Butternut Squash Soup

Because my poor husband is sick, I let him choose any soup he wanted. His choice?? Butternut squash soup.... blah :S I'm not a fan of squash but I figured what the heck, he is sick and it's what he wants. Luckily I bought the last squash in the store, guess it was meant to be! I'm not a fan of the final product but I wasn't expecting to be... hopefully Matt will love it when he gets home from work!!

Ingredients

- 1 butternut squash

- 2 small apples

- 2 tbsp butter

- 2 small onions, finely chopped

- 2 tsp curry powder

- 3 3/4 cup vegetable stock (or 900ml)

- 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

- 2/3 cup apple juice

- Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

First I peeled the squash. I have never made squash before so I was surprised to see a clear liquid bubble up from the flesh. I thought it was just water but my hands quickly got covered and then the stuff wouldn't come off! I've washed my hands 4 times and they still feel weird :P Make sure you scrape out the seeds before you cut the squash up into pieces. The recipe called for 1 baking apple but I just peeled and chopped two gala apples. 

Next, melt the butter and throw in the onions... cooking until tender (about 5 minutes). Then add the curry powder, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. Then add the vegetable stock, squash, apples and basil to the onions. It said to simmer for 20 minutes but I had to wait almost 40 until the squash was soft. Instead of blending the soup I just mashed it with a potatoe masher.... I think I mentioned before that Matt is a pro-chunky soup so I didn't want it too smooth. Then I added the apple juice and played around with the spices. Hopefully Matt will get his squash fix because he has an entire pot to fill this craving :P 

Prawn Creole

So I was flipping through 'The Soup Bible' and came across a recipe for prawn creole. We have a rather bare fridge at the moment so I was struggling to find a recipe that matched the ingredients we had kicking around. I thought that we had everything on the list but once I started, I found out we were missing a few things :P Here's my random recipe....

Ingredients

- 1.5 cups raw prawns, with shells 

- 2 cups water

- Drizzle olive oil

- 1.5 cups finely chopped onions (I used a mix of red and white)

- 3/4 cup finely chopped celery

- 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow pepper (it called for a green pepper...)

- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley/basil (I used a combo)

- 1 garlic cloves, minced

- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

- 1/2 red wine (I was out of white... but it turned out great using red!)

- 1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes (canned is fine!)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 bay leaf

- 1 tsp sugar

- Boiled rice to serve with it

This recipe had crazy time limits for every stage but I tried to follow as closely as I could/wanted too :P First I removed the prawn shells and boiled them in 2 cups of water for 20ish minutes. Then I poured it through a sieve, saving only 1.5 cups of stock. 

Next I heated the oil and sauteed the onions on low for 8 minutes. I added the celery, peppers and garlic... gave it a good stir and let it cook for 5 minutes. Then I mixed in the fresh herbs, Worcestershire and cayenne. After another 5 minutes I raised the heat to medium, added the wine, and simmered for 4 minutes. Next I added the tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf and then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Start the rice early enough that it is done when the soup should be... every rice maker is different so I can't help with this :S

I blended the soup in the magic bullet for a few seconds, just until it had smaller chunks... this is hard to describe. I find pureed soup depends more on personal taste... Matt doesn't like it very smooth so I leave it more chunky. I would just stop and check a few times until you like the consistency. Then I threw it back in the pot with the prawns and let it boil for 5 minutes. Once the prawns are cooked, just pour the soup over a bowl of rice!!

Matt has the beginning of a cold so he LOVED the hot and spicy with a sore throat combo... I loved it too. It had great flavour and a nice after bite. For the non-prawn eaters out there... cough cough Michelle cough... I would definitely try this with chicken instead! 

  

A Crazy Hilarious Thanksgiving

I have to say that Matt and I have some AMAZING friends!!! This weekend Bryn and the newly married Brandon and Emma drove up for a visit. We had a great weekend full of frisbee golf, girl shopping/boy hiking, cooking, drinking, laughing, hot tubing, bear hunting and bike rides. Needless to say... it ended too quickly :(

Matt, Bryn, Me, Emma and Brandon playing frisbee golf <3

Emma and I had the urge to decorate some cupcakes which worked well since the boys had an urge to eat them. Here's a quick pic of the final product...

