Creamed Butternut Squash, Pear, and Walnut Soup

I got this recipe from my grandpa Jim's italian cookbook. The flavors in this soup go so well together and it's such an "autumn" recipe. we both enjoyed the creamy-ness and and the mixture of flavors very much.

1 Tbsp olive oil (or nut oil)

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, or macademias work as well)

1 leek, white part only, sliced (I used a small white onion)

4 cups, diced, peeled butternut squash

1 pear, peeled and chopped

3 1/2 to 4 cups chicken broth

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Plain yogurt or creme fraische for garnish

Toasted nuts for garnish

 butternut squash is really not as scary as you think it is. the top portion is all  "squash meat" with only a few seeds in the bottom, rounded portion (see below). the taste kind of reminds you of pumpkin, but gentler and sweeter.

chop up the squash and pear before you start sauteing the garlic, etc.  

a. heat oil and saute garlic, leek and nuts for 2-3 minutes

b. add the squash and pear and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring.

c. pour the broth into the pan, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the squash is soft.

d. transfer mixture to blender (in parts) and process until smooth and creamy.

e. season to taste, serve in large bowls with garnishes. also, a simple breadstick or ciabatta roll goes really well with the soup.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

one of my favorites

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups rolled oats

1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips (one bag)

a. preheat oven to 375 degrees

b. stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

b. in a large bowl, beat the butter, white sugar and brown sugar together.

 c. add the eggs and vanilla, beating well.

 d. gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until blended.

 mmm...butterscotch chips

e. stir in the oats and the butterscotch chips. 

 f. drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. 

 g. bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges begin to brown.

(p.s. if you don't want to bake the whole batch, i like to roll the dough into balls before i freeze it, so when you do want to cook them, you can just pop them straight in the oven!)

(p.p.s. and then don't worry about the fact that half of your freezer is now filled with cookies and ice cream . . . )

notes: I erred on the side of 8 minutes in the oven, and it you don't like butterscotch chips, anything can be used (chocolate, heath bits, coconut, raisins, etc.). Also I used whole wheat flour and couldn't even taste a difference. With whole wheat flour and three cups of oats . . . these could be considered on the healthy range of the cookie scale, especially if you replace half the butter with applesauce. at least that's what I tell myself when I eat the whole batch in four days . . .

Camping in Amish Country, Turkey Hill Ice Cream Experience, the Beach, and Cleaning up the Flooding in NJ (not all at the same time)

We got new phones! Addicting. I think the cell phone people were offended at how old our previous phones were. 

We made portobello pork chops one night last week (thanks for the great recipe Rachel!), and one of Kit's favorite recipes: Spicy Greek Aromatic Chicken. Greek olives, artichoke hearts, onions, some lemon, tomatoes, chicken, and cinnamon, ground cloves, and allspice. 

For labor day weekend, we decided to drive to Lancaster County, PA and camp overnight. Prior to finding our campground, we went to the "Turkey Hill Ice Cream Experience." 

Here is Kit, the ice cream king, in front of the big cow.

They had a "real" milking experience.

It was a great place for hams like us. 

You got to create your own flavor, design the packaging and even shoot a commercial.

Kit's flavor was called "Hazel Coconutty" and mine was "Pumpkin Blast-o-rama"

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive, but it was really fun.

And of course there were NFL cut outs. 

Which we fully took advantage of.

 

We set up camp late at night, but were very impressed with how nice the campground and facilities were. The air even smelled nice!

I think we had the best spot in the campground. The perfect place to put our spaceship-shaped tent.

In the morning we went and toured an Amish house, very interesting.

They're pretty innovative. This is an iron that runs on gas! 

The ever-eager student. (That day he got probably six comments on his t-shirt, btw.) 

BYU and the Amish have something in common. I was sporting the alumna-wear in honor of the season opener later in the day.

Living the good amish life on wooden rockers with apple cider.

We met up with my parents at an arts and crafts fair later on. We didn't buy anything, but we did buy a brand new Christmas tree for $10 at a yard sale on the way! Score!

We stopped at a sports grill in Reading, PA to watch the BYU/Ole Miss game. The first half was kind of a downer, but the second half was great!

On labor day, we met my friend Stephanie and her husband Jake in the city for lunch. It was really fun to chat and catch up with them for a few hours. 

Afterwards, we decided to drive down to lower manhattan, which involved driving Bonnie through Times Square. 

Kit did an admirable job avoiding all the pedestrians and crazy taxis.

We went to the church next to ground zero (St. Paul's I think?) where the Red Cross operated after 9-11. It was decorated with a lot of remembrances. We also went to Battery Park and I showed Kit all the places I went when I came to NY for work in March.

Here is the Freedom Tower under construction. 

A mock up of the final world trade center site.

It was really really rainy last week, so we did what any reasonable person would do: made bread.

Thursday night, we were so excited (okay, maybe I was really excited) for the NFL season opener, we had nachos for dinner. Here I am calling a false start.

I'm not going to call the nachos UNhealthy because they had a bunch of vegetables, chicken, black beans, salsa, olives in addition to the piles of cheese. But we walked to the store at half time and bought a bunch of ice cream on sale: doesn't get the 'not unhealthy' verdict that the nachos got.

Friday night we went to the Italian Festival in Hoboken. (Trivia: Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken.) It was a fun street fair and they had really good pizza. We each took a shot at one of the carnival games, to no avail. 

Saturday morning we got up early and drove to the beach. We bought this little puppy for 50% off, walked through a great street fair, went to an antique car show and enjoyed a ragtime band in the square. 

Oh and we drove through Cheesequake to get there--our new favorite place.

We were really impressed with the beach. It was clean, the sand was soft, it wasn't crowded, there was great parking and the water wasn't too cold. Also good food and a decent price. Definitely returnable for next year (please bring your boogie boards and meet us there).

Sunday, they canceled church again and we went to help some of the people still suffering from the hurricane and the rains we got last week. 

Boat tied up to a house. This neighborhood had five feet of water. 

One of the many flooded roads that made it really hard to get to the "mormon helping hands" center.

Yet another flooded road that the GPS said to take. We had to get really creative! It was very humbling to help the people down there. One guy we helped on Sunday was really grateful because his wife was seven months pregnant and taking care of their four-yr-old. Their house (a split-level) was uninhabitable and he was doing all the work on his own. Our team--two sweet spanish hermanas, one guy from Kenya, one from Jamaica and Kit and I--cleaned out the garage, swept, squeegeed mud and removed dry wall. It was a messy job and we were glad to help.