Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Soup, There It Is

Brrr! Man, it's cold, as evidenced by the news, and by the gigantic icicle Lyla tore off of her house with her bare hands. I absolutely can't complain about the cold in San Diego when I see below freezing temperatures where my friends are. Who am I kidding, of course I can.

Since the mercury has been dipping into the 50's lately, that means it's soup weather in San Diego. Lately I have been really into the radio program The Splendid Table. I love listening to the podcasts which are hosted by the delightfully unsnobby yet super knowledgable Lynne Rossetto Kasper. She sounds like she's been smoking for far too long, but she speaks with a smile, and I like that. I also receive her weekly e-newsletter, Weeknight Kitchen. It usually only has one, maybe two recipes, but they are always simple and delicious and relatively doable on a weeknight.

May I recommend the Winter Squash Soup and Stout Batter Bread? The bread is suuuuper easy, and is the PERFECT way to use up the cans of Guinness I scored from a Ring party like 3 years ago, thinking Shane and I would work through them nice and easy. I kept waiting and waiting for Shane to drink them...then I finally threatened to throw them out...BLASPHEMY!! How dare I think to throw out good beer?!? And then this recipe landed in my Inbox. Victory! Dense, beer-y, moist, and yummy.

The soup is nice and yummy and easy as well. Actually, the hardest part is peeling and chopping the butternut squash, but thanks to thekitchn.com, there is an easier way than just going at it with a vegetable peeler. Don't leave out the heavy cream at the end, I know it's optional, but it's only a half cup, and it makes it so thick and creamy. Scrumdiddly.

Oh, you want the recipes? Well, for some reason I can't find them on the Splendid Table website (guess the lovefest is over...sigh...), but if you shoot me an e-mail or make a comment, I'll forward you the newsletter issue it came in.

The best part? WHERE THE HECK ARE THE PICTURES I TOOK??? I have no idea. I have been stumbling over these pictures for months now, waiting to write about this soup, and now I can't find them. Good gravy. So, I guess I'll just leave you with an oldie but a goodie:

2 comments:

Kevin said...

1. Um, giving the Rings shout outs in not just one, but TWO paragraphs. AWESOME!
2. Is that picture supposed to be a metaphor for your future? If so... AWESOME!!
3. For those of y'all who want to see Lyla's huge icicle, click here.

Katherine said...

If you don't need the squash in chunks, I usually find it easiest to roast it whole (just poke it like a potato and pop it in the oven at 450 for an hour or so). It is soft and delicious when done!