Cheesy Butternut Squash Soup With Hot Peppers

I am not a big squash person and I am ALSO not big on this mindset that the only way to make squash is with some kind of sweetish brown sugar/pumpkin pie spice situation. I like savory food! LET US NOT LIMIT OUR AUTUMNAL GARDEN VEGETABLES IN THIS WAY.  So here is a cheesy spicy soup with butternut squash.

Makes around 4 big bowls.

You will need:
A very big pot
Food processor or blender (...or potato masher if you're feeling really badass DIY?)
1 butternut squash
8 oz shredded cheddar*
Half a red onion, chopped finely
Half an orange pepper 
1 medium size hot chili pepper*, chopped finely
1-2 scallions, chopped
1 lemon or equivalent juice
4 oz half and half*
A bunch of tap water
2 big bullion cubes (I use knorr vegetarian vegetable)
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (leave out if you're not into spicy)
Some oil or butter to cook with
small bunch of fresh thyme or half a tsp dried thyme

*leave out the cheese & substitute water for the half and half if you want this to be vegan. 
**I used the longish twisty kind that go from green to orange. feel free to leave out if you're not into spicy or substitute with something more intense if you prefer

First, peel your squash and chop it into small cubes. This takes a while. Discard the pulp/seeds. Put all your squash in the pot, & just cover with water. Add your 2 bullion cubes & bunch of thyme and put on high. Bring to a boil, you will be letting it boil about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up your orange pepper and add the pieces when there are about 3 minutes left. It's a shame to overcook peppers.You'll be blending all this so don't worry too much about chopping nicely or finely.

Remove from heat. Put your half and half and about a cup of cold water into your food processor/blender. Using a slotted spoon or strainer, transfer your squash & peppers into the food processor. If you used fresh thyme you can discard it now, we don't need to eat twigs and it has done its work. Don't discard the broth!!! Blend to a consistency you like with no big chunks. Then slowly pour back into the broth, stirring as you go. I unthinkingly dropped my food processor blade into my pot and had to rescue it with tongs, so really don't feel bad if you're not too graceful about this. Mix in your other spices (turmeric and cayenne pepper, if desired), put back on medium heat & cover.

Now. Cook your chopped pepper & onions in a small frying pan with some oil or butter. I used avocado oil which some wonderful benefactor got me as a wedding gift. Just cook until the onions are softer but not translucent. Then add this into your squash/broth situation and mix in.

Now you are going to add your cheese. I recommend adding it slowly and whisking as you go so it melts evenly and does not get clumpy. When it's nicely mixed in, whisk in your lemon juice in the same way, slowly stirring so it does not cause any seperation.

You're done! You can leave on low heat with a cover while you prepare anything else for your meal. Soup only gets better the longer it cooks. Garnish with chopped scallion & serve!

Spicy Chickpea Soup with Roasted Peppers

Ingredients!

5 cloves garlic, chopped
Oil and/or butter (this is vegan if you skip the butter)
1 can chickpeas
Splash of lemon juice.
About 1 cup worth of chopped tomatoes 
1 red and 1 green bell pepper
Dry spices: thyme, garlic, onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper
1 and a half cups of broth or water

Steps:

First thing: start your peppers roasting. Do this using whatever method appeals to you or follow the instructions here.

Then start 4 of your garlic cloves in some oil and/or butter. Lately I have been reserving 1 clove and chop it much more finely to throw in raw at the end - when raw, garlic is a prebiotic (i.e. feeds the helpful bacteria) and also has antifungal/antibacterial properties.

While simmering, add spices and lemon juice. For the spices: I added a large amount of paprika because I want that red pepper flavor, and a couple shakes of everything else. Let your nose be your guide. FYI for cayenne & cinnamon, a little goes a long way.

When your garlic is tender add your chickpeas and water or broth. Bring back up to a simmer.

Then smash up your chickpeas somewhat. You can use an immersion blender or, if you're like me and don't have fancy cookware, just use a potato masher! It doesn't have to be a puree, just smaller chunks.

Let this simmer until your peppers are roasted. Peel your roasted peppers (let them cool first, dude, don't get burned!), chop them into bite size pieces and stir them in.

Add your chopped tomatoes and raw garlic and you're good to go!

This is way yummy for dipping bread in or just eating on its own.

Honey Ginger Lemonade

Makes a little more than a quart. Feel free to double or divide if you're making more or less.

You will need:

2-4 lemons 

2-6 oz honey

1 inch or so of grated ginger

2-3 cups water

Ice

Pot

Seive (tea strainer works too if you're careful)

Pitcher

Water goes into the pot. (Fact: I often get lazy and just heat this up in a couple of big mugs in the microwave. It's all good.)

Wash your lemons, cut into quarters, squeeze as much juice and pulp as you can into the pot. Then throw the lemons themselves in there too. This is to taste; I like a not-crazy-tart lemonade so I usually go with 2 lemons, but if you MUST HAVE THAT CITRIC ACID PUCKER then go for more!

Grate your ginger right into the pot. Pro tip: most of the medicinal properties of ginger lie just beneath the skin so instead of using a peeler, gently rub the skin off with a knife.

Add your honey to taste. If you're not sure, start with a little--you can always add more later. Another pro tip: raw unfiltered honey has a LOT of health benefits that the generic bears you buy at the supermarket do not. It also tastes way better.

Heat long enough for everything to melt and combine. No need to bring to a boil. Just get it hot.

Taste (carefully, don't burn your tongue) and adjust honey/lemon ratio as needed. It should be stronger than you actually want it at this point because this is going over ice which will water it down. Add more lemons if it's too sweet or too watery; add more honey if it's too tart.

Half-fill your pitcher with ice and pour your lemonade through a seive into your pitcher. Done!

