Butternut Squash Soup

Soup is good food, especially when it's a fresh, homemade, pureed vegetable soup. Lately I've been experimenting a little bit with leftover vegetables as soup The baby especially enjoys velvety smooth veggie soups. Sadie will reluctantly agree that they are Ok.

Using a handheld immersion blender makes this recipe very easy to make. You can certainly use regular blender or food processor, but you'll wind up with some extra dirty dishesIf you don't have a handheld blender, consider getting one. It's a really fun gadget and you'll find a million reasons to use it.

Without any further ado:

• Bake an unpeeled butternut squash in a 400 degree oven. Prepare the squash by bisecting it lengthwise and chopping the halves into 4 equal pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for about 40 minutes or until pieces are tender.


• Allow squash to cool and then scoop the soft flesh away from the skin.
  
• Place the squash meat in a large saucepan or small pot over low heat or flame. Begin using the immersion blender to break down the squash while slowly adding chicken stock.


• When enough stock has been added to reach the consistency of thin mashed potatoes, it'll be the right time to add the milk. Add enough milk to reach the desired consistency, a thick soup.


• Nice seasonings for this soup are salt, pepper, thyme, and cumin, all to taste. Less is usually more as far as seasonings go.

Some afterthoughts:

• I quartered an onion and added it to the tray of squash. This resulted in the onions getting a little charred and some of them had to be thrown out instead of incorporated into the soup. A tiny amount of charred bits turned up in the soup, but it sort of just looked like coarsely ground pepper. This was fine for my own personal consumption, but it didn't add much to the soup and will be avoided next time.


• Baking time for the squash might vary. Just keep an eye on it.


• It doesn't take long for the squash to cool off enough to comfortably handle. However, premature squash handling could cause burns so do use caution.


• It wouldn't be too hard to adapt this recipe to blender usage. Just put some or all of the squash in the blender, add some chicken stock to thin it out, and blend. Transfer squash puree to a large sauce pan or pot over low heat and continue to add stock, milk, and seasonings as described above.


• Let your imagination and taste buds be your guide when seasoning!


• Enjoy!

Other possible pureed soups:

• Potato-asparagus


• Potato-spinach


• Carrot


• Corn (very good with a small dollop of pesto)


• Fresh artichoke (delicious but EXTREMELY high in fiber-enjoy in small portions on a Saturday or Sunday that you plan on spending at home)

Penny's B'day Bash!

Happy happy, Joy joy!

The Spread

Having a swell time being the birthday girl!

Birthday Gift Radar

There were real live gangsters at our house too, you know, making gang gestures and what not. It was sort of intimidating.

A little help from a very adorable cousin is always appreciated.

Family Shot

Nothing Like It, No Sir-eee

There's nothing quite like being pregnant to remind you that we are, in fact, animals...

And nothing like an emergency C-section to give you the opportunity to get your head on straight in a real hurry...

But there's really nothing quite like the heart-melting warmth, the sweet smell, the softness of a newborn baby.

Happy first birthday day Penelope Lynn!

Posting-Latest, Not Really Greatest, But Here It Is...

So in between doing interesting things like complaining, procrastinating, feeling sorry for myself, getting irritated with everything, bitching, and just being a waste of space I've been doing some reading. Both on and off the internet. And that has been good.

On the internet-is it just me or is McSweeney's website just chock full of good reading? I'm positively addicted to it.

Off the internet-shame on me for never reading any work by William Faulkner earlier in my life. I've just started Light in August and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's much different than the books I usually read, which are, well, easier to read. I do not mean to imply that I am a dolt who reads romance novels every chance I get. I mean to say that the books I read are usually fast-paced, frenetic jaunts through a plot which reveals itself in the first 20, 25 pages (think Tough Guys Don't Dance, Vonnegut, Sedaris). This is not that kind of book. It is slow, deliberate, painstakingly detailed. It's got it's own mood and pace that you must surrender to. And I'm finding that I enjoy that.

Off the internet and through my ears-I am currently enjoying the audio CDs of John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise. ITunes was running a promo or something, offering it for free. It caught my eye and now my ears are hooked! I've been listening to it during my commute to and from work and in between different places I go during the day and it's just the best. He's done work for The Daily Show and McSweeney's. Most recently he has played the personification of the PC on the new Mac commercials.

The Sweet Art of Procrastination

Plan-

-Instead of preparing for work I am going to sit here on the couch and make another very important list. The blog muse is whispering in my ear and I just can't bring myself to enter the real world until I get a few things off of my chest, out of my head, and into my blog-

Small List of Male Vocalists Who I Believe to be Smackalicious*

1. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave
2. Mark Wahlberg (was the vocalist for The Funky Bunch)
3. Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day
4. Chester Bennington of Linkin Park

*******************************************************************

Well, thank God I got that off of my chest. I had better get ready for work now.

