Butternut pear soup

So there was this one time when I worked really, really, really hard on a very big project for a good long while and when it was over, I jumped in a car and headed upstate with friends in search of All Things Fall. The resulting day was one of near-perfection. We drove through a countryside blazing with color. We took a hayride through an apple orchard. We ate corn on the cob straight from the grill and apple cider donuts that were fresh out of the deep fryer. We went horseback riding, picked fresh flowers from a field, heard not one but two different live bands, and drank mulled wine in a treehouse as I suffered what might be the biggest loss in the history of the (card) game of Hearts. And knowing that no iconic autumn day would be complete without a souvenir, we purchased fresh fruit and veggies from a farm stand.

The next day, I took those same fruits and veggies, chopped them up, roasted them, and turned the whole thing into a hearty fall soup. Admittedly, there's not a whole lot that's special about this soup. I'm not the first person to add pears to butternut squash, or to use a whole bunch of cinnamon, curry powder, and fresh ginger, or to omit any sort of dairy so that the bowl of goodness is actually good for you. But when I eat a spoonful of this soup, I don't taste just any old squash or any old pears - I taste the hours of hard work that it takes to successfully run a small farm. I taste the local soil, knowing that my food came from just a few hours away. I taste the same sun and rain that fell on my own balcony garden. I may be waxing a little too locavore poetic, but I just can't help it - something about making an actual farm-to-table meal stirs something within me. I may be over-exaggerating just a little, but this soup is really, really good.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
- 3 ripe pears, peeled and cubed
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- approx. 1/4" fresh ginger, diced
- Olive oil - 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp
- Spices to taste: salt and pepper, rosemary, cinnamon, curry powder

Instruments
- Large knife
- Cookie sheet
- Oven, stove
- 8-quart dutch oven*
- Immersion blender*

How to
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. On a cookie sheet, evenly lay out the cubed butternut squash and (whole) cloves of garlic, and coat with salt, pepper, and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Roast the squash and garlic in the oven for 30 minutes.

Heat the remaining oil in the dutch oven. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and sauté until the onions are golden brown. Add the pears, roasted squash, vegetable stock, and spices, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes (the longer you simmer, the more robust the flavors will be). Using your immersion blender, carefully blend all the ingredients until creamy. Do take caution though! Hot liquid may splash out of the pot, which is never fun. If you find your soup is too thick, add more vegetable stock (1/2 cup at a time) until you've reached your desired constancy. Stirring occasionally, simmer for another 5-10 minutes, then remove from heat and ladle into a bowl.

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365 photo-a-day - November wrap-up

homemade bread bowls - 7-layer sunday - sunset - bagel bites - colorful

green-wood cemetery - poffertjes - chilly but clear - fall foliage - pecan pie rugelach

sweet potato pie - weekend greenmarket - arancini - coffee date - stuffed dates

more colorful - fresh produce - a tree grows in brooklyn - afternoon sun - rocky terrain  

Wait, what's that, you say? November is over? As in, it's already December? Well, huh. Fascinating.

Technically speaking, this past month was an utter failure in terms of me sticking to my goal of taking one photo per day. In my defense, I did not have a ton of opportunities to achieve said goal. Of the thirty days in November, there were a total of 2 days in which I did not step foot in a theater or rehearsal hall, and one of those days was Thanksgiving where as hostess-elect I was way too busy making sure I didn't serve a side of salmonella with the turkey to take many photos. 2 days. That, and sometime during the second week of November the weather turned utterly ugly -rainy/sleety/freezing/windy/puffycoat/nasty. Just walking to the subway became a hunger games of will and determination, not a scenario that lent itself to beautiful and inspiring photos.

