Peppery Squash Soup

I made this squash soup a couple weeks ago. I thought it was delicious and subsequently, it was my lunch throughout the week. Maybe even longer. While I did scour the Internet for some soup recipes, I ultimately came up with this recipe on my own - pulling from a few different recipes (sources for which I can no longer remember) I had found online. I mostly threw in a little of this and a little of that, so the measurements listed below are largely guesses but should suffice as a starting off point.

Peppery Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 med Delicata squash
• 1 med Acorn squash
• 2 T Olive oil, separated
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sm onion, chopped
• 4 oz cream cheese - this is the only ingredient I actually measured
• 4 tsp bouillon - I used a vegetable based, but chicken based would probably also be good
• 4 cups water
• 1 T Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Cut squash in half. Brush with 1T oil; season with salt and pepper. Cook until fork tender (roast, boil, microwave, whatevs). I'm lazy and impatient, so I chose the microwave method. Mash cooked squash with a fork.

2. In large pot, heat oil. Sautee garlic and onion. Add cream cheese. Cook and stir until cheese is completely melted. Add cooked squash to the big pot. Add the bouillon and water. Season with Mrs. Dash and cayenne pepper. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3. Blend soup in a blender, using an immersion blender, or in a food processor. I don't have any of those, but I do have a Magic Bullet. I used all 6 blender cups to get all the soup blended. Return to pot and simmer until hot again (or longer to let the flavors continue to meld).

Peppery Squash Soup with Cheez-Its®

Especially delicious served with Cheez-It® or Goldfish® brand crackers.

Golden Nugget Muffins

It's a beautiful fall morning this morning. Only in the 40s when I took Sallie out for her morning walk. Brr... (although I still wore flip flops). I thought, "This would be a perfect morning for cocoa and muffins for breakfast." As you might remember, I have an abundance of squash, so I set about finding a muffin recipe using squash.

I found something that would work on allrecipes.com. I made a few changes, and these turned out so tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 small golden nugget squash
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup white sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp cardamom
• (Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom could be replaced with 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 T butter, melted

Directions:

1. Wash squash. Prick with a fork and microwave for 60 secs. Remove from microwave, cut in half crosswise, and remove seeds. Place both halves in a microwave safe dish, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 6 minutes or until fork tender. Puree squash in a food processor. This should yield probably around 1 cup of squash puree, though I didn't actually measure it.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liner or spray with cooking spray.

3. While squash is cooking, whisk together dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, spices).

4. In a heavy duty mixer (KitchenAid®), stir the milk, egg, and butter. Stir in the pureed squash. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until just moistened.

5. Spoon into prepared muffin tin, filling cups about ½ full. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa for a pleasant start to a cool fall day.

Gnocchi with Squash and Tomatoes

We've received a lot of different types of squash in our CSA, so look forward to some yummy squash recipes coming your way. Last night, I had some yellow squash to use up, so I threw together this quick and easy recipe.

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• Tri-colored gnocchi
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup red pasta sauce
• grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare gnocchi according to package directions

2. Heat oil in small skillet; sautee squash with garlic and salt/pepper.

3. Add tomatoes.

4. Add pasta sauce.

5. Pour sauce mixture over gnocchi, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Enjoy with a nice glass of Riesling.

Crockpot Potato Soup

I love, love, love potato soup! I always have. I remember making it once as a teenager; it was delicious. This, unfortunately, is not that recipe. I found this recipe at Recipe Shoebox. I made a few minor changes and modified it to a slow cooker.

Click here for nutritional facts.

Click here for printable version.

Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 6 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/4 c dried, minced onions
• 9 baby carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 T parsley
• 1 T coarse Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Directions:

Peel and prep potatoes. I've made this soup with diced potatoes. Jeff has complained about the potato chunks being too big, so this time, I prepped the potatoes julienne-style using my Pro Chopper Plus that I got for my birthday last year. I love this little kitchen gadget!