*Smackalicious=Attractive

Ways to Amuse Babies

• This Little Piggy
• Pretending to Eat Various Body Parts (hands, ears, toes)
• Smelling Their Bare Feet and Saying "Peeeeee-yooooooooh" in a very exaggerated way
• Blowing Raspberries Where the Neck Meets the Shoulder
• Letting Them Grab and Throw Around Two Loads' Worth of Clean Laundry While You Fold Said Laundry (Over and Over Again)
• Facilitating Sock Removal (and Subsequent Sock-Tasting)
• Singing Various Songs with Much Enthusiasm and Clapping (Bingo, Peas Porridge Hot, On Top of Spaghetti, etc.)

Happy New Year to You!

On New Year's Eve...

~The baby had her very first pony tail~

~And~

~I survived my first raw oyster experience with the help of Sadie and JH~

(and they were actually quite good with a martini)

A Merry Christmas Indeed

Some pics from our holiday

Welcome in, 2007

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?

Most notably, had a C-section. My first surgery ever!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any resolutions in 2006. Too exhausted I guess. My new year's resolutions this year are simple-be nicer, gossip less, and simplify everything. Sort of vague, but I think I can actually stick with it!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Ah...yes, I gave birth this year, 3 people at work did too. Most notably, Free had a baby 2 days before me and we didn't even know about it until September. Very amazing!


4. Did anyone close to you die?

No family, but a handful of patients.

5. What countries did you visit?

No foreign travel for me in 2006. Boohoo.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

Patience. An exercise regimen.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

It would have to be January 20th, the day Penny was born. Also January 18th, which was my due date. Just sitting around feeling sorry for my big, fat, pregnant self...feeling the lack of contractions or any other unusual activity of the uterus and just knowing that I was going to be pregnant for the rest of my life :-P

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Surviving day to day life as a mother of an infant and teenager.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Sheesh, I don't know. Letting the laundry pile up? Not saving as much money as I would've hoped. Having another bad hair year in my bad hair life...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Well, I recovered from my C-section. No major illnesses, thank God. I come from a hardy Slavic stock of people, so generally we are resistant to disease until old age :-P

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Best thing I bought? Probably the Medela breast pump.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Let me pick some unsung heroes-social workers.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

George W. Bush.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Mortgage, daycare, car payments and insurance, the usual.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Whenever we took advantage of rare opportunities to get out for the night, just the 2 of us.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?

Happier, Thinner, Poorer (but only because we've both been on disability 3 months a piece during the past year!)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Chilling out, not being a tightly-wound ball of nervousness.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

We had it at our house.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?

With Penelope.

22. How many one-night stands?

This question is just ridiculous. None. Would anyone even answer this truthfully if their answer was yes?

23. What was your favorite TV program?

The Office leads the pack of favorites, but I also love CSI Las Vegas, House, and every single program on Food Network and HGTV. I can't get enough of those real estate shows. Oh, wait, the ones where they go into total pig-sty houses and make the occupants throw out a bunch of crap, and then rearrange everything so it actually looks like it's not inhabited by bums or squatters? Those are MY kind of shows. I love when they tell the people that their junk isn't doing anything positive for them and it's time to get rid of it, thin it out, let go of the past.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait! Oh ho what I want to know, where does the time go?

25. What was the best book you read?

Unfortunately I didn't read enough new books (re-read a few old favorites, as I am apt to do) but I guess The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan is the first one that comes to mind. It was a gift from JH last Christmas and I read it on my maternity leave.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Rediscovering Metallica. (Sounds like the title to some MTV show 20 years in the future where they resurrect Lars, James, and Kirk, all balding and paunchy, and launch a contest to appoint the "next" bassist, who will probably be a female this time around."

27. What did you want and get?

A healthy baby, teenager, and husband.

28. What did you want and not get?

Horseback riding lessons.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

Well, since I don't usually see any movies until they hit Blockbuster, my favorites weren't from 2006. Most were 2005 or earlier. And the winners are:

Crash, 40 Year-Old Virgin, Batman Begins, Wedding Crashers, Sin City, Everything is Illuminated, V for Vendetta, Jarhead, Brokenflowers, Transamerica, The Jacket, The Matador.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Went to work-it was a Friday-injection day, which is my favorite. Went out to dinner. Had a nice evening. I turned 32.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Less obnoxious traffic.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?

Hide the flub as much as possible.

33. What kept you sane?

Humor.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Fancy as in think was hot as hell? I've already gone over that. Or fancy as in admire? I liked the former acting governor of NJ, Richard Codey. He tried to do a lot for the mentally ill of our state, including his war on stigma. He came to work to speak, but I didn't get to hear any of it because I was stuck in the back doing injections. A lot of the clients got to hear him speak, so it was nice for them.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

The politics of health (i.e. stem cell research, Medicare "reform,"), women's rights, the war.


36. Who did you miss?

Everyone I care about who isn't part of my day to day life.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Some really interesting clients, but I haven't really "met" anyone new in my personal life in a long time.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.

Less is more, especially when I'm the one who's talking, especially if I've had a couple of glasses of wine and the audience just doesn't get it.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

In another time's forgotten space
your eyes looked through your mother's face
Wildflower seed on the sand and stone
may the four winds blow you safely home
~Robert Hunter