Recipe: Sweet Potato Apple Soup

Being a convertible girl, I'm also very much a warm weather girl. I love sun dresses, sandals, gin & tonics and all the other loveliness that comes with spring and summer.

But there are a few things that make fall and winter worthwhile. Stylish boots, sweater dresses, 7& 7... and soup. One of my wise friends actually refuses to say the word "fall," instead calling it "the season of soup." It does sound much more appealing.

Thanks to combined recipes from another friend and a magazine, I made a delicious (and easy and healthy) soup last week that you definitely want to try out -- what I love most about it is that it's a smooth, creamy soup without any dairy in it.

My version is the first recipe below, with a variation from my friend (including her notes) below that -- or you can go to Real Simple online and use theirs.

Sweet Potato Apple Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
• 1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut into pieces (it had been in my pantry for far too long and needed to be used)
• 1 apple (I used Granny Smith but others would work just fine), peeled and chopped
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• generous pinch ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, acorn squash, apple, broth, nutmeg, and 1½ cups water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
3. Use a handheld immersion blender to puree until smooth. (If you don't have an immersion blender, you really should buy one. Or, working in batches, you can transfer the mixture to a blender and puree, adding more water if necessary to reach the desired consistency.)

Golden Winter Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 5 cups 1/2 in. cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
• 1 russet potato peeled and cubed
• 1 granny smith apple peeled and cut
• 1 tsp kosher salt (optional -- when I add it I don't add as much broth or it can get too salty)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 medium leeks sliced
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (low-sodium might be a good option if you do the salt)
• 1 cups half-and-half

Directions

1. Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add squash, potato, salt, and pepper to pan; sauté 3 min. 
2. Add leek; sauté 1 min. 
3. Stir in broth; bring to a boil. 
4. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 min. or until potato is tender stirring occasionally. 
5. Blend to a smooth consistency.I use my immersion blender to get a smooth consistency. You can also put half of it in the blender and then pour into bowl and then pour rest into the blender. After it is blended, you stir in the half-and-half. 

Wordless Wednesday: White Christmas

Never thought I'd see snow on my outdoor Christmas decorations in North Carolina!

Spring, I Say

I don't care what the newspaper says -- last week, we turned the corner.

No, not with the school board and their power-crazy shenanigans (although at least they're taking a breath before trying to fire the superintendent for saying the things we all knew already). I'm talking about the weather.

Spring. It's coming. And regardless of the cold, cold rain falling right now, I'm convinced this is winter's last gasp. We've already turned the corner into springtime.

I first noticed it last Monday. Birds chirping when I went out to get the paper at 7 a.m. A lighter scent to the breeze. A different shade of light in the late afternoon. Bluer skies at mid-day. Then the glorious sunny 60-degree weekend.

It's about damn time. I mean, the snow was pretty and all, but I don't live in North Carolina to have a long cold winter.

All week long, I found myself humming "Winter's On the Wing" from The Secret Garden (don't tell me you're surprised that I like musicals). In case you don't know the tune, here are my favorite lines:

The sun it spells the doom

Of the winter's reign,

Ice and chill must retire

Comes the May say I,

And you'll be here to see it. 

Stand and breathe it all the day.

Stoop, and feel it. Stop and hear it.

Spring, I say.

Read the lyrics and watch the video here:

(It's not the greatest quality, but at least it's not in a high school gym.)

The Illusion of Safety

If you see my kids sledding next year, please don't laugh at them. It's not their fault they'll be wearing helmets -- and hopefully by then I will have convinced them that the head gear serves an aerodynamic purpose, so your laughter will only ruin their sense of speed.

The real reason they'll have helmets strapped onto their sweet little heads is that I called 911 for the first time last Sunday after our four-year-old friend sledded into a metal mailbox post. It was a total fluke -- nothing dangerous or risky, just good old-fashioned sledding on a Sunday morning. If the sled had dumped her a couple of inches to either side, she would have had a face full of snow and a reason to stay inside drinking hot chocolate for the rest of the day. Instead, she had a terrifying gash down the side of her forehead that ultimately required 10 x-rays, a CT scan and 20 stitches.

Thankfully, our friend is fine -- we knew she'd be okay when she started yelling at the paramedic because he suggested Mickey might be her favorite Disney character instead of one of the princesses. Her parents, however, still need some time to recover.

The whole accident left me shaken, reminded of how delicate our lives are. Accidents are random -- that's what makes them accidents, and also what makes them so scary for us parents. I prefer to believe that if I do all the right things -- make my kids wear helmets, brush their teeth, buckle their seatbelts, look both ways -- that I can protect them. But any one of a million random moments takes everything out of my control.

