Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

As the cool air ushers Autumn our way and the forest beyond our meadow boasts colors of red, gold and orange I get ready for the season.

Wearing my flannel pajamas, red knit cap, and peering through frost kissed window panes, this time of year beckons for me to bring out my Dutch oven and make soup and loaves of crusty bread to feed my rosy cheeked crew when they come in from outside.

Butternut Squash Soup

3 to 5 lb butternut squash

1/2 onion, diced

2 to 4 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup Half and Half

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg
olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds.  Place on a baking pan... I used a 9x13 pyrex glass dish but you could use a cookie sheet too.  Drizzle squash with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper.  Roast, flesh side up, for 25 minutes, or till tender.  Remove from oven and set aside.

Sautee onion in fry pan with a little butter or olive oil.  Toss in cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.  Stir and then remove from heat and set aside.

Scoop cooked squash and put into blender.  Add onion and spice mix and your chicken broth.  Start with 2 cups.  Blend!  Add more broth as needed.  Just before serving stir in half and half.

SO delicious!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

Brrr, it's chilly outside... bring on the soup!  We called this soup Bugs Bunny Soup so the little kids would eat it.  Everyone gobbled it up and asked for more.  Pairs nicely with homemade biscuits or a chunk of cornbread.

   by  mealmakeovermoms 

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 to 6 medium carrots, peeled (optional) and cut into chunks
spices of choice  - I used cinnamon, coriander, ginger and nutmeg.
olive oil
1 onion, diced
7 cloves garlic (5 whole and peeled and two minced)
1 summer squash, diced
6 cups chicken broth/stock


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place potatoes, carrots and spices of choice in a Ziplock bag.  Drizzle with olive oil, seal bag and shake it. Enjoy the free arm workout. :)  Place veggies on a cookie pan, add the whole cloves of garlic and roast for 20 minutes, stirring half way through.

While veggies are roasting saute onion with some olive oil in a soup pot until onions are soft.  Add the summer squash and minced garlic and saute for another 3 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.  When veggies are finished roasting in the oven add them to the soup.  Allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.  Before serving, puree in small batches in a blender/food processor.  Serve it up with some bread and/or a side salad.

Is the change in temperature beckoning you to bake bread, simmer soup, and don cute blazers!  Tell me all about it by leaving a comment below.

Pinching Pennies - Homemade Stock

   by  Juan-Calderon 

Happy Thursday my thrifty friends.  To further our dollars at the grocery store, I make my own stock rather than buying it (I do purchase it in a pinch but prefer to make my own).  Remember the turkey I cooked up last week... well, I saved all the broth and the carcass to make a lovely stock for turkey soup that we will be having this week.

Stock is amazingly easy to make.  I keep a container in my freezer and pop in all of my scrap veggie ends, onion peels, garlic, etc. and when the container is full I make up some stock.  What I love about the stock making process is that it is incredibly flexible and is practically foolproof (unless you use too many parsnips in which case your broth may have a bit of a kick to it). You can store stock in the refrigerator for up to a week or you can freeze it for 3 - 6 months.  Freeze in mason jars, Ziplock freezer bags, ice cube trays, or greased muffin tins and then pop out the broth and put into a freezer bag once it is frozen.  Check out these great links for step by step instructions:

   by  LollyKnit 

Vegetable Stock
Version 1
Version 2

Chicken Stock
Ina Garten's version
*Note: I always keep the meat rather than discarding it....  Just remove the chicken after 1 hour of cooking and let it cool enough before you take the meat off.  Add bones, carcass and any parts you do not want to eat back to your stock mixture.
Version 2  using chicken carcass.
* Note - I usually keep carcasses in my freezer until I have a three or four and then I make my broth.
Version 3  uses the crock pot.

Beef Stock
Version 1


Enjoy the tasty satisfaction of making your own rich stock at home!

Happy Cooking!!!
 - Dawna -