Winter Squash Soup

Marley has been asking for winter squash soup - made at home, from fresh squash - not the boxed soup I normally get her when she asks for it.  So today I finally honored her request and the result was quite delicious.

I scoured cookbooks and the internet for recipes that looked good, techniques for simplifying the process, and a list of ingredients that I liked.  By combining some and tweaking others, I came up with this recipe.

WINTER SQUASH SOUP

1 large butternut squash
1 large acorn squash
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped in small pieces
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
32 oz chicken broth
1/2 cup cream
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper

Wash both squashes, then with a sharp knife, prick the butternut squash several times.  Place squash in microwave oven and cook for about 4 1/2 minutes.  This softens the tough skin.  Cut both squashes in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds with a spoon. (Seeds may be saved and washed, then roasted for garnish if desired.)

Arrange squash halves on foil-lined baking sheet, cut side up.  Brush each half with 1 teaspoon olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt and black pepper.  Place in 425-degree oven and roast for one hour. 

Allow to cool for about 20 minutes, then scrape the cooked squash out of their skins into soup pot.  In small skillet saute the onion in the butter until onion is tender and translucent.  Add skillet contents to soup pot. If desired, mix the squash and onions thoroughly with a mixer or egg beater.  Slowly pour in chicken broth and stir broth and squash together until thoroughly mixed.  Add 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and the cream (or Half & Half).  Simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally until warmed through.  Eat. 

Summer's bounty

Tonight's supper: Chicken gumbo.

Ingredients:
1 pk chicken breasts (from Piggly Wiggly)
1 pk homemade sausage (from a friend)
6 tomatoes, cut in large chunks (from the garden)
2 onions, sliced (from the garden)
16 okra pods, sliced thinly (from the garden)
2 bell peppers, chopped (from the garden)
4 bay leaves
2 tsp. thyme leaves
sea salt
black pepper
1/4 c. olive oil
3 c. water

Place in slow cooker and cook on "High" for several hours.  Serve with rice.

Recipes from an Old Farmhouse

While re-reading a book by Miss Read, I made note of a writer she mentioned named Alison Uttley. Over the past year I've acquired a few books by Mrs. Uttley and have enjoyed them, as they are similar in tone to novels by Miss Read. She wrote fictionalized accounts of her childhood years in Derbyshire, England, and her books are pleasant and soothing to read.

In Recipes from an Old Farmhouse Mrs. Uttley provides a collection of favorite recipes from her childhood in the late 19th century, pieced together with reminiscences of holidays, family times, and life on the family farm.

It's a short little book, charmingly illustrated by Pauline Baynes (probably my favorite illustrator!) and will instantly transport one to a calmer, gentler, possibly more civil time.

Fried green tomatoes

I could eat them every day. However, it's good to practice moderation in all things, so just a few times over the summer we have these and allow the rest of the lovely tomatoes to ripen.

No more leftovers

This year, our Thanksgiving leftovers were consumed in record time. For the past four years the holiday turkey leftovers would languish, undesired, in the fridge until I tossed them out.

I couldn't figure out why my family suddenly had no taste for turkey - that had never happened before. This year I found a free-range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free 20-lb. turkey, and once again, the family loves turkey. Then I remembered that for over a decade all I bought for our family was organic or free-range poultry. But when we moved here four years ago, we had no source for that anymore, and had to get what the grocery stores offered. Ugh.

There's a huge taste difference in a free-range turkey and a conventional grocery store turkey. Everything made with it - the dressing, the gravy, turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup - tastes different according to the bird used.

So the tasty bird and its carcass have been eaten up - every delicious morsel.

Jezebel Sauce

On the menu at a fancy restaurant we sometimes patronize is an item called "Jezebel Sauce." I've eaten it twice and loved it. It's sweet and hot, and has an impressive after-kick. A few weeks ago, while flipping through some of Mom's old cookbooks I found a recipe for it and decided I had to make it right away. Glenn and Aric were home, and I knew they'd eat it with me, but our supper that night was grilled chicken, which was probably not the best partner for the sauce. We ate it anyway. Lots of it. It was just as delicious as I'd remembered. And it tasted good with chicken, although we all agreed it would probably pair better with beef or pork.


Jezebel Sauce
16 oz. jar of apple jelly
16 oz. jar of pineapple preserves
1 small can of dry mustard
1 jar of horseradish
2 Tbsp cracked black pepper

I halved the recipe, and we still had way too much for us to handle at one meal. But it keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.

