I love my kitchen stuff

The great thing about getting married (along with vowing to spend the rest of your life with somebody awesome and having a great big party) is that people give you really cool stuff! Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret - our apartment isn't big enough to hold all of our cool new stuff, so some of it is piled up in a corner next to the couch. But every once in a while, I get frustrated that I have all this stuff that I've wanted for ages that I'm not actually using and I break something out of the corner. Today that something was my immersion blender.



Last week at Vesta, Joe had some awesome squash soup and I said, "hmmmmmm, I could make soup." I happen to have 3 acorn squash (not to mention about 1,000 apples) sitting on my counter, courtesy of my CSA, so I pulled a recipe from Martha Stewart/Emeril Lagasse off the internet and decided to give it a shot.

Acorn Squash Soup

3 acorn squash, halved, seed removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped (I used two small random green apples in my fridge - the ones that were going a little soft and I didn't want to eat)
1 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
4 cups low sodium chicken stock (you could use vegetable broth or water - but don't unless you're a vegetarian)

Preheat oven 400 degrees F.

On a baking sheet, roast the acorn squash, cut side down, until soft, about 45 minutes. Scoop out the squash flesh and set aside.

In a soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Saute carrot, apple, and onion until soft. Season with ginger and allspice. Add the squash and the chicken stock. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (I added about 1/2 tsp of salt as well - I just don't think it's cooking if you don't add salt).

Remove the pot from the heat and puree with a hand-held immersion blender. Yay! I got to use my blender. My sister thinks these blenders are evil, but that's just because she stuck her finger in the blade part and turned it on. Seriously. But don't let that turn you away from trying the soup.



It was very good - simple, but not bland. It's also creamy without having anything bad for you in it - which is the holy grail of cooking, as far as I'm concerned. I served it with a little salad - it was a great fall meal.