Fall Means Soup!

Isn't soup one of the best things about fall and winter? When we are making soup, rarely is thee an actual recipe involved. Sometimes this works out, other not. But after many rounds with butternut squash soup, we have a plan that is creamy and delicious!

Butternut Squash Soup
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Chicken stock (homemade or commercial, both will work)
Butter
Heavy Cream
Cayenne pepper
Salt

Dice the onions and garlic. Set aside. Then peel the squash.

Remove the seeds and cube the squash.

Now that everything is prepped, start cooking! Cook the onions and garlic in a generous amount of butter over medium high heat until soft.

Add the squash and pour in stock until covered.

Then bring to a boil. Continue to boil until the squash is fork tender.

I leave the stock in when the cooking is done and puree the whole thing with a stick mixer. But a blender would work too!

At this point, you want to add some extra flavor. I add a pinch of cayenne pepper, several generous pinches of kosher salt, ground black pepper, and liberal amounts of heavy cream. If I have fresh thyme around, I throw some of that in too. Combine and you are ready to eat! 

Nancy's Banana Bread

My kids had a serious addiction to Eggo frozen waffles. They were eating them four at a time. As we were trying to clean up our own eating, this seemed like something that had to go too. Lots of processed, lots of 16 letter words in the ingredients. Ideally, they would want some fruit or eggs in replacement. But you know things just aren't ideal most of the time. So we compromised with my mother in law, Nancy's, banana bread. It is closer to a cake than health food, but I can pronounce all the ingredients!

Nancy's Banana Bread

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 brown bananas (This is important - they need to be over-ripe. When they are getting too brown, I put them in the freezer to save for when I am making bread. If you get them out at the same time as you take out the butter, both will be ready at the same time.)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
(chopped nuts optional)

Turn the oven on to 350. Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add eggs and bananas and mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Grease an 8x4 loaf pan with butter. Add the bread mix. Put in the oven for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For my oven, I find if I start to preheat and put in the bread as soon as it is ready, even if the oven is not up to 350, it takes exactly 55 minutes.

Whenever I bake it, the kids say how great it smells, to which I reply, cake usually does!