Creamy Autumn Squash Soup

You know, I've realized that I never officially introduced myself & what I'm all about. My name is Emma Stelling. I achieved my Bachelor's degree in Art History back in 2010.  You'd think I'd be writing about art history, right?  Well, I get in enough on that topic at work. As a child, my grandmother, mother, & father were always cooking. My dad, he's a master craftsman, but as a young adult he was a chef in many local restaurants & eateries.  One of those places was called The Wagon Wheel. It was still in operation until I was ohh, about 7.  I loved that place. The food was good, but the main reason I went in there so often as a kid was because they had a giant moose head mount. I used to pet it and talk to it like it was alive. Some days I was hesitant to walk too close to it, thinking that it might actually move. Oh, kids. I sometimes miss being a kid myself.  They look at everything with a certain curiosity & truth. I love the look on my daughter's face when she's trying to figure something out. 

So, yes. I'm Emma. I wish I could tell you guys a good story of how I got my name, but I can't. I'm just Emma Stelling; daughter of an Irish woman and man of English & Blackfoot decent.  I grew up in a small town in Vermont and no, we're not all a bunch of hicks. I mean sure, I live the country life, but the word "hick" has a negative connotation to it as if I don't work hard for my living. As if I just sit around and drink beer & shoot stuff all day.  That's not how it is at all.  Where I come from, we settle things the old fashioned way. We believe in "love thy neighbor," not "screw thy neighbor's wife."  We home cook our meals, we grow our own food when we can, we chop up firewood all summer long in preparation for winter.  We work hard. We can survive. You want the "American Dream?" It doesn't get much better than this here.  

It's hard for me to explain what I do in my spare time because it varies all the time. I'm all over the place. I like to dabble in different interests at random times. I go on binges with different things. Haha.  I've been painting since I was a tot making finger paintings. Now, I usually paint with acrylics on canvas, but I'm known to experiment with a variety of media. Watercoloring has been a new hobby for me lately.  Mostly landscapes of rolling hills and wavy grain fields with little houses plopped about in random places.  My acrylic paintings are hung around my house. They are usually inspired by dreams from this crazy brain of mine.  Whenever I am trying to become inspired from ideas in my brain, I refer to that process as "A Brain Raid."  Aside from painting, I also crochet blankets, hats, socks, you name it.  Around fall time is when I really get cranking out the crocheted, creating warm blankets for my bed, gifts for family members for Christmas, and blankets for children's hospitals & charities.  

When it comes to movies, I'm big on the horror, comedies, & of course, children's movies.  Chick flicks aren't my thing and I'll tell ya' why.  The sappiness, the unrealistic aura of it all, the endings just leave me feeling depressed, so instead I fill my head with gory monstrosities, crude humor, & Shrek.  Obviously the prior two I watch after my little one goes to bed.  You know what kid's movie was really well made?  The Polar Express.  One year, my husband watched it like 5 times with our daughter & he didn't complain one bit. He looked seriously engaged. Honest to goodness. The characters in the movie look so realistic. And Tom Hanks as the conductor, well played.  

I hope to share more about myself to all of you readers with every new post I write.  I'd like to get to know my readers, too, so join me. Comment & let me know what you're all about.  

And here's tonight's recipe. You didn't really think I'd leave you without a recipe, did you?  Shame, shame.

Ingredients

1 medium kabocha squash

1 yellow onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed (optional – I like it both ways)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1¼ cup milk

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

toasted walnuts

salt to taste

cream to taste

Instructions

Cut the squash into wedges. Scoop out the seeds, cut off the rind, and dice the squash.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the squash, onion, and garlic. Sprinkle with a little salt and saute until lightly browned and the squash is cooked through.

Place the cooked squash in a blender and add the milk and cayenne. Blend for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture is very smooth. Season generously with salt. Top each serving with toasted walnuts, cheese, or cream.

Notes

You can adjust the taste and consistency to your liking by adding more milk, salt, or even vegetable broth, etc. I also like to add the walnuts into the blender sometimes (about ½ cup) in addition to putting the whole ones on top. Add, taste, add, taste, add, taste. That’s my method. 

Good Ol' Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

(Recipe below)

If you are a cat owner, please do me a favor: (besides spay &  neuter), try whistling at a very high pitch & see how your cat responds. I'm not sure if it works on all cats, but my kitties become very affectionate and silly. I've read all sorts of things about why this might be. One place said it could be because kittens have a very high pitched cry & instinctively hearing the whistling makes them think you're in distress & need comforting.  If you know why this is, feel free to comment! Love hearing from my readers! 

