Curried Pumpkin Soup

I love fall for its comforting foods: creamy soups, sweet squashes, cool season veggies...But I have to say, I do believe my favorite thing about fall foods is pumpkin. My son loves Halloween. So much so, that his favorite colors are orange and black, he watches Nightmare Before Christmas all year long, carries Halloween costume magazines around like they are treasures, and likes to play games where he predicts what each person he knows will dress as. Our entire October revolves around Halloween. I love when we go to the Pumpkin Patch at a farm because I always take it as an opportunity to stock up on squash (sugar pumpkins, butternut, acorn, turban squash, white pumpkins) for the season. But this year I am already getting a jump on it with some sugar pumpkins I bought at the farmer's market.

This recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Soup was adapted from Simply Recipes.

Ingredients

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch ground cayenne pepper
1-2 sugar pumpkins (6 cups of chopped roasted pumpkin)
5 cups of vegetable broth
2 cups of 2% milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Cut tops off sugar pumpkins (about 1/3 way down to allow for a nice bowl), scoop out the seeds and strings, lie face down on a tin-foil lined baking pan. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add spices and stir for a minute more.

Add pumpkin and 5 cups of vegetable broth; blend well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer soup, in batches, to a food processor. Cover tightly and puree until smooth. Return soup to saucepan.

With the soup on low heat, add brown sugar and mix. Slowly add milk while stirring to incorporate. Add cream. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve in individual bowls. Sprinkle the top of each with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Serves 8.

Free Food for Me!

Today I scored. A neighbor friend of mine was unable to use her box of produce from a CSA (Community Share Agriculture) and offered it up on our neighborhood mailing list. Guess who was the fastest to jet on over to her neighbor's porch and pluck those tasty free veggies? That's right. Me.

Me, me, me, me, and me.

And what, pray tell, did I score? Radishes, padron peppers, Hungarian wax peppers, 8-ball squash, and carrots. This is the fun of a CSA. You get what you get, and then it is up to you to be creative. As for my plans...the wax peppers will store in the fridge for a bit and eventually be used as an ingredient in my homemade salsa (if I can ever get around to picking those tomatoes). The squash will provide a yummy side dish for the next three nights' dinners; the carrots will be eaten raw tomorrow (we love us some carrots); I've yet to plan for the radishes; but the padron peppers! Oh you tasty little morsels, you.

I've never had a padron pepper. I was wondering if I should use them, versus jalapenos, in my salsa. But a quick search on Google and I realized what a popular appetizer the padron pepper was. Essentially you just saute them in some olive oil until the skins brown and blister and finish with some sea salt. Voila! A party in your mouth. My husband and I devoured the little suckers.

(image courtesy of Jane Spice Recipes)

Weekly Challenge: Day 3

Man, today was a challenge indeed. First off, I had a huge hankering for a Starbucks Java Chip Frapuccino Light (my favorite!). But I promised myself that if I did cheat, it would not be for a coffee. So instead, I drove past that Drive-Thru Starbuck's (can you believe there's actually a Drive-Thru Starbucks right down the street from me?). Ahhh...the cruelty.

And then by evening, I really wanted to cook (I love to cook). And to me, cooking means picking out a fun recipe, going to the store, buying specific items for my specific recipe. Many of the ingredients will be half-used and later go to waste. I really, really wanted to go buy food. But instead I somehow pushed through it (I probably wouldn't have except that I'd have to tote a baby and a kid with me and I decided at the end I was just too lazy to do that). I had just picked vegetables from my garden this morning an d happened to have my first two tomatoes ripened on the vine. I picked them and wondered what to do with just two. I decided to use them to make an incredibly easy homemade pasta sauce. See recipes below!

Breakfast: Two slices of whole wheat bread with homemade blackberry jam. Seriously good.

Lunch: Chicken sausage, grilled garden veggies.

Dinner: Pasta with homemade sauce, grilled garden veggies. Dessert: peaches with whipped cream (I made the whipped cream by whipping some organic cream I had in the refrigerator and adding sugar to taste).

Recipes:

Grilled Garden Veggies
2 zucchini, cut into diagonal strips appx 1/4" thick.
3 yellow onions cut into 1/2" thick rounds
2-3 sweet peppers, red, yellow or orange. Cut into 1" thick strips

Toss with olive oil and kosher salt and grill (I use a raclette to grill my veggies unless my hubby is actually cooking an entire meal on the grill -- he's the grill guy).

Light, East Tomato Sauce
2 large tomatoes (3/4 - 1 lb ea.)cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2-3 cloves of garlic sliced
2 - 3 basil leaves sliced into thin strips
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Use a bit of the olive oil to saute the garlic for a minute or so. Add tomatoes and saute with garlic for about 3-5 minutes. Throw all of this into a mixing bowl and add the remainder of the olive oil into the bowl, as well as the basil and salt and pepper to taste. Throw in cooked pasta (angel hair is great) and mix everything together. You can also grate some fresh Parmesan cheese onto the dish.

Weekly Challenge: Day 2

Breakfast: High Fiber Oatmeal, one slice of whole wheat bread with butter, one peach. I'm boring, what can I say? =)

Lunch: Chicken apple sausage, leftover 8-ball squash, another peach (I'm on a race to eat them all before they get squishy -- I bought a whole box from the Farmer's Market last weekend!).

Dinner: Cut up some tofu into 1/2 inch cubes, sauteed in olive oil, added a bunch of frozen veggies and some peanut satay sauce. Served over jasmine rice. Served more peaches as a side dish! Only 4 peaches left!!! No signs of squishiness...

Weekly Challenge: Day 1

Breakfast: High Fiber Oatmeal, one slice of whole wheat bread with butter, one peach.

Lunch: Chicken apple sausage, blackberries

Dinner: Lemon Pepper Pappardelle pasta mixed with olive oil, lemon juice and lightly sauteed shrimp. Side dish: I had an 8-ball Squash in the garden ready for the picking (see picture of 8-ball Squash). I cut it up, sauteed it with some olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Delicious!

Homemade Blackberry Jam!

As mentioned previously, this is the last weekend of Webb Ranch's U-Pick berry season. Picking your own berries for the season is a great way to get delicious, local, organic fruit for less than you'd pay for regular. It's also a great way to entertain your kids for the afternoon! I swore I was going to get to the ranch on the first weekend of the season, but life got in the way. The price I paid was that there were no more loganberries or raspberries left by the time I made it, so we focused on picking Butte Blackberries. After several hours we had collected about 5 pounds of berries. As his reward for being patient, I promised my son a pony ride (one of several fun kid activities at the ranch). One pony ride late and we were headed back home.

For $15 I got 5 pounds of blackberries. As soon as I got home I washed the berries and froze two pounds for later use in smoothies and such (another great use for frozen berries...a healthy replacement for syrup! simply put a small bowl in the microwave, warm up, stir, add sugar to taste and serve on french toast or pancakes. Yum!). I kept about 1/2 pound of berries out for eating fresh and planned on using the other 2 1/2 pounds to make 7 jars of jam, which will be cover our family's jam needs for the year, as well as gifts to friends.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds blackberries, washer (substitute blueberries or raspberries if desired)
2 cups water
4 pounds unrefined sugar (cheaper from the bulk bin)

Simmer fruit and water for 30 minutes. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Boil rapidly for 15-20 minutes.

Put the jam in sterilized jelly jars, which have the proper lids to seal down. Make sure the tops of the jars are cleaned of any jelly so as not to affect the seal of the jar. Jars can remain un-refrigerated until opened.