Mmmm...

I love to cook. I like to look at several recipes of the same dish and then come up with my own version. I wanted to share a recent recipe that seemed to be a hit with those who tried it. It is fairly easy, except for peeling the Butternut Squash. Don't be afraid to try it, because the combination of apples and squash sound weird as they really do go together very nice. This dish would be a nice starter for Thanksgiving dinner.


Apple Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
3 to 4 apples cored, peeled and chopped
1 large butternut squash peeled and chopped
4 to 6 cups of vegetable or chicken broth (I used canned)
Dash nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Dash ground cloves (optional)
1 cup light cream

Put all ingredients (except cream) into large stock pot. Boil until vegetables are soft. Use a hand blender to liquify soup. Once soup is to desired consistency add cream slowly while stiring soup. Soup is ready to serve.

If you don't have a hand blender, you can use a regular blender, it will just be a bit messier.


If you try it, I would love to hear your thoughts, since this was something I made up on my own (well sort of).

Enjoy!!

Busy, busy, busy...

Since Sophia now goes to school five days a week, I have been finding it hard to get anything done. In the evenings and on the weekends, I like to spend time with Bob and the kids, so that decreases what I get done at those times. I have been trying really hard the past two days to get some thing caught up around the house. Today is what I call "Produce Day." We belong to two CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) and today is the day that I pick up our organic produce from two local farms. The kids enjoy going to the farms each week and so do I. There is nothing better than direct from the farm food.

We were supposed to go camping last weekend, but the nightime temperatures were only supposed to be 38 and 42 and we did not feel that this was warm enough for Nicholas. So we spent the time at home on Friday and on Saturday we went out to the Pumpkin Patch with Sophia's best friends family. The kids all had a blast. We went through a corn maze, went on a hayride, shot pumpkins out of a sling shot and picked pumpkins. After we left the Patch we all went to a local park for a picnic. Overall it was a marvelous day.

I am not really sure what Sophia is doing in this picture, but I thought is was hilarious. Sophia's best friend's name is Sahas and he is like her calm alter ego. They are alike in so many ways, except for the fact that Sophia is a spazz and he is not.

Her is my little pumpkin with some other pumpkins. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get him to look up at he camera. I guess a little pumpkin is hard to compete with.

Since I really don't like to have my photo taken and I rarely smile when I do, I thought I would share this. As they say, the camera adds about 20 lbs, but in my case it is about 50!!! I just love the smile on Nicholas' face. I realize that he is getting older and it is only a matter of time, before these kind of cuddles will not be wanted anymore, so I have to enjoy them while I can.

The rest of the month will continue to be quite busy. This weekend our Godchild, Gabriel, is being Christened. It is a very happy occasion for our family as well as Gabe's. He is much more than a Godchild to me. I wish all the best for him.

By the way, I forgot to mention, we finally got a new dog. Her name is Chloe and she was rescued from the Humane Society. She is a 1 1/2 year old lab mix. We took pictures of her, but they were not that great, so when I finally get a good one, I will share it.

I have just finished my large Cafe Mocha and that means I am out of time. I hope that you all are wonderful and enjoying the fall!