Roasted Pear-Squash Soup with Crumbled Blue Cheese

or the successful Thanksgiving Soup

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a stress free Black Friday. For our part, we relaxed, watched the NYC Thanksgiving Parade (and official arrival of Santa Claus) from the safety of Grandma's house before heading out to the food coma inducing, turkey carving, sweet tooth paradise and  family gathering meal.
What made this year's different and slightly more stressful than the last few chaotic gatherings is Wolfman and I were expected to bring some kind of contribution to the meal. We, I thought long and hard about this and because of cooking skills are, well, average on my best day, I went with something I new: SQUASH SOUP.
I love squash soup, it's the best thing to eat at this time of year. However, my ever so kind husband pointed out that my soups, although always delicious and his absolute favorite thing, may be considered a bit bland by the rest of humanity. BLAND! How dare he. (Obviously he is right, I haven't the faintest idea of what to do with spices but I'll never admit, to him at least.) After getting over my husband's betrayal, I set out in search for a recipe.
Being the Last Minute Queen, I found the recipe in the free "Eat Healthy Your Way" magazine produced for the Commissary, the military grocery store. You can access lots of great recipe's online at Eathealthyyourway.net. I found it while flipping through it searching for addition discounts while waiting at the deli counter. Boy was I happy! Not only did it sound good, but I could pick up the ingredients as I went along.

What you need: 2 ripe pears, peeled, quartered and cored
2 lbs butternut or acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2" chuncks
2 medium tomatoes, quartered
1 large leek, pale green and white parts only
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
4 cups of vegetable broth
2/3 cup crumbed blue cheese
1 tbsp sliced fresh chives
1 hand held blender
1 large rimmed baking sheet
1 large cooking pot
Chopping knives and preferred tools for stirring soup ( I like wooden spoons)

How to: The key to roasting your vegetables is to cut them into equal-sized pieces. This allows them to cook at the same rate so you don't end up with a mix of burnt and undercooked pieces. (You live and you learn, sigh.) I started by chopping up the squash, I used a butternut and an acorn squash because I had two small ones at home. Once that is done, preheat your oven to 400F. Why wait? Cutting squash is a long process and the oven doesn't take that long to heat. So, while the oven is heating, quickly cut up pears, tomatoes,  leek, garlic and combine them with the squash. Toss around in a large bowl with oil, 1/4tsp of salt and pepper. Spread your good looking mix onto a baking sheet and pop into the oven for about 45 minutes.

A word of advice: If you don't already own one, buy a cooking timer. I recently purchased one and it had significantly reduced the burnt supper syndrome that plagues our house.

Once the timer rings, let it cool while you prepare your vegetable broth. This process usually required you to boil water, add a broth cube and stir until it dissolves.  Combine half the vegetables with 2 cups of broth and blend. Add the rest of the veggies and another 2 cups of broth and blend. The recipe suggests using a blender but I don't have one. The hand held worked just fine. Add the remaining 1/4 tsp of salt (which I totally forgot and nobody seemed to notice) and cook for about 10 minutes. Divide into bowls and garnish with cheese and scallions.

Voilà! An easy to prepare, great tasting Thanksgiving Soup.
It was a hit with the whole family. Let me know what you think and what personal spin you gave to the recipe.

To sum it up:
1- Peel, seed and cut squash into 2 inch chunks
2- Preheat oven to 400F
3- Combine pears, squash, tomatoes, leek, garlic, oil, 1/4tsp salt and pepper in a large bowl and toss to coat.
4- Spread on baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes.
5- Combine the roasted vegetables and broth in a large pot and blend.
6- Cook for 10 minutes.
7- Divide into bowls and garnish with cheese and scallions.
Enjoy!

Before you go, how do you serve spaghetti squash? You've never tried? Tune in next week to find out!

Take care!

Baby Boo Self-Contained Pumpkin Pies

When the cold finally sets in and the leaves change colour and float to the ground, it's pumpkin time. They start appearing in the grocery stores in all shapes and sizes, just begging to be bought. There's the pale yellow or stripped spaghetti squash, the beige gourd shaped butternut squash, the green and orange spattered acorn squash, and the good old big orange carving pumpkin just to name a few.

Pumpkins, squashes, zucchinis, gourds, cucumbers, and melons are in the Cucurbitaceae family and the first three share the same genus: Cucurbita. The genus is then divided into a couple of species (pepo, maxima, moschata and mixta) each holding hundreds of varieties of varying shapes, sizes and colours. C. pepo and C. maxima are the species that hold the most varieties that North American consumers know and enjoy. C. pepo can generally be identified by the strong 5 prong star shaped peduncle and vertical grooves; think traditional large orange carving pumpkins. C. maxima are most squashes; they have a more cork like roundish peduncle. Have you ever seen pumpkins weighing over 1000lbs? Well they are varieties of C. maxima; a squash just like the butternut and acorn squash we enjoy in soups and muffins.

Why eat pumpkins? They are stocked full of vitamins, minerals, fibers, and antioxidants. All though this isn't much of a concern in this day and age but whole pumpkins can be kept for up to 6 months on the kitchen table (if they aren't damaged). Back in the days when getting vegetables in the dead of winter was tough, that meant a lot. Nowadays, you can walk to the store and pick up an orange in the middle of the coldest and shortest days of winter (if you are willing to poke your nose outside). They are good for you, they are grown locally in North America and world wide, and they are available all winter long. Pumpkin pie isn't the only way to eat them. For the next couple of weeks I'll be posting different pumpkin recipes every Tuesday (earlier next time). Feel free to send me your suggestions and favorite recipes.

The pumpkin variety I want to showcase today is Baby Boo; a small white pumpkin frequently used for decoration. What you might not know, is that it can easily be transformed into a delicious self-contained pumpkin pie.

Baked Miniature Pumpkin pies

What you need: 1 Baby Boo
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 Tbsp Butter
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
Ice Cream (optional and quantity to taste)

The ingredients are measured for 1 pumpkin. Buy and prepare 1 pumpkin per person and mix the appropriate amount of stuffing.

How to: Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix the Brown sugar and melted butter in a small mixing bowl. Wash the pumpkin and cut off the top.

A word of advice: Cut the opening it big enough so a spoon can fit into the opening, the opening in the picture turned out to be too small which made eating it a messy challenge. I also strongly suggest you work on one pumpkin at the time to facilitate the lid to pumpkin association (seriously, it's not an easy puzzle).

Scrape out all the seeds. Once the pumpkin is gutted, pour in the brown sugar and butter into the pumpkin and sprinkle with cinnamon. Put the lid back on and place the pumpkin in a baking pan. Add 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 30 min or until tender.

When ready take the Baby Boo pies out of the oven. Be careful with the pan; it holds scolding hot water. Serve the pies with a scoop of ice cream or on its own.

Voilà! A festive and easy upgrade from your traditional pumpkin pie.

To sum it up:
1- Preheat oven to 350F
2- Wash pumpkins and cut out lids (1 pumpkin per person)
3- Gut the pumpkin - remove seeds and strings
4- Place a Tbsp of Sugar and Butter mix in each pumpkin and sprinkle with cinnamon
5- Place pumpkin in a deep baking pan with a 1/2 inch of water.
7- Cook for 30min or until tender
8- Serve with a spoon and a helping of ice cream
9- Enjoy!

Let me know what you think.

Take care!