Anyway, combine all but the last three ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until veggies are tender.

Stir in milk.

Prepare a roux with the butter and flour. Add a bit of the hot liquid from the soup. Stir until thick and smooth.

Add roux mixture to the crockpot, while stirring briskly.

Cook for an additional 30 - 45 minutes.

I just found this in my drafts. Seems all ready to go except for a picture of the actual soup. So my apologies, but I'll just post this now and maybe next time I make it, I'll update this post.

Cream of Broccoli soup

This is not going to be some fantastic, gotta try recipe.

I'm trying to be very conservative in my lunches (read: living like a poor college student), so I bought some condensed soups for those days when I have no leftovers from the night before and no time in the morning to pack anything else for lunch.

So, today, I threw a can of Cream of Broccoli soup into my purse as I rushed out the door to catch my bus.

Around 12:30, I was starving.

I grabbed that can of soup -- super excited for my delicious lunch -- only to read the label that clearly states MIX WITH 1 CAN OF MILK.

Milk?? Drats.
No milk here at work.

No credit card.
No cash.
Meant no run to the convenience store for a little jug of milk.

By now, I was super starving.

Guess I'll just make it with water and hope it's not too disgusting.

And then *epiphany* I'll just add some powdered coffee creamer to it to make it all creamy.

Is it the best tasting soup ever? Definitely not.

Points for creativity? You tell me.

At least I'm no longer starving.
At least there was some plain creamer in the cupboards and not Hazelnut flavored.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past Thursday was a rather cool summer evening, so I decided to bake some cookies. I found a recipe for peanut butter cookies and decided to make it my own by adding a little oatmeal and chocolate chips, because honestly, don't those two ingredients make all cookies a little better? Okay, maybe not, but it certainly didn't hurt this recipe.

I brought a couple dozen into work the next day, and everyone said how good they were. When I got home from work, Jeff couldn't help but rave a bit about these delicious cookies!

This recipe is modified from a recipe found in my KitchenAid mixer recipe book.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup shortening
• 1 ¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3 T milk
• 1 T vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. 

Cream together peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla until well blended. Add egg, mixing until well blended. 

Combine flour, salt, and soda in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry ingredients to peanut butter mixture. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Flatten slightly with a fork in a crisscross pattern.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until set and lightly browned. 

Yields 3 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The joy of rhubarb

Ok so I don't have any pictures of these recipes. But they are so good that they are worthy of your imagination doing the job! If you think that making jam is hard, don't worry, this jam is so easy I think that a monkey could do it and it is TASTY!

All I have to say about the RHubarb custard cake is this one word.....Heaven. Yep it is that good. So here is 2 recipes for you all! Hey 2 for the price of one!!! YAY always a good deal!!!

Rhubard (whatever flavor jello) Jam

• 5 cups chopped Rhubarb
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 package Jello of your choice (I used orange it was great but strawberry would be awesome!!!)

First gather up about 4 pint jelly jars...make it 5 to be on the safe side. Find a pot that will hold enough water to cover the jars tops with about an inch of water. Put it on to boil. Meanwhile toss rhubarb and sugar in a non reactive pot and cook down until, I think that technical term is mushy, stirring often. Add jello packet and stir until disolved. Don't forget to heat up your covers in hot water. Fill up hot jars and seal them up. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Voila you are done. You just made JAM!!!


Rhubarb custard cake

• 1 yellow cake mix prepared per cake box instructions
• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream

Grease a 9x13 cake pan. Pour prepared cake batter in. Sprinkle rhubarb evenly on top of batter. Sprinkle sugar evenly over rhubarb. Pour whipping cream over the top of the cake. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes or until cake is nice and set. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. It takes a little while for the yummy custard to set. Beware though, this is highly addicting and will give you a belly ache if you should eat too much of its yummy goodness.....

hope you will enjoy these super easy but super good recipes!!

jennifer