Pumpkin Everything

Yes, I am one of those people that loves pumpkin everything. What's that you say? It is pumpkin flavored? Why yes please, I would love some! This weekend I realized that I had a little sugar pumpkin left over from Halloween, so of course it was destined to become soup. I have been a bit obsessed with soup lately. It is so delicious, so warm (even though it is in the 80s here right now I am firmly in the fall mindset), so comforting, and there are so many possibilities! It has become my new favorite thing to cook because it is one of the few things that I feel comfortable just whipping up on my own without a recipe. If you have never made something without a recipe, you should seriously try it. If it turns out and tastes delicious, you feel like a total badass for having managed it all on your own without anyone else's help. If you are one of those confident people that have been doing this for years, then you already know what I mean, but if not you should go for it. Believe me, if I can do it you can do it!


So, back to the soup.

First I cooked the pumpkin to ready it for addition to the soup.

Then I sauteed up some onion, apples, and garlic. Mmm, I love this part it smells so good.

I added a bit of sage that I had hanging up to dry, as well as salt, pepper....well you know, the usual gang.

Next went in chicken broth and the pumpkin.

After a bit of a cook-down I added some cream and a little more seasoning and it was ready to go. I then gave it, to quote Jaime Oliver, "a bit of a waz" with my immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender and plan on making blended soup more than once in your life, I highly recommend getting one. I know it seems like such a specific and unnecessary kitchen tool, but it is SO much easier than blending hot soup in batches in the blender. It is definitely worth it in my opinion. In fact, it might even be one of my favorite kitchen tools that I own (along with the dutch oven that is also featured in this post and which I use for absolutely everything from baking bread, to roasts, to soup)!

Oh, did I mention I was also baking up some pumpkin seeds to go along with this?

And here is the finished product!

A sprinkle of Parmesan, a few pumpkin seeds, and dinner is ready. Hm, never mind the fact that this soup is the same color as my counter tops, which I think says more about the outdated-ness of my house than it does about the soup. It was delicious! And Mister B doesn't like this kind of soup (he thinks it is too sweet), which means I get it all for myself. I have been taking it to work for lunch, which is perfect.

My next soup adventure is going to be based on Vanessa's potato and leek which she recently did a post about over at A Fanciful Twist. I have never had potato and leek before, but she made it look so yummy and I think I can easily do it without a recipe (remember the feeling like a cooking badass part). So more on that when it happens.

One last little pumpkin recipe before I go. Do yourself a favor and make these honey pumpkin biscuits which I found the recipe for through one of my new favorite blogs Local Milk (it is lovely, go check it out). Anyway, they are insanely good and because I can never have enough pumpkin related things, I even used a pumpkin cookie cutter to cut them out.

They are perfect for a fall afternoon tea!

Well as you can see if you have been here before I am trying some different templates and things with my blog to give it a cleaner look, which will hopefully make me feel good about it and want to write in it more. I haven't added a signature yet, but I think it is coming along.