This soup comes from trial and error, with some inspiration from Julia Child and Nigella Lawson. The amounts are all approximate---you can adjust as you see fit. I make this whenever beef ribs go on sale (you can use other bony cuts, but the tenderness and succulence of shortribs makes this a real treat): I put the meat to roast in the morning, add some water around midday, and then make the onions and croutons closer to dinner time, but the slow-cooker times are very flexible so you could easily adjust (put the meat on when you get home at night, add the water when you go to bed, leave it to cool while you're at work, or let it keep simmering all day). You can also make the broth ahead of time, and freeze all or part of it (and reduce the caramelized-onion volume accordingly). If you're planning to freeze the broth, (1) use less water (or more meat, herbs, and garlic---but same amt of onions) and cook it longer, so you'll have a more concentrated broth and thus need less space in your freezer; and (2) silicone bakeware (either small loaf or muffin shaped) makes for handy freezing molds---you might want a small baking sheet under the loaf/muffin pan it level---unmold the frozen broth into ziploc bags, and thaw as needed.

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