Chestnuts

This year looks like it's going to be a good one for our chestnut harvest. Last year we had very few, but already this year the chestnuts are everywhere.


I love the shape and the shade of our chestnut trees, but I do not like to eat chestnuts. They are probably the only nut I have tried and have disliked.

And while the prickly green case of the chestnut looks so pretty and fluffy on the tree,


when it is ripe and ready to be harvested one should not have tender fingers.



Dad picked a bag of chestnuts in about 15 minutes. I'm giving them to my friend, Faye, who loves chestnuts and will actually eat them.

Leftover lunch

For Sunday lunch I made pasties and served them with a romaine lettuce salad.

Yesterday we ate all the leftovers and Marley got the last slice of the pasties, along with some steamed sugar snap peas. Now the fridge is cleared of leftovers and I can start with new meals today.

Mango Salsa

Last week Joan and I made this recipe and it was delicious.



Mango Salsa Recipe

1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno chile, minced (we omitted the ribs and seeds in order to have a milder flavor)
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and serve.


We doubled the recipe and ate some of it with tortilla chips. Then we cooked turkey burgers and topped each one with 1/4 cup of the salsa. It was very fresh and light.

Kitchen Essays

I bought Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll because I liked the title. The essays were originally printed in The Times from 1921 to 1922, and have many references to post-war (WWI) life as it impacts food.

Lady Jekyll has a friendly and approachable attitude in this book. I loved her comments and small anecdotes, as well as the quotes from classic writers. The recipes, while somewhat dated and sometimes using ingredients and measures that are very British (and therefore might be difficult to reproduce in my home in Alabama), are still delicious to read. I do plan to try a few.

Here is a recipe I like from the chapter, For Men Only:

Clear Tomato Soup

Cut in slices 1 lb. fresh tomatoes, and put into enough ordinary clear soup for, say, six people; simmer gently for 1 hour, strain through a clean cloth, re-boil, and serve with fried croutons, about two-shilling-piece size, piled with stiffly whipped cream, one to each person on a separate plate. The cream softens the acidity of the tomatoes and greatly improves the flavour.

Birthday cupcakes

For Marley's birthday Joan made cupcakes. She decorated each one differently, but all were yummy!

Making an appetizer

Making appetizers is not one of my strengths.

Tonight I have to take finger-food (not sweet) to a meeting. Thankfully, I remembered that I have this old (1958) Good Housekeeping cookbook that I got from my mom.

I read through it and immediately discarded the recipes which included chicken livers or anchovies. While I would eat those, I'm relatively certain that few other ladies at the meeting would.

This recipe with chicken, bacon, and apples sounded like a good autumn recipe, and since it's basically chicken salad, I think it will be appropriate "lady-food."

Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer: A Golden Treasury of Classic Treats

I love cookbooks and when I read about Jane Brocket's collection of recipes from classic children's books, I had to get a copy. I have a small, treasured collection of cookbooks featuring recipes from classic children's literature: The Narnia Cookbook, Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, The Boxcar Children Cookbook, and The Little House Cookbook. Our family has enjoyed reading the books then cooking or baking some of the dishes mentioned in each story.

Through the years as we've read aloud various books together, we have also made meals from the books we've enjoyed. We've had toast and tea and cakes and Turkish Delight while reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We've had fish and chips while reading Good Night, Mr. Tom. We've had homemade whole-wheat rolls and goat cheese while reading Heidi. Ms. Brocket's book looked as though it would give us more ideas and maybe even a list of a few more books we hadn't yet read.

Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer is a marvelous collection of dishes and meals from a delightful list of American and British children's books. Some of the books and foods were familiar favorites for us, but there were also a lot that were new to us. The recipes are in British measurements, but for most of them, that doesn't matter. (There is a webpage that converts British measurements to American ones.) As always, Ms. Brocket's style of writing is so engaging that she made me want to re-read the books I'd read many times before. My only complaint is that I wish she'd written a 10-volume set instead of just one cookbook!

As in Ripping Things to Do, her other book based on favorite children's books, she includes summaries and selected passages from the books she chose. These made me hunt and buy some of the books we didn't have, and begin reading them.

More tea...

Yesterday Steve asked me to stop by World Market on my way home and pick up a couple of bottles of wine for him. I also needed to get tea for me.

I managed to remember his wine, but forgot my tea, so today I'm drinking tea made from tea bags while I read the latest book by Alexander McCall Smith. But it's okay; I have four tea bag holders to hold the spent bags.

