pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere, part deux

this past weekend was a little warmer so i whipped up a favorite fall soup of ours- butternut squash. yum-o :) i based it loosely on the recipe from love soup by anna thomas.

butternut squash

ingredients (serves 5):
1 butternut squash
1/2 a stick of margarine
2 cups of soy milk, or almond milk
pepper, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and fresh herbs to taste

preheat oven to 350°
cut the butternut squash in halves (lengthwise). spray a cake pan with pam, and put a 1/4 cup of water in it, before adding the halves of squash, cut-side down, to the pan. bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

when squash is soft enough for the skin to peel off, remove the skin and cut into chunks. blend the squash with your choice of milk substitute and melted margarine, to a smooth consistency. add spices and herbs to your liking (we like to make ours a mix of hot and sweet, so we use a lot of cinnamon and pepper :).

this soup is perfect for warm fall days <3

pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere

with all of wet and chilly weather we're getting, i've been in the mood for soup :) last weekend, we took the crock pot out of hibernation and made a yummy white chicken chili. i found the recipe in the original crockpot recipe book, but i've made some adjustments over the years :)

white chicken chili

ingredients (makes 12 servings) :
2 cans of sweet corn
2 cans of great northern beans
2 cans of cannellini's
28 ounces of chicken broth (i'm digging the organic roasted chicken broth by wolfgang puck)
1 pound of chicken
1/2 pound of chicken sausage (optional, but we've recently been adding organic tomato basil chicken sausage, and it is delish :)
fresh parsley, basil, and thyme to taste

preheat oven at 350°.
blend 2 cans of cannellini's with 14 ounces of chicken broth, to thicken up the base. (you can also use flour or cream, but i prefer this). add that, and the rest of the ingredients, except for the corn and chicken, to the crockpot.

bake chicken for 30 minutes at 350°, and when it's done, 'shred' it by hand (it helps it soak up more of the broth later on :). add it to the crockpot.

cover the top of the liquid in the crockpot with a layer of garlic powder, and a layer of pepper. add a little salt, dried oregano, and some fresh herbs to taste. wait until about an hour before you are ready to serve, and then add the 2 cans of corn (so they don't get mushy).

this typically takes no longer than 5 or 6 hours ... and then all you have to do is add a nice hunk of italian bread and enjoy :)

too drunk and still drinking

i hope everyone had a happy halloween! we spent friday night at the lakehouse in washington park with a few hundred other people, all dressed to impress :) the costumes were pretty amazing- especially among our group of friends. there was elmo, bert & ernie, oscar the grouch, a couple of twenties flappers, peas and carrots, and some vampires thrown in for good measure.

luckily, there was a photobooth there to capture all of the magic :)

a colorful bunch :)

p.s. i'll try to post more pictures soon :)