Butternut Squash Soup

This is one of those dishes that I have always 

heard of and have sort of feared and yet 

have really wanted to try at the same time.

Confused?  So am I most of the time.

Welcome to my world.

The players this time around are 

a container of "pre-cut" butternut squash*

1 carrot and some change**

1 tablespoon butter

1-1/2 cups turkey stock

half and half

salt

black pepper

olive oil

nutmeg***

*Hey, around here it's almost impossible to find 

un-pre-cut butternut squash, so lay off me. 

And even if I could find it, I wouldn't feel like

risking life and limb for the flesh wherein.

**I only had one measly carrot, 

thanks to some Bugs Bunny wanna be's living with me.

***Do yourself a favor and seek out the whole nutmeg.

It really does make a difference in the flavor.

First I sweated the onions.  

"Where were you on the 18th of October?

Not talking?"

Erm, yeah,  on with the recipe.

Since I am genetically incapable of following a recipe,

I decided to roast the butternut squash and the lonely carrot,

and change,

in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.  

I had first drizzled these with olive oil and

sprinkled the pieces with salt and pepper.

I then added the squash and carrot to the sauteed onion.

Then I poured in the turkey glop**** er. stock.

****Don't listen to her, turkey glop is just another way of 

saying turkey jelly.  

It is a wondrous thing. 

It means that you have reached culinary nirvana.   

For you normal people, 

you could add chicken stock or

even vegetable broth.*****

*****Remember, there is no such thing as vegetable stock,

as stock is by definition cooked with bones.

I also added another cup and a half of water to the mix.

And then I mashed.

I did the monster mash.

First with the big masher and then with a smaller masher.

The recipe called for dragging out a food processor,

but I really didn't feel like doing that,

and this recipe is not the boss of me.

I really need an immersion blender.

Hint, hint.

Christmas is coming up soon, folks.

Just sayin'

The soup is mostly blended and we are satisfied with the seasonings.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Always, taste, taste, taste.

A grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of wine round out the deal.

Still, we all agreed that more carrots would have

made this better.

As it was, the butternut squash made this

a bit too much on the sweet side for our tastes.

I think that by adding more carrot to the mix, 

we will be able to mitigate those flavors.

Stay tuned.

Luckily, I have about three cups left.

And I have bought more carrots.

Turkey Noodle Soup

My dear daughter recently asked for some homemade chicken noodle soup. I decided that I could go one better than that and make Turkey Noodle Soup. That way I can have some too. Clever, huh? But not to worry. The dear will get her chicken noodle soup - eventually.

I pulled a turkey cutlet and a container of turkey stock out of the freezer. I also went through the vegetable crisper in the fridge and pulled out an onion, carrots, green beans, celery and a garlic clove. From the pantry I gathered kosher salt, black pepper and noodles. I then went out on the deck and harvested some thyme, sage and flat-leaf parsley.

I washed and chopped all the veggies before deciding that some corn from the freezer would also be good for the soup. I then minced the herbs and grated the garlic clove. I opted to only use one carrot for the soup.

First the onion and carrot sauteed in a bit of bacon fat (or for the Sandra Lee fans, bacon joos).

The remaining veggies went into the pot,

Before the herbs, garlic and diced turkey were added.

Then the stock and some water were added. I allowed this to come to a boil before adding the noodles. The heat was turned down to a simmer and the turkey was cooked through by the time the noodles were ready. Salt and pepper were added to taste at this point.

Remember to not attempt to taste the soup until after the meat has cooked through.

Crescent rolls from Schwan's accompany this simple but delicious soup. And the best part is that you can feel good about serving this food to your family.

A Turkey in Every Pot

It's that special time again. Time to make more turkey stock. Goody! Stock therapy for me.

I picked up a package of turkey legs at the store and made sure that I had enough of my aromatics on hand to make another batch of stock.

Here I have carrots, onion, celery (with the leaves), garlic, black peppercorns, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, fresh parsley and fresh bay leaves. I later added a couple of dried grape tomatoes and a few pieces of diced fresh tomato to the stock pot.

The first step was to clean and roughly chop the veggies and put those in an oven-safe pan along with the turkey legs.