Lemon Cake

On Saturday I made the Natural Lemon Cake from Jane Brocket's book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity.

It was light, delicious, and a perfect mid-afternoon treat for the entire family. I cut thin slices so everyone could have more than one if they liked. It disappeared quickly and I promised to make it again later this week.

Curry sauce

The DeputyHeadmistress posted a brilliant recipe using lentils, rice, chicken and curry sauce.

We had everything but the jar of curry sauce, but I did have most of the ingredients to make a curry sauce so we took this recipe from Jennifer Brennan's cookbook The Cuisines of Asia and made our own sauce.

Quick All-Purpose Indian Curry Sauce
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 medium onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
8 tablespoons clarified butter
6 cups of chicken or beef stock
1 cup plain yogurt (may substitute coconut milk)
1 1/4 teaspoons Indian Sweet Spice Mix (I did not have everything for this part so I substituted a mix of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ground black pepper.)
1 teaspoon salt

1. In small mixing bowl combine dried, powdered spices with vinegar into a paste.
2. In food processor or blender, grind onions, garlic and ginger into a rough puree.
3. In large saucepan place clarified butter (I used regular butter without clarifying it) and fry puree mix, stirring constantly.
4. Add spice paste and cook, stirring for at least 5 minutes.
5. Pour in the stock and let it come to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir for 10 minutes.
6. Increase the heat and stir in the yogurt or coconut milk. Add Indian Sweet Spice Mix and salt to taste. Stir again, set aside and let cool.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce: 8 cups. She recommends bagging it into 2 cup bags and freezing it so there's always curry sauce on hand when you need it.

I may do that next time, but this time we ate every bit of it. I ladled some on top of the chicken while it baked. Then I cut the cooked chicken into chunks, mixed it with the rest of the sauce and allowed everyone to put as much or as little as they wished on their rice and lentils. It fed 10 of us with seconds and leftovers for the next day. Not many leftovers, but enough for a couple of family members.

It was delicious!

Birthday fun!

My birthday was Wednesday. Joan and Sarah had class that day so afterwards they went to their favorite grocery bakery and got these lovely confections for us all to enjoy. It was perfect! We cut tiny bite-sized portions and everyone enjoyed a taste of each dessert, but no one got enough sugar to make him sick.

Frogmore Stew

On Monday evening Tom cooked and served Frogmore Stew for our supper. There were fifteen of us and we had lots leftover, even though we ate until we were stuffed. We ate it in the traditional way - with our hands! And there was very little clean-up to do afterwards. We simply rolled up the newspapers with the cans, cobs and shrimp shells and threw them in the trash.

Frogmore Stew (Tom's way)

Potatoes, washed and cut in half

Corn on the cob, shucked and cut in half

Kielbasa sausage

Shrimp

Crab legs

crab boil

(Use in quantities appropriate to the number of people to feed.) In large pot, boil potatoes for 20 minutes. Add sausage and crab legs and boil for 15 more minutes. Add crab boil and shrimp and cook for 10 more minutes. Add corn and cook for 5 more minutes. Drain off water, dump food on newspaper-covered table and eat. Napkins optional.

When I make it I add onions and bell peppers and omit the crabs.

Parsley for soup

The parsley I planted last spring survived all our sub-freezing nights and has overshadowed the mint and is in serious competition with the rosemary.

Last night Sarah made beef soup and we harvested about one cup's worth of parsley to put in it.

Beef Soup

2 lbs. ground beef, cooked and drained
3 carrots, washed, peeled, and diced
3 celery stalks, washed and diced
1 onion, diced
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 lb egg noodles
1/4 cup beef-like powder
6 to 6 1/2 quarts water

In pan, saute carrots, celery, onion, parsley and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Transfer to large soup pot. Add beef-like powder (or beef broth or beef bouillon) and water and cooked ground beef. Bring to a slow boil and add noodles. Cook about 6 minutes or until noodles are tender. Serve.

This soup fed 9 of us, using large bowls and having second (and even a few third!) helpings.

Flapjacks - not the pancake kind

On Saturday I made Jane Brocket's recipe for flapjacks from her book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity.

Amazing that something so simple could be so rich and sweet. The recipe called for golden syrup which is not easy to find in the USA, but because it is made from cane syrup I went to Piggly Wiggly and looked for any syrup that had cane syrup as one of the top ingredients.


Alaga syrup looked like it would work well and it's a syrup I grew up using.

The result was delicious. I could easily become addicted.