Butternut Squash Soup

So I set out to make a butternut squash soup this weekend, I had no recipe... just a few ideas from various recipes I've made recently.  I found this beautiful huge butternut squash at the grocery store, and just went with it

I peeled and "gutted" the squash, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper & brown sugar...

Meanwhile I chopped up a large yellow onion

Put it in the frying pan with some butter to soften up

Peeled 3 carrots...

Julienned them

Chopped 3 stalks of celery

added these to the mix as well in the frying pan and let them soften together a bit.

Took the squash out of the oven and gave it a rough chop

and dumped it all into the crock pot

I added one box of chicken broth, a tsp of nutmeg, a tablespoon of cinnamon, and some more salt and pepper and let it simmer for a couple hours...

I came back and tried to mash it, but it was still pretty chunky, so I added a pint of cream, and put it in the blender little by little to make it smooth.  It was SOOOOO good!!! Not bad for winging it.  I'm really glad it turned out so I didn't waste my time taking all these step-by-step pictures I'd then have had to destroy so you all wouldn't see them :) 

Recipe:

The King The Kid & I

Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash

1 large yellow onion

3 carrots

3 celery stalks

32 ounces Chicken Broth

1 pint heavy cream

1tsp brown sugar

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

butter

1. Cut the squash in half, peel & "gut" it.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and brown sugar, bake 1 hour at 325 degrees

2. Chop onions, sautee on medium heat with butter just until transparent and softened

3. Chop or julienne carrots and celery (I'd skip the julienne if you plan to puree it anyway, too time consuming)  and add to pan with onions

4. Chop squash, add with other veggies in a crock pot, add chicken broth, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper, stir and allow to simmer, about 2 hours (you can adjust this, at this point it's just to further soften the squash and let the flavors come together)

5. Mash the "soup", or use an immersion blender (I covet an immersion blender), or a regular blender to puree the soup

6. Serve hot with biscuits. Enjoy!! Yum :)

Fall Time! ~Apples, Freezing apple Crisp

I LOVE fall! Everything about it, with the exception of maybe the ever-colder days, but so far we've had pretty decent weather and only a few frosty mornings so far.  I love going apple picking, but we haven't had any you-pick places open so I've been getting apples through a gentlemen who delivers to my office, much cheaper even than going to the you-pick orchard!  I have a bunch of things I want to blog about, now if I could only find the time to write the posts!!

With the first round of apples I got, I made an apple crisp from my aunt's recipe, and got it ready to freeze.  The cool thing about the recipe is this book:  My aunt (whose recipe I'm using) made this awesome cook book for me, filled with family recipes she gathered from family members and gifted it to us at our wedding!  I use it really often (Hence the mystery stain on the top left corner!)

I "altered" the recipe with a trick from my grandmother, though

Voila! Ready for baking or freezing!

To get it ready for freezing I put it in a disposable pan, covered with a layer of heavy duty tinfoil, then placed the plastic cover on it.  I wrote the type of apple crisp, this one was made with Paula Red apples, and the baking directions so when I pull it out of the freezer I don't have to look up the recipe!

Here's the recipe:

4 cups sliced tart apples (about 4 medium)

2/3-3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup margarine (I used real butter), softened

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

*Optional* 1/4-1/3 cup Orange Juice

Mix orange juice over sliced apples in greased square pan 8x8x2

Mix remaining ingredients, sprinkle over apples

Bake @ 375 degrees for 30 minutes

Serve Warm with French Vanilla Ice Cream

Enjoy!

Grammy's fresh baked Bread

Today I set out to bake bread. A good way to spend a lazy Sunday :) It's only the 4th or 5th time I've ever done it, so I have definitely not perfected it, but I'd love to share my Grammy's recipe.

Grammy's recipe in my Mom's writing (See below).  This is the recipe my mom always uses, that she learned from my dad's mom when they first were married!

 (I varied this time and added the 2 pkgs yeast right to the water instead of sifting in with other ingredients because I was worried whether the yeast was still active or not, the packet looked like it had been in the cupboard for quite a while!

 

Add oil (1/3 cup)

Add flour 2 cups at a time until kneading consistency (My doughy hands didn't get any pics of this step)

Knead dough on floured surface

Add a Tbsp of oil to bottom of bowl

Put kneaded dough in top side down

Then flip over so top has oil on it as well as bottom

Cover and let rise in a warm spot

...waiting stinks!...

Now my favorite part! Punch it down!!! 

Grease the pans, I put some vegetable oil in and spread it out with a paper towel. 

Ready for second rise! Back to someplace warm and covered with a towel...

More waiting!!

Butter surfaces while warm. 

Let cool in pans for a few minutes then move to cooling racks.  Allow to completely cool before storing in bags. 

My favorite part: Enjoy!! 

(Kid approved!) 

Grammy's Bread Recipe:

• 1 Qt Lukewarm (bath temp) water
• 1/3 c. Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 c. Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 envelopes of rapid rise yeast
• Flour - 2 cups at a time (I used about 8 cups for this recipe, and some more when I kneaded it)

Start out with your quart of water in a big bowl, add vegetable oil.  Sift in 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Stir to mix, separate any lumps.  Add 2 cups of flour at a time stirring after each. Once a soft/knead-able consistency put out on floured surface adding flour as needed to knead until no longer sticky.  Make sure to knead well to get out any air bubbles.  Wash out your bowl, add about 1 Tbsp oil to bottom of bowl, put bread dough in top side down, and roll over so both top and bottom get coated in the oil.  Put in warm spot, cover and let rise until doubled.  Punch down, separate into pans, or roll into rolls if you prefer.  Cover, allow to rise again to doubled size.  

Bake at 400-425 Degrees 

30 minutes for Bread

20 minutes for Rolls