Emma and I started thanksgiving dinner while the boys were out spelunking. We had quite an ambitious plan... rotisserie turkey, sausage and rice stuffing, yam gnocchi with browned maple basil butter, beans and brussel sprouts with bacon and onions, the works mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. Since I don't want to bore you I'm only going to write out the recipes for a few things. So here we go....

After brining the turkey for 24 hours, the boys got it ready for the barby. As boys generally do, they figured out a way to add bacon to it. After some complex tying and pinning, they got it covered in bacon. Although it looked a little worse for wear when it came off the BBQ, it tasted amazing! Super moist!!! It was also hilarious watching the boys eat like caveman :P

The bacon turkey monster :S

Italian Sausage Stuffing 
- 1.5 pounds hot Italian sausages
- 1/2 stick butter
- Several cloves minced garlic
- 1.5 cup chopped celery
- 1.5 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1.5 cup long grain raw white rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 8oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 red or white wine
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup pine nuts or chopped almonds

First remove the sausage casing. In a large frying pan, cook the sausage and break it into small pieces while mixing. When the sausage is almost done, melt the butter with garlic in a large dutch oven. Add the vegetables and cook until they are almost tender. Add the sausage, seasoning, rice, water and tomato sauce. Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until the rice is tender. During this time, soak the cranberries in wine. We made this super early so after 25 minutes, I added the cranberries/wine and nuts and then left it on the counter until closer to dinner. Since the turkey was on the BBQ we couldn't put the stuffing inside. Instead we baked the stuffing at 350 for 25 minutes (stirring occasionally). I LOVE this stuffing, so yummy and different.

Yam Gnocchi with Browned Maple Basil Butter
Gnocchi
- 2 pounds yams or sweet potatoes
- 2/3 cup cottage cheese (we had to add extra flour because it was so moist.. drained ricotta might have been better)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 1/4 flour, plus some for work surface

Maple Cinnamon Basil Brown Butter
- 1/2 cup butter
- 13 or more fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper

Emma, Brandon and Bryn took charge of this one so I have no idea if they took a detour from the recipe. This is the one we had planned out, having made a few alterations from the original recipe. I baked the yams with some orange rind for over an hour at 425F. We did this early just to get it out of the way.
Emma and I made the butter before hand as well. We melted the butter, added the basil, and boiled until the butter stopped frothing. Then remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon, syrup, salt and pepper. Everything else I'm just guessing... Mash the yams, making sure there is at least 2 cups. Then add the cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper. Mix well! Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms. Lightly flour a work surface with flour. Divide the dough into several balls, then roll out into rope. Cut into pieces and transfer formed gnocchi onto a baking sheet. Ours turned out to be about 1"x1" but we all felt they were a little large. I think next time I would make them 0.5"x0.5".

Add the gnocchi one at a time to a pot of boiling salted water. Cook for 5-6 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain the gnocchi with a slotted spoon. At first we put them in a bowl but Emma noticed water was draining to the bottom and making the gnocchi soggy. Emma thought to put them in the oven on a pan, which worked great! Once all the gnocchi were cooked and in a bowl, we re-heated the butter and poured it over top. They were different but super tasty, Emma was addicted :) haha

The 'Works' Mashed Potatoes
- 5 medium golden potatoes, skins on
- Sour cream
- Chopped cooked bacon, 5 slices
- 1/3 cup chopped red onions
- Fresh chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste

At the last minute we decided to add mashed potatoes to our dinner. Emma boiled the potatoes until tender, then Matt mashed them. I cooked diced bacon, drained the fat and cooked the onion until they were brown. I stirred everything together until Bryn approved of the our final product.

For dessert Emma and I made a Halloween inspired mud pie. It was soooooooo delicious and scary haha So much fun to make!

Halloween Mud Pie!! 

This was one of the best thanksgivings I can remember. Everyone doing their thing in the kitchen, helping out and doing dishes. 

Brandon and Bryn doing dishes!!

Our big family dinner was so much fun. Not only because of our culinary creations and sangria but because we have the best friends ever!!! Love you!!

The spread...

The Family!