Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

Full credit for this recipe goes to Ilina at Dirt & Noise.

She was pinning all these great pumpkin recipes last week and I had this pumpkin sitting on my counter from The Produce Box (not the jack o' lantern pictured here, of course -- but I'm still very proud of my first-ever carvings). So I asked her for an easy but tasty recipe recommendation.

Here's what she sent:

Pumpkin Soup

small cooking pumpkin (or substitute butternut squash)
olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons apple sauce
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup pulp free orange juice
splash (or more) dry white wine
pinch cinnamon
1-2 teaspoon paprika
1-2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cream

Roast pumpkin and cook until soft. Scrape out seeds and reserve pulp. On medium heat, cook onion and garlic in olive oil until slightly browned in a dutch oven. Add apple sauce, chicken broth, orange juice, wine and give it a stir. Turn heat to low. Mix in pumpkin and seasonings. Simmer for at least 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take off the heat and whisk in the cream. Use an immersion blender or puree it in batches (though this step is not necessary). Serve with bread and garnish with fried onions and cashews.

* * *

It turned out delicious -- plus I'm super impressed with myself for being able to say that I made pumpkin soup from scratch. But I do have a few notes to go along with the recipe.

Not knowing how to roast pumpkin, I googled it and came up with this solution: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the pumpkin cut side up on a parchment lined baking sheet. Season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Turn cut side down and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Place in oven and roast until skin is golden brown and the pumpkin is tender, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Next time, I think I'd use less orange juice -- unless maybe I had a bigger pumpkin. Don't skimp on the spices -- they're yummy. I did use my immersion blender because it makes me happy and makes the soup smooth and lovely. And sadly I didn't have any fried onions or cashews in the pantry, so I just crumbled Saltines into my bowl -- the saltiness is a nice balance to the soup flavor.

Junius didn't like it, but Pippi did -- so that makes it a win at our house.

Now go show Ilina some blog love (remember what we talked about on Friday?) and then leave us a link to your favorite pumpkin recipe here in the comments.
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Beach 5: Things I Should Have Packed

As my friend Julie at Simplify Your Life will tell you, every mom (or dad) needs a packing list for the beach. Not one that you scribble on post-it notes the night before your trip, but a real organized list that you save and use every year. And if you go back to the same rental house each time, you know what to expect and what you need to bring.

After polling our beach friends, I think the most important thing we could add to the list would be an afternoon chef who would prepare dinner each night and bring it out to the beach for us so that we don't have to go inside until dark. And a waiter, to bring us drinks and fresh juice boxes.

Those two might be awkward (not to mention expensive) to pack -- so here are five more practical things we need to add to the list for next year:

1. Kitchen knives: The knives at our house are terrible. It's a wonder I haven't lost a finger tip just trying to make a straight cut through an apple. Packing a good paring knife and one big cooking knife would make me much happier and wouldn't take up much space in the luggage.
2. Nice pan: For my friend D, it would be her all-clad pans. For me, it's my Scanpan (thanks, Mom!). Whether I'm trying to make grilled cheese sandwiches or a vegetable stir-fry, the crappy, peeling pans at our house are a mess. Again, one pan won't take up much room and would make a more successful dinner.
3. Small table: Okay, so this one might not seem as easy to pack -- but a small folding one should work. And it would be so lovely to have somewhere to set your mai tai when you're on the beach so that your glass doesn't accidentally get knocked over in the sand (the horror!).
4. Clothesline with pins: No, it's not glamorous. But when your wardrobe revolves around three items (a dry swim suit, a wet swim suit and pajamas), you really need to be sure those suits get dry quickly. Hanging things off the rail or the deck chairs will suffice, but it gets to be a mess.
5. Rechargeable batteries: Our digital camera burns through batteries at a breakneck pace when we're at the beach (perhaps because we take literally hundreds of photos). Bringing a charger and batteries would make me feel much more environmentally friendly while I let Pippi wander around taking photos of her feet.

What important items are on your beach packing list each year?

Beach 5 posts:
- Tips for Parents
- Simple Gifts

Capture the Everyday: Three Kitchen Items You Can't Live Without

When we gutted our kitchen, I packed up most things to keep them safe and out of the way. We ate out or used paper plates when we could.

But I still kept a few things out until the last possible moment so that we weren't completely off kilter. That's how I know these three items are ones I can't live without.

1. Measuring cup: It's a 2-cup measuring cup that we got as a wedding present. I still have a set of the standard plastic ones in the four usual sizes, but I use this one a lot more -- so much easier to be able to measure large and small quantities in one shiny cup.
2. Knife: This lovely Henkel knife was actually a Christmas gift to my husband from my mom. But I'm the one who uses it most. It's a great weight with the perfect blade.
3. Panini maker: Okay, it's actually George Foreman cooker. But we use it almost exclusively to make perfect grilled cheese sandwiches almost once a week. Clean up is a simple wipe with a paper towel.

