JeffreyW makes a yummy pot roast
I’ve been running to keep up with things and it looks like that is going to continue until the holidays, but I want to try and continue with the weekly menus. Here is the first of our October’s menus. I will do my best to keep this up…
Monday is my favorite Taco Salad and Tuesday is a super easy Creamy Chicken.
Full menus are here: October Menus 1
Wednesday features a Slow-Cooker Pot Roast and a sweet Ice Cream Delight for dessert.
JeffreyW makes Gumbo
Finally, Thursday is an easy Gumbo and Creole Salad and Friday is kid favorite Chili-Mac.
The week’s shopping list can be found here: October Weekly Shopping List 1 Remember it’s color-coordinated so you can eliminate any items from recipes you aren’t using.
In honor of Friday the 13th, this week’s bonus recipe is Bewitched Roasted Squash and Apple Soup, below.
That’s it for this week. What’s on your menu for the weekend? What’s tasty in your kitchen tonight?
Tonight’s bonus recipe:
This is based on a recipe sent to me. I punched it up a bit. The first thing I did was roast the squash to help bring some depth to the dish. I added a little heat and finished with a splash of lemon juice to brighten everything when it was done. I don’t think of it as a stand-alone soup (like my very favorite Tomato-Spinach soup – next week’s bonus recipe), but I think it would work well as a first course in any meal.
Bewitched Roasted Butternut Squash and Spiced Apple Soup
- 4 medium butternut squash, halved and seeded
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 large apples – tart works well, but I used my neighbor’s backyard apples which worked great
- 1 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 12 cups (3 quarts) water or vegetable broth
- splash of lemon juice
baking dish, dutch oven or large saucepan
Put about 1/4 inch of water in the baking dish, put squash face down and roast at 375 degrees until it is easy to put a fork through the skin. Turn over and continue roasting until tender and squash are golden brown. About 30-40 minutes. You can turn the heat up after you flip them to brown them, if desired. Remove to cool.
Meanwhile, core and slice apples into about 1 inch pieces. No need to peel or get fancy with the dicing since this is a puréed soup. Melt butter in the saucepan, add apple, onions and sauté until apples are soft and onions are golden. Add spices and coat the apple mixture. Scrape squash from skins and add to the apples, add water or broth. You can use chicken broth, but to keep it vegetarian I used vegetable broth. Let simmer for 30 minutes, purée until smooth, heat an additional 5-10 minutes, adding water if necessary and add a splash of lemon juice just before serving.
You can use a blender or hand blender to purée the mixture. If you use a blender, add a couple of ladles of soup to the blender, cover and blend slowly to start, to keep the mixture from expanding too much. I’ve seen hot liquid blow the lid off…you don’t want that. Blend in small batches. With a hand blender, keep it immersed and again blend slowly, to avoid splattering the hot liquid.