Hello dear readers!

It’s been 60 degrees the past few days, and it’s starting to feel like fall here in the Kalamazizzle. My favorite season! Halloween, crunchy leaves, fire place a-roarin’, and perfect weather for soup!  Not that I need such an excuse for soup. I’ve never understood the concept of seasonal dishes- to me, ice cream is just as appropriate in winter, and soup is just as delicious in the suffocating heat of summer.

I’m a raging soup fiend, you see. I could live on a good chicken noodle. In fact I once tried to order seconds of the chicken noodle soup for dessert (instead of the chocolate brownie bomb melty things everyone else was getting) in this really kickass restaurant in Pennsylvania, only to be thwarted by the fact that they were OUT! I still look back on that day in sadness.

I am aware that other people don’t quite share my love for soup, so I take every chance to sneak it in whenever the opportunity presents itself. “Hey look! It’s cold!  Let’s have soup!”

The soup du jour for this entry?  Roasted Butternut Squash, a house favorite.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup!

You’ll need:

• 2 big butternut squashes
• 1 quart of stock (I usually use chicken)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 potatoes, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 smoked ham hock
• 2-3 cups of milk
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• olive oil
• butter (optional)
• salt and pepper
• sour cream (for garnish)

1. Take the squashies and cut into big chunks (I usually quarter them, but sometimes I’ll cut them a little smaller, depending on how big they are), and put them on a sheet pan.
2. Put half of the onion, all of the carrots, potatoes and the garlic and throw those in the pan, too.
3. Drizzle the veggies and squashes with olive oil, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss/stir to coat.
4. Put the pan in a 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until the squash and veggies are fork tender.
5. Meanwhile, put a few tablespoons of olive oil (or butter, mmmm) in a pot. Get it nice and hot and then dump in the rest of the chopped onion, celery, and thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, saute until the onions are translucent.
6. Enter chicken stock… dump that in the pot, and add the ham hock and bay leaves.
7. Simmer simmer.
8. Once the roasting veggies are tender, pull them out of the oven and dump them in the pot. Let the squash cool enough so that you can scrape the “meat” off the skin, and dump that in the pot.
9. Put it all in the blender (you’ll probably have to do two batches) OR use one of those sweet stick blenders. I got one for xmas… greatest invention ever. Puree until smooth. (You’ll want to fish out the ham hock and the bay leaves before blending.)
10. Stir in the milk (or use it to make blending easier) until you get the desired consistency, and then you can eat. I like to let mine simmer for a while and get more ham hocky.
11. Serve with a dollop of sour cream. Mmmm..

Notes: You don’t really have to roast the veggies separately… I used to make it just by boiling everything but the squash in the stock while the squash roasted, but I do think roasting some of the veggies makes it taste better. I don’t roast the celery anymore because it killed 2 blenders when I did it that way.
The ham hock really makes it. I’ve made it without, and I’ve tried using bacon instead… it just isn’t the same.
Also… Tim and I are garlic fiends, so I actually use a whole bulb.
I put the bay leaves and especially the ham hock back in the soup when I’m done blending it, AND when I store it in the fridge. This soup is always better the second day.
You could pretty easily adapt this to be vegetarian/vegan. Use veggie stock and maybe try a tiny bit of liquid smoke or chipotle instead of the ham hock.

And some random photos from this week:

First up is pictures of our resident Alpha cat. Or at least he used to be until his complete pussy of a brother started eating the canned cat food a few weeks ago and started totally dominating!

His real name is Hershell Saxby (generally going by Saxby). Other aliases: The Brown, Brownie, Big Cat, Fat Butt, Mr. Chocolate, Sgt. Brown, Cinnamon, Piss Paws, The Carpet Pisser, Stripe Butt, Dip Stick, etc.

He’s got too many toes, and we’re pretty sure he’s kind of retarded.

He never usually sits still long enough for me to take a picture!

Stoic Brownie

Hershell Saxby the First

Last summer I noticed a HUGE spiderweb outside that seemed to be floating in mid air.  We went outside and checked it out and a really weird looking spider with spiky bumps on it’s butt was on the web.  We did some research and found out it’s called a spiny orbweaver. (Don’t google pics of regular orb weavers, YUCK YUCK!!!)

We were going to get the mail the other day and found this pretty lady on the bush next to our front door. The one we saw before was just black and white. This one’s a lot more colorful.

evil Charlotte

She's ready for her close-up

I gotta say, most spiders give me the willies, but the spiny orb weavers don’t.  Maybe because they look like prickly pears?  They’re also pretty small. This one was maybe the size of a sunflower seed.

Aside from eating soup and taking random pictures, I’ve been super busy with custom orders!  Here are a few I finished up this week:

Gothic Lolita workout jacket

(back)

I Heart Shooting Zombies halter dress

red, black, and white Rancid halter dress

checkerboard ska hoodie (back)

checkerboard ska hoodie (front)