How about you? What's in your kitchen that you just can't live without?

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Thursday, Melissa at Adventuroo will issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.

Remodeling 5: Eating Without a Kitchen

When your kitchen looks like this, you have to rethink dinner. And breakfast and lunch, for that matter, since there's no table either -- but dinner is the most significant challenge.

With a major renovation under way, we couldn't afford to just eat out for every meal. And who really wants to drag a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old to a restaurants every night anyway?

For the second installment in Five Lists about Home Renovation Week, I share with you five survival tips for getting by without a kitchen and without breaking the bank:

1. Phone a friend: Without the kindness of friends who invited us over to eat or cook and one who even gave us open access to her kitchen (thanks, Ms. S!), we would not have made it through. I pulled lasagna from the freezer and heated it at a friend's house while the kids played. I brought pizzas to another friend's and cooked enough for all of us. It was so nice just to sit at a table in a home to eat dinner, even if it wasn't my own home.
2. Grocery dining: My grocery budget was way down for the past month since there wasn't anywhere to cook. So we decided to just eat at the grocery store instead. Harris Teeter sells tasty-fresh, custom pizzas for $7.99 on Mondays -- we just took ours upstairs and people-watched at the store while we ate dinner. 
3. Coupon/Groupon: We got a lot of use out of our CityPass coupon book and some strategic Groupon purchases so that we could get special deals at restaurants when we needed them. Somehow, a BOGO deal makes everything a little better.
4. Family night: On Tuesdays at Chick-Fil-A, kids get a free meal with the purchase of a grown-up meal. Plus we had a very generous gift card from another friend (thanks, PY!), so that made the deal even sweeter. Of course, other restaurants offer family night deals, too (like Moe's), but CFA is always the favorite at our house. I think it's the free ice cream.
5. Grilled cheese: When we just needed to have an easy meal at home, we pulled out the George Foreman cooker panini maker and fired up some grilled cheese sandwiches. Heat up some soup in the microwave, throw some fruit on the kids' plates, and it's a surprisingly well-balanced meal. Just had to get a little creative about the location (and notice, there's ALWAYS cereal):

But after too many nights of watching my kids eat dinner like this...

...I'm more than excited to be fixing dinner in this...

That sneak peek photo is courtesy of the little comment fit that Momsicle threw yesterday. More to come later this week, so stay tuned!

Remodeling Week:
Hire People You Trust
Tips for Prospective Remodelers
Things He Left Behind
Kitchen Before and After

Wordless Wednesday: Cookie Concentration

Pippi takes her cookie decorating very seriously.
Note the girly apron, the not-so-girly remains of a 'Canes tattoo
and the total excess of orange gel on that one cookie.

Duck in a Crockpot

We recently interviewed to be on the TLC show Home Made Simple. A friend in the neighborhood knew they were looking for families in Raleigh and we volunteered to try out. The show's producer (a very nice guy named Mike) came over on a Friday evening with his video camera to shoot the house and us talking about our home and our life.

It's a strange thing to talk about "our story" on camera, trying to think about whether or not anyone would want to see us on TV. And it's awkward to try to look nice and sound witty while also fixing dinner and feeding two small children, but we did our best. Goodness knows we could use the help with the house, so it's worth a try.

Anyway, during the course of the interviews, Mike asked if there was something we'd like to learn how to cook. I was thinking something boring like anything-that's-easy-to-make-that-my-husband-and-son-will-both-eat crockpot casserole. But here's how the conversation actually went on camera...

Mike: So is there anything you'd like to learn how to make?
Husband: Crepes. [Excitedly.]I'd really like to learn how to make crepes.
Me: [Looking incredulous.] You mean, using the crepe pan that we got as a wedding gift seven years ago that's still in the cardboard wrapping in the way way back of the cabinet?

Yes, he says as he digs the pan out of the cabinet, holding it up for the camera (he's a PR guy, he can't stop himself). And he goes on to explain to Mike that we got engaged in Paris and that he loves crepes because they can be savory or sweet and wouldn't that be a cool thing to be able to make. So Mike follows up by asking where we ate in Paris and what foods we liked best, and Patrick starts telling him about all the fabulous duck entrees we ate while we were there, and before I can stop myself, I blurt out...

Me: [Looking stunned and slightly pained.] Oh my gosh. If I really wanted to woo my husband, I'd learn how to make a delicious duck dish. [Yes, I'm that alliterative when I talk -- probably too much time teaching English and reading Dr. Seuss.] This is terrible! Can you cook duck in a crockpot?!?!

So now I'm ruined. Me -- the girl who until very recently refused to touch raw meat under any circumstances. Me -- the girl who could live just fine on cereal and milk three times a day. Me -- the girl who sometimes serves her kids an all-orange meal (chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries, carrots and mandarin oranges) and thinks that's okay.

Regardless of whether or not we get picked for the show, the idea is out there. I now have to learn how to cook duck.

Quack.