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Now Halloween is done with, we (in America) are racing toward our next big holiday, Thanksgiving. Last year my brother-in law and his wife did the honors, and the year before that my mother-in-law, so this year I’m up! This means the next few recipes from me will all be things that might make it onto my holiday menu. To begin with, here’s a soup that makes a wonderful first course. It’s an easy recipe that you can make ahead of time. It’s low in calories, but still full of fabulous flavor. This recipe originated from The Daily Soup Cookbook, which has some of my favorite soup recipes, more of which I’m sure, will show up here on GF&H at some point.
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Butternut Squash Soup
Makes 10 cups
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion (or 2 small ones!) chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
6 cups vegetable stock (I cheat and use Knorr Bouillon Cubes)
1 piece of Parmesan rind – about 3″ by 1″
2 bay leaves
2 butternut squash (about 1.5 lbs each) peeled, seeded and cut into 1″chunks
2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan
3 fresh sage leaves chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
Heavy cream for drizzling at the end
Melt the butter over a medium heat, add the onion and celery and sweat for about 5 minutes. Add in the stock, parmesan rind and bay leaves, then bring to the boil, before lowering the heat and letting it simmer (partially covered) for 15 minutes. Now add the squash, bring it back to a simmer and cook it for a further 20 minutes. Now it’s time to remove the Parmesan rind and the bay leaves and puree the soup until smooth with a stick/ hand blender. Lastly add the grated parmesan, nutmeg, pepper, chopped sage and cayenne, heat it through for a couple more minutes and then you’re ready to serve with just a small drizzle of cream – Melani [print-me]
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Oh the dilemma of what to do with an abundance of apples. Liv, my lovely Kiwi lodger, has been spending some time in Suffolk lately and keeps returning with more and more apples, and so the pile keeps on growing, as does the challenge of what to create with them. So far we’ve had apple tarts, apple & parsnip soup and muesli with shredded apple & yoghurt has become a morning staple. I’ve only had a one mini disaster, the jam, though pictured here looking pretty good is overly sweet (I blame the russets), but nevertheless quite a therapeutic couple of hours spent singing along to the radio slowly stirring – perhaps jam is just not my thing. Anyway, the pièce de résistance so far has to be these muffins – apple & almond is such a delightful combination. I was really happy with how these turned out, and that they are still incredibly moist and tasty 4, 5, 6 days on…
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Four days to Halloween! I know because my youngest daughter Hanna is quite literally counting down. The girls really wanted to throw a Halloween party this year, so to get ready we’ve been doing some serious decorating which included taking a trip to the pumpkin farm to hunt out the best candidates for our Jack-O-Lanterns. I have to admit it was just as much fun for me as it was for them, and as an added bonus I also ended up with a ton of pumpkin seeds. We always roast some seeds with a little olive oil and sea salt, but this year as we had so many I decided to try making some brittle for the party too. It turned out wonderfully! The combination of sweet and salty is something I always really enjoy, I hope you’ll like it too – Melani
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Later that afternoon we set about cooking and styling a cèpes risotto. I confess to being slightly nervous when confronted with this as I have tried and failed in the past to find a way to make risotto look somehow elegant, but perhaps that was my problem. Watching Aran style with such ease was incredibly motivating and after a few wrong turns I was very happy with the rustic looking result. A truly inspiring day..jpg "Risotto")
Iris @ the yummyblogsisters - such a pretty colour! can only be healthy :)
looking forward to other thanksgiving recipes coming up
Caroline - One of my favorite meals for a crisp autumn day. Love your photos!!!
MikeVFMK - Butternut squash soup is a beautiful thing. Love the addition of sage (makes everything better) and that little bit of nutmeg. Lovely.