Pumpkin Soup

Last week I was inspired by the coming of November and a delicious cup of soup that a coworker brought to work. At first the creamy peach hue inside the stockpot on the break room table had me hesitant, but the smell coming out of it had me intrigued, and of course after one sip, it had me hooked. I asked for the recipe made a few tweaks to add a couple more veggies and started on my own version the following day. Below is the original recipe with my tweak connotations in parentheses.

PUMPKIN SOUP
1 cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
(6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed)
(1 handful of Italian parsley, rough chopped)
4 stalks celery, chopped
(2 carrots, peeled and chopped)
(2 medium potatoes, skins intact and chopped)
1 cup flour
6 cups chicken broth (I used 1 carton broth and 16 cubes [roughly 2 cups] of my homemade stock)
1 29oz can of pumpkin puree, I recommend Libby's
1 cup apple juice
3 cups milk (I used 2 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup cream for extra richness)
Salt, pepper and thyme to taste

Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium high heat and saute onion, celery, garlic, parsley and carrots until softened and translucent. Add flour and mix well to create your roux. Slowly stir in broth until smooth, add potatoes and apple juice and bring to slow rolling boil. Add pumpkin and return to slow boil. When potatoes are tender, using a hand blender, mix until smooth and little to no lumps remain. I use my Vita-Mix in batches, but anything would work. Return soup to heat, add milk (or cream), salt, pepper and thyme and continue to cook over low heat until ready to serve.

I honestly think this would be a great appetizer before Thanksgiving dinner, and even more adorable served in baby pumpkin bowls.

Garnish with croutons, pumpkin seeds and a sprig of parsley. Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Seeds

So you're planning on carving a pumpkin for Halloween. May I recommend Zombie Pumpkins as an awesome site for templates?

So after you pick your pumpkin, and your design... It's time to start carving.

This is Audrey, she's my awesome little pal, and we do lots of fun stuff together. Today we're going to carve some pumpkins and toast the seeds! YUM!

When you clean out your pumpkin, make sure you keep a colander near by to collect all the gooey pumpkin seeds.

Preheat your oven to 350* Make sure you rinse the seeds twice, to get all the pulp off of them. Then mix in a bowl...

melted butter, margarine or oil
spices to taste ( I like to use seasoning salt)
salt
pumpkin seeds

(You could also go the sweet route and use cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and sugar. The pumpkin seed world is your oyster!)

Toss to coat and spread out evenly on a baking sheet.

Bake 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until golden brown.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!