Roasted Butternut Soup

I'm not a huge fan of soup, but I honestly could not stop eating this! The key is to roast the butternut first before you puree it with all the other goodies. The end result is a darker colored soup, not those bright orange traditional butternut soups you've had before. This one is smoky and so flavorful!!

Roasted Butternut Soup

1 medium butternut, peeled and cubed

olive oil

salt 'n' peppa

1/2 cup carrots, cubed

1/2 cup celery, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock, or enough to cover vegetables

1 Roast cubed butternut with olive oil and salt 'n' peppa at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

2 While the squash is roasting, saute the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in a pan with some olive oil.

3 Once the vegetables are getting soft, place the roasted butternut in the same pot and cover with stock.

4 Close and simmer for about 20 minutes until all vegetables are soft. Use a stick blender to blend everything together until smooth. You could go the extra step and press it through a siev, but I didn't.

5 Serve piping hot and enjoy!

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

This is another delicious, yet timely, recipe from Heidi at 101cookbooks. Sometimes it just feels good to eat vegetarian for an appetizer or meal. I served this as an appetizer; me and Adam each devoured half of the acorn squash and still had corn pudding left over. I poured the remaining corn pudding into ramekins and baked them in the oven along with the squash — they are great as a snack the next day. My squash didn't brown like Heidi's did, but it was soft nonetheless. This recipe takes a while but is great for a lazy sunday afternoon because you don't really have to do much. Just set the timer and let the oven do the rest. This might be considered more of a fall dish, but hey, the market had tons of acorn squash and fresh corn and I couldn't resist!

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

adapted by 101cookbooks

1 small acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup milk

1 egg plus 2 egg whites

1/2 cup fresh corn, I added a bit more

1/2 cup chopped scallions

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shredded white cheddar

1 Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Rub the interior flesh of the squash with olive oil, place cut side up on baking pan and cover each half with aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes. (make sure the squash sits flat and doesn't tilt, or else the filling will make a mess)

2 In a bowl combine milk, corn, eggs, nutmeg, salt and half of scallions.

3 Fill the squash 3/4 of the way with the corn mixture and carefully place back into the oven, uncovered. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until squash is tender and pudding is set.

4 Once baked, sprinkle inner cavity with cheddar and switch the oven to broil. Watch it carefully so the cheese only melts and does not burn.

5 Serve with remaining scallions.

Squash Sticks

I recently bought this weird looking device called a mandolin. Have you heard of it? Let me just say, it is awesome. Perfectly evened sliced veggies, either matchsticks, julienned, or sliced. You can adjust the thickness of the slices and do a number of garnishes with it. I decided to experiment and make a short spaghetti using yellow squash. This is a great way to get your kids to eat their veggies. My theory is that if the veggies are cut in cute shapes, we are more likely to eat them. At least, that's how it works for me! Anyways, I cut up some squash and boiled them until tender. Topped with a feta cream sauce and sauteed spinach. It was delicious. The only thing is that I cut my thumb pretty bad on the mandolin blade and it still really hurts. So be careful and use that finger gaurd! Squash Sticks 2 yellow squash 1/2 bag spinach Feta 1/4 cup milk salt 'n' peppa 1 Cut up squash into long thin sticks and boil in a saute pan boiling water. Becomes tender after 30 seconds to 1 minutes, so don't leave the stove. Drain. 2 In a different pan, saute the spinach and feta and milk until creamy and tender.  3 Season the squash and mix together with spinach and feta. 3 Serve topped with more feta.