So I do what moms have done for centuries: I make rules. No jumping on the bed, no running with scissors, no crossing the street without an adult, no talking to strangers, no swimming after you eat, no sledding without a helmet. The older they get, the scarier the world seems, the more rules I make.

At the end of the day, I know I can't bubble-wrap them into safety. Accidents happen, even when I'm right there watching them. But the rules help me survive, give me the illusion that I have some control. Otherwise, I'm this close to becoming That Mom -- the helicopter type who never lets her kids have fun -- and that's not a safe way for anyone to live.

No, Really, It's Just "Paint"

Thanks to a very fun and well-timed tip from Abby, we entertained ourselves by "painting" snow with friends on Monday afternoon. It was a great activity that helped us survive a long day with no preschool. The snow is finally melting, but in case you decide to try this idea the next time around, I have a couple of suggestions:

1. If you decide to use yellow food coloring, add a little red or pink to make it more orange. Yellow snow looks suspiciously like someone peed on it. And if you have a little boy, you know how much they love to pee outside.
2. If you decide to use red food coloring, add a little blue to make it more purple. Red snow looks like your snowman had a different kind of accident. And after our friend's sledding accident on Sunday (thankfully, the feisty little girl is doing great!), I really can't handle even the suggestion of blood.
3. If you let your kids paint directly on your snowman and not just in the snow, see if you can find a good wig to compliment the tie-dyed look. Somehow, the multi-colored snowman just doesn't look right with a traditional top hat and scarf.

As for that snow, here's hoping that Sir Walter Wally is right and spring is just around the corner!

Friday's Five: Lakemont Love

Yeah, I know it's not Friday, or even Saturday. But three snow days (with a fourth lined up for tomorrow) have completely thrown me off my game. I'd already started this post on Friday, so I'm just going to finish and post it anyway. So there.

You've heard me wax poetic about my neighborhood before, but this past week or two have been filled with new reminders of why I love living in Lakemont...

1. A week ago Friday, our neighborhood poker group convened its monthly man meeting. I realize that this may not sound like a benefit to me, but it makes me happy that my husband gets out and spends some time with such a great group of guys. It's not something he does very often -- and don't get me wrong, I love that he loves to spend time with me and the kids. But I know how much I need girls night now and then -- and I believe it's just as important for him to have guys night.
2. Then we spent that Saturday night celebrating the baptism of our friends' baby boy. Not only did we get to participate in the mass with friends, blocking both ends of the pew so that all of our kids (more or less) stayed out of trouble, we wrapped up the evening at their house with barbecue, beer and cake. That's Southern Catholicism at its best.
3. Later that same night, I got the Big Important Call at 1:30 a.m. -- my neighbor was in labor and ready to go to the birthing center. So I rubbed my eyes, threw on a coat and tiptoed across the dark to spend the rest of the night at their house with their toddler (aka Bird). In the morning, he seemed surprised to see me, then asked, "Pippi house?" and all was well with the world. The new baby arrived healthy and on time, and I got to be the first neighbor to see him when the proud parents came over to get Bird later in the day.
4. The next day I took both kids to the grocery store, managed to survive all their whining (okay, Pippi's whining -- she hates being strapped to the cart) and landed in line behind one of our neighbors who we love and almost never see. Turned out to be the best luck of the day -- when I opened my wallet to get ready to pay, all of my credit cards were gone. While I tried not to have a total break-down, my sweet neighbor paid for my groceries and helped us out of the store. Thankfully, the thief turned out to be Pippi, who had unloaded my wallet at home earlier in the day during an unsupervised moment (sneaky baby).
5. And finally, this past weekend, our neighborhood even made the newspaper for its fabulous group sledding (see photo of Junius pulling his friend KT up the hill). Thanks to too many dads with crackberries and droids, they coordinated a meet-up on the very steep hill beside the neighborhood pool and sent kids of all ages slipping and sliding with glee. Until we started getting pelted with sleet, at which point we all went home for lunch and naps. There were also grown-up tales of night sledding with beverages and baby monitors in some parts of the hood, but we missed out on that.

More about the sledding in my next post, but for now... go ahead and call your realtor, you know you want to live here. We've done it twice now and recommend it very highly.

Bad Omen? Or Nowhere to Go But Up?

My husband likes to say that, when I met him, I'd had the longest winning streak of anyone he knew. That may have been true (I found him, didn't I?), but I've also had some jarring losing streaks (like mono at age 30 that knocked me out of work for a month) to break up the wins. Thankfully, the good times always came back around -- but I'm a little worried about this start to 2010 that's causing me to flashback to five years ago.