BONUS BOOZE OPTION: If you mix 1 part pinot grigio and 1 part honey ginger lemonade you will have a bangin' beach drink.

Cheap Burgundy Pesto With Mozzarella

(A "What's In the Fridge?" Adventure Pasta!)

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 cup of cheap wine
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
A bunch of basil, fresh or dried
Any other green herbs you have lying around that you think will work, fresh or dried
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Mozzarella
Grated romano or parmesan cheese.

Cook your pasta.
During this time, chop up garlic and put in a skillet with olive oil and wine, on medium heat. Add cayenne pepper if you're into that, as well as a ton of basil and other green herbs according to what you have and your whims. I had dried basil and a random container of dried "italian herbs" I inherited from a roommate.
Keep the heat on your wine-oil-herb situation to medium low. It can bubble but don't let it go crazy. But it's OK to reduce it somewhat.

When your pasta is ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE DONE, drain it and transfer into the wine-oil-herb situation to finish it. You can turn the heat up a bit. Let it cook a few more minutes.

Chop your mozzarella into small cubes and toss it in, mixing carefully to distribute it well.  Add a small ton of grated romano or parmesan (use your own judgment of what "a small ton" is) and mix well.

Serve!

Chickpea & Red Bell Pepper Soup

I'm trying to get a little more protein because I'm recovering from a muscle/tendon injury. Then I learned from Google that a cup of chickpeas has 39 GRAMS (!!!) of protein and so...

Ingredients:

1 cup water
Bullion cube (I use Knorr's vegetarian vegetable)
1 can of chickpeas
Quarter of a vidalia onion
1-2 cloves garlic
Butter
1 small red bell pepper
5 sundried tomatoes
Paprika, Garlic Powder, Turmeric, Cumin, Salt, Nutmeg (to taste)
Splash of lemon juice.
Potato flakes to thicken as desired

Chop up a few cloves of garlic and your onion and start them off in some butter. Chop up red pepper (doesn't have too be too small) and add that too. Add your spices. After they are a bit more cooked, add  your can of chickpeas (don't drain it).

Let these things simmer a bit and then use a slotted spoon to transfer your chickpeas and red pepper into a blender.
Keep the heat on and add half a cup of water, and your bullion cube, to the pot. Dice up sundried tomatoes pretty finely and add them too. Cover.
Now, add the other half cup of water to the blender and blend until it is a thick liquid. Add back to pot.

If you like it a little thicker (which I do) you can add a couple of spoonfuls of potato flakes which are my preferred soup thickener because they're hassle free and a bit more nutritious than plain white flour. Or you can whisk in some flour if you're good at that (I'm not!)

Stir. Add a splash of lemon juice. Stir more. Simmer for a few more minutes and serve!

Lemon-Spinach Stuffed Shells (Vegan!)

This is one of those "random stuff in my fridge and cabinets" creations that worked out well.

Ingredients:
10 large shell pasta pieces
Half a large container of fresh spinach
Half a lemon
Olive oil
A few cloves of garlic
Salt, coarse ground pepper
Other spices according to your whim (I throw in a pinch of turmeric and cayenne to almost everything these days)

You can obviously up-size this dish if you're cooking for a crowd. Just bear in mind that fresh spinach shrinks a LOT. Next time I do this dish I might even do more spinach; there's room.

Boil water and add shells. They need 10 minutes or so to cook (or just make them according to the package directions or your own preference).

While they are cooking, chop up garlic finely & start it off in a generous splash of olive oil. Heat should be medium-low. Chop your lemon into a few pieces--squirt as much as you can and then toss the lemon pieces into the pan to continue to add flavor.

Once the garlic is browned, add the spinach. Be careful not to overcook--spinach should be a bright dark green when ready so it does not loose its flavor and nutrients. Remove from heat as soon as it looks close to done (it will keep cooking for a little bit off the burner).

Drain shells & spread on a plate. Scoop spinach into shells bit by bit. I did 2 rounds of this so I didn't end up with very uneven filling amounts.

Then, carefully place each shell back into your pan (add a little oil if you need to for non-stickiness) and let it simmer on low for a few minutes to cook the delicious lemon-garlic flavor right into the pasta.

Sprinkle with salt and coarse ground pepper and serve!

Accidental Necco Wafer Iced Tea

So my sister works for a tea importer and as a consequence, I end up taking home delicious and extremely fancy teas every time I visit.  Not coincidentally, I have developed a tradition of making a new fancy iced tea blend every weekend.

Today I sipped my new iced tea for the first time and was surprised to learn I had created something that had a flavor/scent somewhere between that of a Necco Wafer, and that of a Choward's Violet mint.

I'm not sure how I feel about this... uncanny... development.  My taste buds are still getting over the bizarre circumstances but I seem to be enjoying it.

Ingredients

-A bunch of ice

-Hot water

-1 bag Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice tea

-1/2 tsp loose Moroccan Mint

-1 tsp loose Buccaneer tea from Serendipitea

-1 tsp loose darjeeling tea

-like 1/4 tsp of Dark ChocolateTea also from Serendipitea (I was finishing off a container)

Put a bunch of ice (I usually use 2 regular ice trays' worth) into a large pitcher.

Steep tea in 4 cups hot water. (I usually just throw it all in loose, and then pour through a strainer once steeped.) Don't steep longer than 5 minutes - that will make it more bitter, not more flavorful.

Pour hot tea into the pitcher with ice and stick immediately in your fridge. It's usually cold enough to drink within a few hours.

This is unsweetened and I don't find it to need sweetener. But if are a sweet tea fan, dissolve sugar in the hot tea (before you pour it over the ice), to your taste. I find that the result is a little better if I steep tea first, and then add sugar.