Sunday, October 11, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend Food-Blogging

In between the cleaning, Chris's marking, and all the general long-weekend craziness, I've made time this weekend for my annual Thanksgiving Cooking Extravaganza!

The first recipe I tried this weekend was Butternut Squash Apple Soup from Simply Recipes. It nearly didn't happen: Chris told me that he brought me home a butternut squash, and I found this recipe and started gathering together the ingredients. Then I saw what he bought and it was a spaghetti squash. Not so much for the soup. Then he mentioned that he'd also picked up a pumpkin at the grocery store, and I thought "spiced pumpkin soup!" Again, I should have looked at the squash before I started making preparations, because it turned out to be the World's Largest Jack o'Lantern,* which is lovely for carving, but would be a big pain to roast and cook (and not so delicious).

So, we ran to the store and bought a butternut squash, a green apple, and a couple of cartons of chicken stock. (Supper was a little late that day.) It was thoroughly fabulous. It was like a bowl full of autumn. And so easy to make. The hardest part was cutting and peeling the squash, which was pretty easy because Elise from Simply Recipes also did an article on how to do exactly that. The only thing you should remember, when you make this recipe yourself (and you really should) is to use enough stock to cover the vegetables, or else it will cook slower, and also will be way too thick.

So, a big thumbs up to the first recipe I tried this weekend! We ate it with a baby arugula salad with sliced strawberries (getting 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables in one meal!), and this afternoon we had leftovers of the same soup and salad, with some bacon crumbled on top of the soup, and with a slice of bread. I was so pleased with the soup that we made our church's token teenager come home for lunch with us.

After this, I'm baking a chocolate zucchini cake for Ky, experimenting with adding sunflower seeds to whole wheat bread, and then brining and roasting a turkey.**

I hope all my Canadian readers are having a great Thanksgiving Weekend! (And that my American readers...enjoy doing whatever it is they do on Columbus Day?)


* Chris really bought it for Halloween, and wasn't intending for it to be cooked. "Look at the nice flat side for the face!" he said.
** My variations on the recipe: I stuff the turkey with chopped lemons (instead of the apples, onions and celery), and I roast the bird upside-down.

6 comments:

C said...

always roast any bird upsidedown. soooooo much better! breastsidedown sits in all the juices and doesn't dry out, my mom has been doing it that way for years. and this year we slathered it in the bacon drippings from this morning's brunch! yummo! hope your turkey turns out, it sounds like it will! i unfortunately made good gravy, so guess what my job will be at christmas? happy thanksgiving!

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Oh man. Bacon drippings? I have some of those on my stove right now. I just might try that, even though it's easier to use canola oil (for spreading purposes).

jo(e) said...

I spent the long weekend in the mountains with friends -- and we made squash soup! I love hot soup this time of year.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

There's something about this weather that makes me want to eat squash soup all the time.

Keri said...

Yum!! That Butternut Squash and Apple soup looks delicious!

Thanks for posting this.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Keri: not only did it turn out well for me, but then my Mom made it and it was so good that my Dad called me to tell me about it. That's pretty monumentally good.