butternut squash & apple soup

This soup. This soup makes me feel like a kitchen goddess of some kind. The success of this soup makes me think that I can now attempt to make homemade breads and those pretty macarons everyone out there is making. The tastiness of this soup was, frankly, quite empowering, and I recommend you make it, stat.

There are apples in here. How crazy is that?! There's pumpkin ale in here. Heck, I even substituted my favorite hard apple cider for apple juice and threw it in here. You can pretty much do anything you like to soup, I discovered. And it came out delicious. Like, really, really good. If you taste carefully, you'll be able to pick out each and every ingredient, though the sweet notes of the apple really shine.

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

I found this recipe over here, but made changes because, 1. I didn't have all the right spices, 2. I felt like adding a hint of pumpkin in there, and 3. I also wanted to add carrots and garlic and whatnot. Whatever you do, this seems like a pretty solid starting point. Here's my version.

1 medium onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 small apples, peeled, cored, and diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large butternut squash, halved, with seeds removed (I used pre-chopped squash from the market)

3 cups chicken stock (you can also use vegetable!)

1/2 cup pumpkin ale (or any dark beer)

1/2 cup hard apple cider (or apple juice)

1 large carrot, chopped

2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced

salt, pepper, parsley, and oregano to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rub some olive oil on halved squash and roast it for about 45-60 minutes, til soft. I put mine in a baking dish and covered it with aluminum foil to keep it from drying out.

In the meantime, saute the onions, apples, celery and carrots in a large pot with some olive oil until soft. Add the roasted butternut squash (cut it into smaller pieces if you need to) and the garlic, and saute 5 minutes more.

Deglaze the pot with pumpkin ale and hard apple cider, and stir.

Add chicken stock and seasonings. Simmer about 10 minutes.

Puree in blender in small batches. Return to the pot to reheat if necessary. Serve sprinkled with parsley, and swirled with a dash of milk, if you like.

beautiful day in onion city

Yesterday was gorgeous, a rare November day in Vermont that got into the 60s. Seriously, I'm really thankful every day past October when it doesn't snow, so legitimate nice weather makes me want to do a little dance.

This weekend was also Dave's and my two-year anniversary of dating! A big milestone for me, considering I had barely dated at all before I met him. I don't think I even talked to boys til college. So, in celebration of two awesome years and charming weather, we took a little walk by the waterfalls of Winooski. Sometimes called the 'Noosk. Or, and I like this one, Onion City. It's derived from the Abenaki name for the region, meaning "onion river land." I think it's fitting because it's Vermont's smallest town (I'm pretty sure) and a big traffic circle sits right in the middle, with everything else curving around it. Like onion layers.

... Anyway. We're having a lot of fun with Dave's new camera, a Nikon D90, as well the new fisheye lens he got. I hope your weekend was as picturesque as ours.

dark chocolate cookies

These cookies go out to a special birthday lady — you know who you are! And they're coming to a mailbox near you someday very soon.

The rest of you will have to make these for yourselves. But hey, they're super easy — as long as you heed the recipe's advice to let the dough chill for an hour before baking. I didn't, at first, and yeah... my first batch came out really flat and way too soft. I guess recipes are there for a reason, ha.

These cookies are super soft and melty hot off the oven... just the way good cookies should be. They stay nice and soft later, too. I think it's all the smooth dark cocoa powder in there. Hop on over to the recipe I used here. I followed it to the letter. But if you're feeling sassy... experiment with it. Add chocolate chips! Add a hint of mint! I totally will if I make these again. Also... use less butter... like a stick less? 2 1/2 sticks felt like a lot to me. But these are your cookies. Go wild.

books & cups

Here are two things I love:

First, the sequel to an awesome book, Bread Alone. I've really enjoyed reading both. Each novel is sprinkled with recipes and mouth-watering descriptions of food, especially handmade artisan bread. Yum!

Second, see those adorable little mugs? They're my new set of awesome measuring cups, given to me by my clever friend Laura. I love them so much, I think they'll often appear in my photos.

Happy Saturday! What objects in your house do you love most right now?

guster

I saw Guster at a friend's college one magical summer night two years ago. They were a-maz-ing. They're coming to Burlington tomorrow and I'll be there!

walk in the park

Dave got a fancy new camera that I haven't figured out how to work yet. We took it out for a ramble in the park on a particularly warm and beautiful day last weekend.