Not THAT fly, fercripesake!

A few weeks ago we went to Door County, Wisconsin for a couple days.
Door County is the 'thumb' of the state that protrudes into Lake
Michigan, forming Green Bay. At a white-tablecloth place in Sister Bay
near the top of DC, I had a cup of Squash Soup. It was incredibly
delicious and I've been thinking about making some. Squash soup seems
to be quite the thang in recent years -- first time I tasted it was
maybe 20 years ago at an inn in Vermont - had never heard of it. Now
it's all ovah the place. Anyway. . . a couple weeks ago I picked up
something resembling a buttercup squash only it was bright orange - like
a pumpkin. I baked it, removed flesh from shell and stuck it in the
fridge. I've looked at it several times and finally pitched it tonight
- it looked like it was about to grow its own fur coat.

Last Saturday I picked up a Sweet Dumpling squash at the farmers market
in town here. Tonight I nuked it for about 7 minutes total, having
poked it with a knife to prevent an explosion, and turning it 1/4 every
minute and a half. Cooled it some, split it, cleaned it, and scooped
the flesh into a bowl. Had some for supper.

You probably are expecting something about soup, huh? Well, FINE, then.
I made chicken soup day before yesterday and had some broth remaining
from what I froze. I searched for some squash soup recipes and ran
across some that involved apple and ginger, a sweet potato, onions,
squash, cream. Enough for an idea of how to do this.

I had a sweet potato to use up so I peeled it, chunked it and put it
into a Pyrex measuring pitcher, and added a peeled and cored Haralson
apple to that. Added some chicken broth (not too much) and about 1/2
tsp of dried onion flakes, and nuked until all were tender - maybe 3-5
minutes?

Took the Braun stick blender and pureed that mess along with more broth
to thin it out. Sprinkled in some curry powder and a smidge of nutmeg.
Heated it all to almost boiling, then stirred in some fat-free half and
half.

It's pretty good but for a couple things: It is not silky smooth and
I'm wondering if somewhere along the way it should have been strained or
something or if I should have used the stand blender instead of the
stick blender. And I think I detect the acidity of the apple. I don't
care much for that. The chicken broth may have been a little strong - a
little too chickeny tasting; I might have diluted it with water, I
think. I added a little pure maple syrup to the last couple cups of it
that I've eaten (I ate it all - I didn't want leftovers). I don't like
running into little pieces of stuff, though. Otherwise, it's pretty
good. Might do it again. Might not.
--
http://www.jamlady.eboard.com