day — some lacking fresh water and a bucket for a toilet — over minor infractions or to deal with staffing issues, a new lawsuit claims.
Even as Mamdani and Gov. Hochul appeared cozy in a photo op last week, other DSA elected officials are escalating attacks – and threats – on the governor behind closed doors.
Mamdani’s plan to make city buses free will not be part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s upcoming State of the State address next week, the state’s top executive revealed.
Mamdani claimed that the death of Good, 37, at the hands of an ICE agent was the result of a “year of cruelty” from the Trump administration — as he doubled down on his incendiary declaration that it was a “murder.”
A Bronx apartment building that Mamdani showcased to highlight the talents of his new housing commissioner, Dina Levy, has racked up nearly 200 unresolved violations.
A derelict Brooklyn apartment building that Mamdani visited on his first day in office, vowing to help the tenants, could be sold to a real estate investment firm that may have dozens of open violations at its properties, according to city records.
Black New York homeowners are stunned by Mamdani’s tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, who claimed property ownership is a weapon of “white supremacy” and should be abolished — insisting it’s an “essential” element of Black wealth.
Mamdani was joined by Council Speaker Julie Menin in West Harlem Saturday in announcing a $4 million pilot citywide program to install up to 30 “self-cleaning” modular public bathrooms.
Mamdani remarked for the first time Friday on a pair of shootings at the hands of NYPD officers — nearly 12 hours after the dramatic incidents unfolded.
Mamdani did not call the shootings justified, but said New York Police officers were placed in “incredibly difficult and dangerous circumstances.”
“I know many are eager for answers. The NYPD is conducting an internal investigation — I will work with Commissioner [Jessica] Tisch to ensure this is as thorough and swift as possible,” he wrote in a post on X.
Mamdani has quietly made it harder for federal agents to monitor Tren de Aragua and other brutal gangs in Rikers Island.
The Mamdani administration is seeking volunteers to help count how many New Yorkers are living on the street.
One week into a job long regarded as the second-most influential education post in the US, after the federal education secretary, NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has begun to advance a vision for education that pivots on two big ideas: rigor and equity.
Jess Dannhauser, the New York City official responsible for foster care, child welfare investigations and juvenile justice, is resigning from Mamdani’s administration.
The outgoing head of the Big Apple’s top business advocacy group, Kathy Wylde, said Mamdani’s team is treating local employers like the “enemy” — as she hoped the mayor would step into the void.
A group of radical New York City teachers is planning a “Teach-In for Palestine” on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for students as young as 6.
The new head of the City Council’s Republican delegation, Staten Island’s David Carr, says he’s committed to leading the fight against Mamdani’s socialist agenda and preventing the Big Apple from becoming the Red Apple.
A new audit from the state comptroller’s office identifies inefficiencies and problems in a key city rental assistance program that drive up costs — potentially complicating Mamdani’s pledge to dramatically expand access to housing aid.
In clipped response that critics said came too late, Mamdani condemned pro-Hamas rhetoric that took place last week in a heavily-Jewish Queens enclave.
Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, have begun moving their belongings from their Queens apartment to the official mayor’s residence in Manhattan. The mayor is scheduled to hold a press conference at Gracie Mansion this afternoon.
The new City Council speaker squashed a plan by lefty Council members to give themselves a big fat pay raise — but the pols aren’t giving up their dreams of bigger salaries just yet.
Police officials from across the state are holding an emergency summit putting politicians on notice — either back the Blue or get voted out of office — in the wake of the election of socialist Mayor Mamdani, who once called the NYPD “wicked and corrupt.”
The DSA is fuming over “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) meddling in Big Apple politics and going against a candidate that the mayor, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the party have endorsed for Mamdani’s old Assembly seat.
Mamdani’s administration is revisiting a decision by his presdecessor to let ex-City Hall adviser Tim Pearson get taxpayer-funded legal representation against four lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and professional retaliation.
Transportation officials announced they will move forward with a long-delayed redesign of Madison Avenue, giving buses dedicated space along one of Manhattan’s most congested corridors.
The family of a former cop and FDNY lieutenant shot dead by NYPD officers at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital is looking for answers, saying he checked in two days before because he thought he was having a stroke and that he had no history of mental illness.
New York City nurses at three major medical centers, citing slack progress in contract talks with hospitals, are holding to their strike threat for today, their union said.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in talks with 77 WABC to host a weekly radio gig, the station’s owner John Catsimatidis, confirmed.
While Trump has gutted agencies tasked with investigating discrimination complaints, the New York City panel charged with enforcing human rights laws across the five boroughs is poised to get a boost.
The state environmental agency recommended banning bait fish in most of the Adirondack Park to help preserve a sensitive fish species.
Residents in a small Adirondack town in Essex County recently used a new housing statute and millions of dollars in public financing to block the sale of their 165-unit manufactured home park to a private equity firm
A city review ordered in the wake of a fire on Western Avenue that killed two people last month has found that nearly half of the buildings on a city registry of rental properties do not have valid permits necessary for renting apartments to the public.
A Valvoline employee was seriously injured and the business was forced to close for repairs Saturday after a 63-year-old Schagticoke man “accelerated rapidly” while waiting in line for service, pinning the employee between two cars.
Neil Levine, co-owner of Colonial Cleaners in Albany, died suddenly at his Loudonville home on Jan. 5. He was 67.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s ragtag revolutionary saga “One Battle After Another” took top honors at Sunday’s 83rd Golden Globes in the comedy category, while Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare drama “Hamnet” pulled off an upset over “Sinners” to win best film, drama.
“One Battle After Another” won best film, comedy, supporting female actor for Teyana Taylor and best director and best screenplay for Anderson. He became just the second filmmaker to sweep director, screenplay and film, as a producer, at the Globes.
Some celebrities donned anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this week in Minneapolis.
The complete list of Golden Globes winners is here.
Bob Weir — the Grateful Dead’s rhythm guitarist and one of its songwriters and lead singers – died at 78.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