In the final days of 2004 and the opening of 2005...

• While visiting family in California, we borrowed our niece's car to drive to San Francisco. The car was vandalized at the train station where we parked outside the city (side and rear windows smashed in). After trying to drive the car back to Davis in the rain, we finally gave up and called my husband's sister and her husband to come rescue us. Oh, and I was about 13 weeks pregnant, so you can imagine how even-keeled I was about the whole thing.
• While trying to get home from California, we sat in the plane on the runway for 3+ hours before finally taking off -- then missed our connecting flight in Chicago after running (literally) through the airport and ended up spending a few hours of sleep in an airport hotel before catching an early morning flight home. Did I mention I was pregnant?
• On my first day back at work after the holidays, my wallet was stolen out of my office by a con-man who (through an elaborate scam that I won't detail here) was able to charge several purchases to my ATM card before I realized what was happening. (Thankfully, the Credit Union took great care of me once we got the mess sorted out -- but let this be a reminder to all to NEVER EVER tell anyone your PIN, even if you think they work for your bank. Ever.) And again, did I mention I was pregnant and emotional and exhausted?

Thankfully, despite the disastrous beginning, 2005 brought us great gifts -- namely, one beautiful, healthy baby boy. He came with his own craziness, but he's definitely worth it.

I tell you all of this now because here's what happened today:

• A water pipe burst under the house this afternoon. It was a comedy of errors (okay, it wasn't funny at the time, but you have to laugh so as not to cry) while I tried to locate the tool to shut off water to the house (we have no inside-the-house shut-off) and then attempted to figure out how to use it while my husband coached me over the phone.
• Our home warranty won't cover the plumbing problem because it involves freezing weather and a hose bib. Really? I'm paying you over $500 a year so that you can NOT cover things that break?
• UNC lost to the College of Charleston tonight. C'mon, Heels!
• When I reminded my husband that 2005 turned out to be a great year after all (because of course, we both went back to that jinx when the pipe burst today), he said, "Oh no. I hope you're not pregnant." But clearly that's not a problem as I started my period this morning -- this may seem like a good thing, except that it also means I'm on a 26-day cycle. At this rate, I'll end up menstruating twice a month before the end of the year.

Okay, so that last one was probably more than you wanted to know. But it really was the perfect ending to a completely stellar day.

The good news? The plumber is coming tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll have water again by tomorrow afternoon. And in the meantime, we have wonderful neighbors who are going above and beyond the call of duty to take care of us.

Hopefully this is all a good sign that 2010 will be just as fruitful as 2005 was -- but in a totally different way.

An Open Letter to WRAL's Meterologist

A friend emailed the following letter last night -- it cracked me up, so I asked him if I could post it on my blog today (in lieu of the usual Friday's Five) as his blog is currently on hiatus. Thankfully he said yes (because he's a lawyer type, I couldn't publish without permission for fear of legal action).

The post is all the funnier because of the big, fluffy white flakes currently falling outside my window. Better luck next time, my friend -- last night, I was sure you'd be right!

________

Dear Greg,

I am on to you. It's a twisted little game you got going on, and I will not let it stand. See, Fishel, we've been down this road before, you and me. And as our former president famously said, "Fool me once, shame on — [pauses] - shame on you. Fool me — You can't get fooled again."

Here is the deal. You played this wintry weather scare game on the night of my wife's baby shower. Your dire warnings of 'frozen precipiatation' scared all my native southern friends from venturing outdoors. You made it sound like a flake of snow was akin to the ebola virus. Your 28 years of experience freaking out the natives might get you some street cred with the bread-buying, beer-hoarding locals, but I am not from here and I am hip to your reindeer games.

So, anyway, on that faithful night two years ago, me and my poor wife were just sitting at friend's house, alone, in the dark. No friends to wish our new arrival well. No cute baby clothes. No silly games we have decided here in the 21st are somehow an acceptable way to wish a couple well. And the worst part? The roads were dry. Bone dry. Yancey County dry. Dry enough for even the most southern of my friends to drive safely on.

So this time, Fishel (if that's your real name), I am choosing to ignore your doppler 5000 and your accuweather predictions.

I am going to the Raleigh Times at 11:55 tomorrow. I am going to enjoy my [monthly lunch group]. And when I hear your dire predictions of wintry weather, I will spitefully laugh and ruefully think of my young son and how he was forced to go without shower presents, all because you couldn't get your shower predictions right.

Yours in accurate forecasting,
Damon

Image from WRAL.com.