Curried Pumpkin Soup

Tis the season for everything pumpkin, hot, and fall-la-la--la la la laaa la FALL!!!!  I love fall because you can get some of the best seasonal food from pumpkin to butternut squash and soon for fresh pomegranate!  My most favorite food to make and eat in the world is soup.  I have always loved soup, but now that I cook my own, it's nearly an addiction.  It's perfect to eat hot soup in my cool apartment to feel warm without turning the heat up.   I learned to really appreciate and enjoy seasonal food in Japan.  It is definitely a culture and way of life to eat and make food based on the season.  With that in mind, please enjoy this divine curried pumpkin soup recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method:

1. Saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender
2. Add in flour and curry powder and mix until blended
3. Gradually add the broth
4. Bring to a boil; cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until thickened
5. Add the pumpkin, milk, honey, salt, pepper, and nutmeg; cook until heated through

Original recipe here

Oatmeal Wheat Scones

When I lived in Australia way back in 2004, I fell in love with scones.  I never had a scone before then.  I have searched high and low for appropriate scones as I remember them in Australia.  You can of course find "scones" at Starbucks and many other coffee shops and cafe's but they aren't what I recall.  The ones I find here are usually loaded with sugar and have lots of fruit inside of them.  They generally have a harder outside and not too fresh on the inside.  Thanks to my Simple Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook, I found an excellent scone recipe that allows me to eat scones the appropriate way that I remember.  Since this did come from one of my cookbooks, I can't publish the recipe, but please feel free to email me and I'll send it right to you!  This recipe is unique since you use oatmeal in it.  It leaves the inside very moist and fluffy.  You put any flavor jam on top of the scone and then whipped topping over the jam.  It was heavenly delicious!

Oatmeal Scones

Macaroni & Cheese

This is a very simple and delicious recipe.  I'm not quite sure why we decided to make homemade macaroni and cheese since we actually enjoy regular mac-n-cheese kraft version, but the homemade is far better.  It's amazing how good it tastes with so few ingredients.  It makes a lot, so feel free to make for a week worth of lunch!

This recipes comes from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. package of macaroni
• 1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt and peper to taste
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk or 1/2 cup regular milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until el dente.  Drain.
2. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.  Place a quarter of the macaroni in the bottom, followed by an even layer of one-quarter of the cheese slices.  Dot with butter and season with salt and pepper.  Repeat layering three times.  Pour evaporated milk evenly over the top of all.
3. Baked, uncovered, for one hour, or until top is golden brown. 

Ethiopian Food

On our honeymoon, we had somehow made it a priority to eat international and interesting foods.  One evening in Boulder, we tried Ethiopian food.  Jon has had it once or twice before and this was my first time ever having it.  It has quickly made it's way to the number one position in my favorite ethnic foods ever.  There are plenty of vegetarian options and incredibly spicy.

The sad news is the closest Ethiopian food to me is in Montreal.  The good news is this allows me to experiment in cooking!

So, one night, I made about 5 different dishes of Ethiopian options.  Typically, you share an entree with everyone at your table in the manner shown above in the picture.  Then, there is "injera" - an incredibly spongy, thin bread that you use to pick up the food.

The stable of all these different types of dishes are different lentils - I used brown and red lentils and yellow and green split peas for all of the bases.  Then, I used tons of different spices.

I am not going to post all of the recipes because there are so many of them.   I got ALL of the recipes from the website below.  I made them all except for the 'gomen'.

http://www.pakupaku.info/ethiopian/ethiopianintro.shtml

Sadly, I couldn't make the injera bread because I didn't have the right type of flour.  However, I plan to find it when I am in a big city next!

I encourage you to make it and share with many friends OR have a week's worth of lunch!