These roasted in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes.

Then the ingredients were placed in the stock pot with some water and the remaining herbs.

More water was poured into the roasting dish and the pan was deglazed, releasing all of the wonderful fond from the bottom of the pan.

After about 8 hours, the stock had reduced down to 2 quarts.

The next morning I took the cooled stock out of the refrigerator, skimmed the fat off the top and ladled the gelatinous goodness into several 1-cup containers. After labeling the containers, they were lovingly placed in the freezer for later use.

But that's not all. After allowing the stock to simmer gently for a couple of hours, I removed some of the meat (which had fallen off the bone) from the stock. I let that cool in the refrigerator before continuing to the next step.

I decided to make turkey salad with some of the meat. I carefully picked through the meat before adding finely diced carrot, celery and white onion. Then I mixed in some mayonnaise and some of our delicious veggie dip until the mixture met with my approval.

The turkey salad is nice and creamy.

And now we have lunch. Delightful. The horseradish in the veggie dip added a bit of a tang to the turkey salad while the veggies lent a nice crunch to the salad.

The Healing Arts

I don't know of a better way to speed recovery from a nasty cold than to get into the kitchen and start cooking. It's therapy, I tell ya.

Hah! I knew I had some turkey carcasses lurking in the deep recesses of the freezer. Celery, along with the leaves, carrot, onion, garlic, black peppercorns, salt, fresh thyme sprigs (yes, I actually do have some growing outside now), fresh rosemary, sage and bay leaves do their part to add flavor to the pot. You might notice that I left the skins on the onion.

This simmered for eight hours before being strained and allowed to cool. I have plans for this stock. Cue the evil laugh...

Come Monday morning I felt well enough to go to my regular grocery store for things that I will then be able to find in my very own refrigerator and pantry.

Then, when I got home, I set to work making the first of two soups. Here are the ingredients for the first soup: low-sodium chicken stock, black pepper, kosher salt, cooked chicken, onion, garlic, dried Herbes de Provence, green beans, carrot, celery, frozen corn and noodles.

The onion, celery and carrot were cut and sauteed in a bit of olive oil.


The remaining veggies were added along with grated garlic and the Herbes de Provence.



The chicken stock was added to the pot. Deciding that more liquid would be needed for the noodles, I added a couple of cups of water.

Noodles were dropped into the boiling liquid and the heat was reduced. At this point the cooked chicken was also put into the pot. This soup simmered for 20 minutes to allow the noodles to fully cook.

The daughter came in and tested the soup for seasoning since I couldn't. She added salt until she was happy with the flavor.

The dear daughter was quite appreciative of the effort her mother put forth for her.

But, I'm not finished yet...

I decided to try a recipe from Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Chunky Tomato Bacon Soup was an entry in the Comfort Foods challenge from this season.

Of course, I had to substitute turkey stock for the chicken stock, but the other ingredients remain the same.

From the left rear we have homemade turkey stock, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, dried basil, olive oil, heavy cream, salt, fresh thyme, shallot, garlic, bacon and sugar.

I did deviate slightly from the recipe by first frying up the bacon, removing the bacon and reserving a tablespoon of the bacon fat for sauteing the shallot.

The basil, thyme, tomato paste and grated garlic were then added to the pan. The bacon was also added back at this point.

Then the turkey stock, crushed tomatoes and heavy cream were poured into the pot. Salt and sugar were added to taste.

I allowed this to simmer over low heat for several minutes.

And can I just tell you? This was so easy to do. Seriously, cooking the bacon was the most difficult part of the whole process.

Freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese and thinly sliced green onions top my soup.

Thick and rich and delicious really does describe this dish. My husband even helped himself to a second serving of this simple soup.

I will be making this soup again, although I might save the bacon bits for topping the soup the next time.

A nice loaf of Pane Bello from a local bakehouse rounded out the meal.

But wait... I still not finished...

I also whipped up a batch of strawberry sorbet this afternoon, using frozen strawberries, orange juice, freshly squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup.

Can you think of a better way to beat the common cold?

Now, where do I go to apply for my patent?