Meet my felines:
<--Smokey & Gabriel-->

Now, on to the soup. Yes, the soup. What's the scoop on the soup, Scotty! No, but seriously. Homemade Chicken Noodle. Ya' know, I'm kind of surprised at how cold it's been today. I mean 62 ° F isn't that low, but in comparison to this summer's heat, it's a tad chilly. There's a wicked draft that comes through the french doors toward the back of the house that needs to be fixed before winter.  Go figure my office is the room with the french doors. Har, har.  Though we haven't fired up our wood stove yet, I am guilty of using the space heater today.  I am also guilty of wearing fuzzy socks; very warm fuzzy socks.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

4 cups cubed peeled potatoes

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

2 cups uncooked yolk-free wide noodles

1 cup fat-free evaporated milk

Directions:

In a stockpot, saute the onion, carrots and celery in oil for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the flour, oregano, thyme and poultry seasoning until blended.

Gradually add the broth, potatoes and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Stir in chicken and noodles; simmer for 10 minutes or until noodles are tender. Reduce heat. Stir in milk; heat through (do not boil). Yield: 8 servings.

Pumpkin Pie Cocoa

Rachael Ray's recipe for pumpkin cocoa is the best!  Sometimes I like to add a little vanilla. 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups low-fat milk

1/2 cup hot cocoa mix

3 tbs canned pure pumpkin puree

1 1/2 teas pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup whipped cream

 Directions:

In a saucepan, whisk milk, cocoa mix, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. Heat until steaming.

Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream.

Bacon Buns

Here it is--the last recipe of Bacon Week here at Yum In My Tum.  Add these bacon & onion filled rolls to your next supper!  My brother, who's a bacon-lover, couldn't get enough of these.  He requests them often when he comes to dinner at my house.  Thank you Taste of Home.

Photo by Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 10 bacon strips, diced
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 package (16 ounces) hot roll mix
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Directions
• In a skillet, cook bacon and onion over medium heat until bacon is crisp and onion is tender; drain on paper towels.
• Prepare roll mix according to package directions. Turn the dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes.
• Divide dough into 18 pieces. On a floured surface, roll out each piece into a 5-in. circle. Top each with 1 tablespoon of bacon filling. Fold dough around filling, shaping each piece into a small loaf; pinch edges to seal. Place seam side down on greased baking sheets. Cover loosely with plastic wrap coated with cooking spray. Let rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.
• Brush egg over buns. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.

Chilly Day Chili

Bet you can't eat just one bowl of this flavorsome sausage and ground beef chili!  This is the amazing chili recipe (courtesy of my mom) I was talking about in the last post.  Scoop into parboiled bell peppers for Chili Stuffed Peppers like Ellie and I enjoyed a few nights ago. Yum!




Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sweet or hot sausage
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans (14.5 oz  each) diced tomatoes with green chilies
2 cans chili beans (16 oz each)
1 can beef broth (14.5 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
shredded cheese (optional)


Directions:
Cook sausage and ground beef until no longer pink.  Drain and place in slow cooker.  Add remaining ingredients (except cheese) and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.  Serve.  Top with shredded cheese, if desired.  Enjoy!

As you may or may not know, Vermont experienced its first snow of the season yesterday.  (I guess this means I finally have to retire my flip flops for the year! )  When I woke this morning, I was greeted by a bright and sunny day, though the snow still coated the ground and the tops of trees.  So, before my morning walk, I had to dig my gloves, hats, and scarves out of the back of the closet.  By the time I arrived back home, I looked like Rudolph.  I figured, what’s a better way to warm up in this chilly weather than with a toasty bowl of your favorite soup!  Split pea with ham was calling my name! 

Growing up, I can remember running around in the bitter cold with my brother.  When it was time to go inside for supper, mother often had a bowl of steaming split pea ready on the table and my family would sit down for a comforting meal together.  Man, how I miss those days!  Now that I have mother’s recipe, I can go back to the memories every time I make this satisfying soup, and now YOU can, too! 

Check out the recipe below.  Would love to hear what you think of this!  Don’t hesitate to share your own Soup Stories! 

Mom’s Split Pea with Ham Soup

Prep Time: about 20 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Makes about 8 servings

You will need:

1 package green split peas

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups ham chunks

2 whole carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium potato, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

Directions:

Rinse split peas well.   Remove bad peas or small pebbles that “snuck in” during processing. Put  rinsed peas in a large pot and cover with at least 2-1/2 inches of water. Turn your burner on medium- high heat.  Next, dice up at least half of your medium sized onion and add the onion to the pot. Add some salt to the water, and allow it to cook.

After they’ve cooked for at least an hour, throw in your ham chunks.

While your soup is cooking, dice up remaining vegetables and set aside. When the peas are just about how you like them, toss in the remaining veggies and continue to cook.  Mom’s soup was always thick and chunky.  She allowed it to cook on the stove for at least another hour and a half, if not two hours.

If you prefer, add salt and pepper.  I usually don’t.  It’s so tasty without extra seasoning.  Serve with buttered rolls. 

And there you have it!  Enjoy folks!  I’m enjoying a nice bowl right now!  I’ll be happy to answer any questions if you have them.