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Oh my....they're gorgeous. Looks delicious. Did you use any of the optional ingredients?

Wow, that looks delicious.

Today I went to the farmer's market and bought some lovely fresh produce. But I have such a tiny fridge that I needed to use up some of the old veg. I had a celery that was a little limp, a few carrots and a butternut squash, so I made soup, as follows:

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

1 Butternut Squash
Olive oil
1 Celery
A few carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic (or to taste)
Some stock (I used chicken but vegetable will do)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
salt & pepper to taste


Pre-heat the oven to 220C (about 425F). Halve the squash lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Brush with a little oil, sprinkle with salt and place the squash halves face down on a tray. Roast them for 20 minutes in the hot oven.

While the squash is roasting peel and chop the garlic & onions and saute them in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan in a little olive oil, until the onion starts to look transluscent.

Chop the celery and carrot finely and add to the mix. Stir. Put the lid on the pan. Leave it for a while on a low heat.

When the squash is roasted (using something to hold it so you don't burn your hand) scrape out the flesh and add it to the pan.

Add the stock and the cinnamon, and some salt & pepper. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so, or until the celery and carrots are soft.

Using a hand blender, blitz the soup into a puree. Adjust salt & pepper to taste.

Delicious. The taste of autumn in a bowl.

I'm going to make both of them together for supper tomorrow.

Thanks for the compliments! *basks in rays of food-love*

I'm quite the novice baker (I'm more of a steaks-in-a-skillet guy), and my oven is a match-lit gas beast from the late-80s Soviet Union, so I'm super-pleased with the results (though it took me about a month to find a place that stocked oven thermometers, as the built-in one doesn't work anymore!). I'm going to make a lot of friends at work tomorrow with the second loaf, but luckily the roommate is gone until Monday night and he'll never know I made two! Bwahaha.

EJ: December 10 is payday, but December 11 is now buy-a-hand-blender day.

I'm going to make both of them together for supper tomorrow.

Ooooh, that sounds ideal.

Er ... what are you doing with a bottle of 'Vagina' on your counter, mdonley?

I made scones with fresh cranberries left over from cranberry bread I might last week. The cream I thought I had had gone right off, so I substituted lowfat milk mixed with whole milk ricotta. They were v. tasty.

EJ: Ha! (Would it be too risqué to say that there is no one less likely to possess a bottle of vagina than me? I wouldn't even be able to tell you if it comes in bottles.)

It reads, in full, Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva. The tiny - TINY - white label at the top has the contents and nutrition in Latvian.

Silly Europeans, with all your languages and whatnot. :)

My hand blender is one of my best ever kitchen investments, definitely worth the money. Don't get a dirt cheap one because they really aren't worth the money - you'll find they don't have enough power to blend tougher things and also take much longer to blend even soft food like soups. I've got a Braun one that, annoyingly, doesn't have a model number on it, but it's a 600 watt thingy that came with all manner of attachments and containers for making smoothies, chopping herbs and so on. It might be this.

If you're roasting stuff for Jan's yummy-sounding soup, roast some tomatoes and red peppers at the same time. They're excellent in a salad or you could make the same soup but with those instead of the squash (and miss out the cinnamon). It's really good. Maybe whack in some creme fraiche at the end. Mmmmm...

Anyway, home made bread: WANT! The only problem is that, if it's there, I have very little self control. I *love* home made bread, but it's very tempting, so it's now a treat. Your loaves look delicious.

I make Zucchini bread like that - but I like it best when I substitute half the zucchini with shredded carrot. I make 4 loaves a a time, freeze a couple, always handy to bring along - great for breakfast when camping.

a combination thereof

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!