Butternut Squash Love....

We have been eating a LOT of soup lately....its kind of a soup time of year....

You know that feeling, when you've been outside shovelling snow, or playing with the kids, or ice fishing on the lake?  Perhaps thats just our lifestyle...but even if you're just going from your car to your home, its still nice to come in from the cold and enjoy a nice steaming bowl of soup.  Even better when you've grown the vegetables yourself!!!

We tried growing butternut squash this year, and I will admit that I am still waiting for the taste of squash to grow on me.   I figured, why not?  Grow them and the recipe hunt will begin.  I will not spend money at the grocery store on items that I have no idea whether I or the family will like them.  There is something widly emancipating about growing something...and if you don't like it...it just goes right back into the compost bin!  WIN WIN!



Butternut Squash soup with home made biscuits

The one thing I really enjoyed growing butternut squash, is that they arrive and ripen when the rest of the garden has long since died off.  You get these beautiful, waxen lovelies that produce wonderous flowers.  Their vines take over all other areas.  It was growing these lovelies that made me think about late season foods and also their ability to store well.  I didn't get a chance to start a root cellar this past year...so I didn't get to expertiment with the old school method of storage.  We did cube and freeze them though.  It was the late season aspect that made me love them.  This past year I did get to experiment with staggering my veggies.  Its a wonderful method to avoid the common gardening ailment of having 10 tonnes of anything all at the same time.  This method allows you to enjoy each crop for several weeks instead of getting flooded with them all at once (which makes it almost impossible to eat everything or have enough time to properly prepare and store everything - trust me!  I've learned this one the hard way).  You wind up sick of whatever it is thats ripening...and you waste the rest.
 

close up on soup with cracked black pepper

So here is the mouth-watering recipe that I cooked up in the fall.  I frozen the whole lot that time.  All I had to do was freeze it and add cream when ready to serve! 

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped (from our garden, dried and stored in the basement)

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped (from our garden, kept in the crisper with dirt on)

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed

1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock

1 tsp nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 305 | Total Fat: 6.8g | Cholesterol: 21mg

Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 305

• Total Fat: 6.8g
• Cholesterol: 21mg
• Sodium: 1248mg
• Total Carbs: 59.7g
•     Dietary Fiber: 9.5g
• Protein: 6.9g

That was the original recipe I used...from allrecipes.com but I'm a sucker for a rich soup, so I swirl in heavy cream just prior to serving.  You can also add some cinnamon to taste. 


while Owen loves the biscuits...he's still not a huge fan of the soup



Tomato Basil Soup from Scratch

Here is another edition of Freezer Food!

So Campbell's Soup sells tomato soup for $0.75 these days...and although I can't compete with that pirce...I can feel good knowing that I can control the amount of sodium and sugar in my family's food as well as making a meal that has virtually no carbon footprint!  If we had a wood stove, this recipe would have an even smaller foodprint. 

For storage, we take our best tomatoes and cut a cross in the bottom skin (instead of peeling them fresh).  Add them to a large freezer bag and there you go!  Another storage trick I thought I'd try this year was from the Mathers.  Pick fresh basil place in  a food processor.  Add garlic too.  Now add a 1/2 cup to a small freezer bag and press thin.  Freeze.  Now when you want to add basil and garlic to a meal, you just snap off what you want.  Easy!

Read below for my step by step tomato soup from scratch recipe!

We pulled out the frozen tomatoes at around 10am.
We let them simmer, covered, on very low for a long time. 
After the tomatoes have turned to mush, you can add the frozen basil garlic combo and desired salt.  I also added a pinch of white sugar to combat a bit of the bitterness from our tomatoes.
Press soup through a strainer to get rid of excess seeds and skin.
Parmesan cheese is a suggested topping.

I served them with home made biscuits.  (the heart shape is optional....but fun!  Can't you feel the love?)

Ready for lunch!



left: basil garlic frozen in baggie, middle: home made biscuits, right: mater soup!