Roasted Squash Soup

Last night I made the Gold Rush Soup with Chickpea Croutons from www.mynewroots.org, and of course it came out fabulous! It's a soup made by roasting butternut squash, garlic cloves and onions in the oven and blending them with hot broth. A little time-consuming to prepare with all of the peeling and chopping--and lucky me--Johnny helped out and peeled all the garlic! I have no patience for that type of itty-bitty peeling work, but he did an awesome job. The vegetables roast quickly at 400F, just be super super careful with the blending part, because I almost burned myself with hot soup exploding through the lid of my blender.

My personal alterations: I tossed in dried Herbs de Provence and Thyme before roasting the vegetables, due to lack of fresh. I used the Better Than Bouillon (the No-Chicken variety) for my broth, which I brought to a simmer with water, turned off the heat and stirred in the dried turmeric. Personally I found the turmeric make the soup a little bitter upon the first spoonful, but after that all I could taste was yummy. Guess I'm still a turmeric newbie. I also recommend making the Chickpea Croutons the day before to cut down on after-work prep time.

Tonight's dinner, and our single meat dish for the week, will be my Grandma Sophie's favorite: Sausage Corn Chowder. I have already defrosted my sausage in the fridge, and my goal tonight will be to make this chowder without the use of creamed corn! For a long-term goal I'm trying to get away from using canned products. Hard to do in the winter.