Curried Acorn Squash Soup

Last night my roommate and I had the Food Network on (of course), and I said to her, longingly, "I wish we had an immersion blender."  She responded, "Oh, I have one."  WHAT?! So apparently we've had a neglected immersion blender hiding in the cupboard for the past 5 months!  I went to sleep dreaming of things that I could blend, and today I searched the kitchen, gathered up some random veggies, and created this smooth, sweet, and slightly spicy soup :)

Curried Acorn Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, halved and seeded
• 1 C chopped carrots
• 1 C chopped red bell pepper
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup diced white onion
• 3 tsp red curry paste
• 3 C vegetable broth
• 1 C half n half
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• salt & pepper

1. Roast the veggies.
Place the two halves of the squash face-down in a baking dish. Toss the carrots and peppers in some olive oil, crack a little salt and pepper on them, and nestle them around the squash.  Cover with foil and roast for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, until the veggies are tender.

Mmmm roasted squash, peppers, and carrots :)

Onions and red curry paste, cooking in butter

 2.  In a soup pot, cook the onions in butter at a medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes, until they are translucent and tender.  Add 3 tsp of red curry paste and cook for another 5 minutes.

3.  Scoop the roasted squash out of its skin, and add it to the pot along with the carrots and peppers.  Add the vegetable broth and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

4.  Remove from heat and use the immersion blender to puree until smooth. (Or you can blend the soup in batches in a food processor or blender).

This was hard to get a picture of  because I had the blender in one hand and the steam from the soup kept fogging up the camera lens

5.  Stir in half n half and nutmeg over low heat.

Enjoy with crackers and cranberry-cinnamon goat cheese for a perfect lunch :)

Caramel Delight Stars

Butter cookie stars, dipped in chocolate, topped with toasted coconut and caramel with a chocolate drizzle.

Inspired by Girl Scout "Somoa's," aka Caramel Delights, these yummy stars took forever to make, but were totally worth it!  I made them for a co-worker's birthday and brought them into work, and everyone went crazy for them.  My roomie and I spent a good part of our Saturday in our tiny kitchen making them, covering almost every surface in flour and melted chocolate :)

1.  Butter Cookie Base 
Ingredients:

• 1 C butter, softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 C flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp milk

Cream together butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and milk.  Mix in flour.  The dough should form into a ball..if it seems to sticky to roll out, add a little more flour.  

Roll out the dough (either with flour, or place dough between two sheets of parchment paper) to 1/4" thickness, and cut cookies using a cookie cutter.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350, until the edges of the cookies are just barely golden.  Allow them to cool on the pan for a minute before transferring them to parchment paper.

2. Chocolate :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave (stir every 45 seconds)


Dip the bottoms of the cookies in the chocolate and place them on parchment paper to cool.

3. Coconut Caramel Topping 
 
 Ingredients:

• 3 C shredded sweetened coconut
• 15 caramels (about 15 oz)
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 1/2 C chocolate chips 
• 1/2 Tbsp veg oil

Spread coconut on a baking sheet and toast in the oven at 300 for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, or until it just barely looks golden and toasty (be careful not to burn it!).  

Unwrap the caramels and put them in  microwave safe bowl with the salt and milk.  Microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and creamy.

Mix caramel into the toasted coconut, and spread spoonfuls of the mixture onto the cookies.  Work quickly so that the caramel doesn't get too hard.







Melt the remaining chocolate chips in the microwave, stir in oil, and drizzle over cookies.