This was also the month where the project became more of a stressor than a fun challenge. I am so close to finishing and yet tripped up in the 11th hour. While I did manage to go on a few "photo hunts" early in the month, the time ultimately just got away from me. I also felt the external pressures of pintergrambook, where seemingly every housewife in America captured that perfectly cooked and well-lit turkey picture a week before Thanksgiving, where as by the time I got the bird out of the oven it was already dark outside and the terrible lighting in my kitchen made my turkey look grey and sickly (it wasn't though. it tasted wonderful and sans salmonella, thankyouverymuch)

Oh well. There are much more serious things to worry about in this world than this silly little project. I did get a few lovely pictures, and though it went undocumented, achieved personal success in getting seven different types of food to the table at the same time and correct temperature on Thanksgiving. There is only one month left of 2013, and thus one more month of (attempting) one-photo-per-day. It pains me to realize that December has the very real possibility of being much like November - more shows, more rehearsal halls. But, there is also the whole holiday-lights-Christmas-merry-cheer thing to attend to. In theory, this final month is the most photogenic of them all. In actuality, well...we shall see ;)

November by the numbers
Total number of photos: a sad, sad 20
Photos of my feet: 1
Photos of other people: 1 (2 if you count the shadowy stranger walking down the street)
Selfies: 1
Photos of the sky: 5
Photos of food: 8.

365/Photo-a-day is a personal undertaking to capture one photograph per day in 2013. All photos were taken by me and processed with Instagram, Snapseed, PhotoToaster, and/or the new A Beautiful Mess app. The images were compiled using Picture Collage Maker Lite. What to see my pics as they happen? Follow me @maspad on Instagram!

Week night/date night meals: Chili

I had the entire day off yesterday, and since it's been nearly a month since J and I have seen each other during normal business hours, I decided to cook up a batch of hearty chili for a fun weeknight/datenight - but added a surprising ingredient (chocolate!) to create a sexy vibe to an otherwise comforting fall meal.

In a large pot, sauté a chopped medium-sized onion and a clove of garlic in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. When the onions are nicely browned, add your spices. This is where the chili becomes particular and distinct - personally, I opt for healthy dashes of salt, pepper, cinnamon, and cumin, a hearty amount of Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning, and a few pinches of a special spice blend gifted to me at a party that includes cayenne, coffee, coriander, fennel, ginger, juniper, paprika, and thyme (note to self: recreate this mix asap, as I am getting dangerously low). Let the spices really soak into the onion and garlic, smell-testing as you stir. Add 1 lb. of ground beef, and cook until brown. Stir in 6-8 oz. of tomato paste, 12-14 oz. of diced tomatoes (for an added kick, I chose a can of diced tomatoes with jalepeños added in), 2 cans of red kidney beans, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Let this mixture simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add 2-3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce and (get ready) 2 tsps. of chili-flavored dark chocolate (Lindt makes a delicious version) - this will give your chili a sultry flavor you never knew you were missing in your cooking. Cover the pot and simmer for at least 15 minutes or longer (the longer you simmer, the stronger the flavors will get). Boil 12 oz. of elbow macaroni. When the pasta is fully cooked, remove the chili from the heat and stir in the macaroni. Serve in a bowl, adding shredded cheddar cheese if desired.

Butternut squash salad with apple honey vinagrette

Even though we've been hit with a beautiful Indian Summer here in New York City, I couldn't resist the siren call of butternut squash while at Trader Joe's last week and whipped up what has quickly become one of my all-time favorite salads. I first served this with the squash still warm from the oven, but it tastes just as great a few days later and cold from being stored in the refrigerator.

How to
Peel 1 butternut squash. Slice in half, remove the seeds and other guts, and cut into small cubes. On a foil-lined cookie sheet (the foil makes for an easy clean-up later on), spread out the squash cubes and coat in extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the squash is soft and starting to brown. While the squash is roasting, make the dressing. In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, the juice from one small lemon, 2 tbsp. honey, 1/4 cup olive oil, and a dash each of cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Whisk or blend (I used my immersion blender) until everything is completely mixed together. The dressing will be a bit frothy, so let it sit in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Add 1-2 handfuls of dried cranberries to the squash for the last five minutes of baking - this will give the cranberries a nice warm plumpness. On a large dinner plate, place 2-3 large handfuls of leafy green (I used a spinach and spring greens mix). Add the roasted vegetables and a large spoonful of feta cheese, toss with the dressing. Add walnuts if desired!