Roasted Butternut Squash Ginger Soup & Roasted Broccoli

As I'm sure I've mentioned on here before, I don't usually cook with recipes and I find that this makes it much harder to keep up with this blog. It's easier when I bake and can simply link to an outside recipe. However, I have to try because otherwise what good am I? Just know that all measurements are approximate...

A few months ago I read my middle school friend Kayli's blog about roasted broccoli (above) and just how easy it is to make. I have been hooked on adding roasted vegetables to every dinner since. The other day, on a whim, I bought a lovely pale orange butternut squash thinking that I could make it in to soup, or in a pinch I could just roast it. In the end, I decided to do both.

Tonight for dinner I made that broccoli and the soup while Brian cooked up some pre-breaded Mustard Panko chicken from Whole Foods. I looked at a bunch of recipes before I made this soup (notably this one and this one), but I can't really give credit to just one because in the end I made something that was super simple and all mine.

Roasted Butternut Squash Ginger Soup

1 butternut squash
butter or olive oil
salt & pepper
paprika
red pepper
1/2 small onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 c chicken broth
croutons

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Halve butternut squash and scoop out seeds and stringy area. Place in a baking dish.
Brush with melted butter or olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper, and paprika.
Bake in the oven covered for 20 minutes, remove foil and continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender. (You can do this several hours ahead of time if you'd like.)
While the squash is cooling put a glug of olive oil or a pat of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and ginger and let brown. Scoop squash from skin and add to saucepan. Add chicken broth and more salt, pepper, paprika, and red pepper to taste. Let simmer covered for approx. 15 minutes. Puree. (Immersion blenders are the easiest and least messy way to puree soups.)
Garnish with croutons (No boxed croutons please; they offend me!) and serve.

This soup has a strong ginger taste so it's not for the faint of taste buds. Curry or cinnamon might make a nice contrast to the sweet squash. I tried to bring out the smoky paprika and spicy red pepper but the soup still wasn't as punchy as I might have liked.
Try new things! Have fun! Make it yours!

PB Cups

I made peanut butter cups a couple times in Italy (including once for a class pot luck, pictured alongside some brownies below) and I'm currently in the last step of making them right now (freezing). They always go over well because A) they seem impressive but are shockingly easy to make and B) they are a perfect one or two bite sweet treat to pop in your mouth!

I use this recipe, though this time I used half milk and half semi-sweet chocolate. I also found Italy to be lacking in mini muffin liners, so there I made them with small plastic cups, about the size of Dixie cups. The cups lacked the cute ridged look of a muffin liner but it was easier to paint the chocolate on because the plastic was so much sturdier and the pbs were easier to remove from plastic than paper. I also don't have a paintbrush, but I find that the back of a spoon works just fine.

Good luck with your cups!

Breakfast!!

Breakfast is my favorite meal! Today I even ate it for dinner!! I love the simplicity of the ingredients and the creativity that can be applied. Here's a couple of breakfasts I have made recently...

Breakfast tacos! This can be done in any number of ways. This time I sauteed some onions and spinach and put them in warm tortillas topped with shredded mozzarella, scrambled eggs, and a little salsa. Delicious!

For dinner tonight I wanted to be sort of creative so I opted for a breakfast dinner. I made a big batch of Buttermilk Pancakes (the leftovers of which should last a few weeks) and Alton Brown's lemon curd to go on top.
The buttermilk pancakes were delicious and fluffy, though I would have liked a little bit more crispiness. I also didn't cook the lemon curd quite long enough so it didn't thicken up. It was still very tasty and I don't feel too bad since it was my first attempt at emulsifying anything. Maybe I'll try it again with the rest of my bag of lemons. Or maybe I'll move up to an aioli and make some bangin' sandwiches. We'll see....

Bobby's Caramel Cake

I was in Italy and in Italy I was inspired. I made up recipes and ate new things. My roommates were happy to be fed. Here are a couple of simple dishes:

But one thing I missed was baking. For the first 2.5 months in my apartment on Via del Cane, I thought the oven didn't work. However, with a flick of a switch from the dark-haired, over-sized housing assistant who rode up to the house on her moped, it suddenly functioned again. However, it was finicky and powerful and left my brownies covered in a layer of burnt char. I had to stick to less precise foods like lasagna and one of my signature dishes there, chicken and eggplant rolontini, so baking was simply not an option.

Upon my return to Boston, I took a while to settle myself, and once I did, I celebrated by baking a big cake. I'm personally not a huge cake fan because for many the cake is too dry and the icing is too sugary and it all becomes a dry spongy mess in your mouth when you eat it. I chose this one by Paula Deen because the caramel icing sinks into the simple white cake layers to make them moist. The frosting was extremely spreadable but still pretty sweet so if you make this cake, you'll need to pour yourself a big glass of milk.