Better Butternut Squash Soup: A Recipe That'll Knock Your Wool Socks Off

The cold, rainy, dreary, and overall stay-home-in-your-wool-socks weather we've been having here on the East Coast has left me longing for comfort food. And what's more comforting than curling up on the couch with a bowl of soup and an episode of Dexter? Ok so maybe Dexter isn't the most comforting show, but foodwise, it doesn't get much better. My full-'o-Fall-flavor butternut squash soup recipe will keep you nice and toasty warm on any chilly (or wet and miserable) evening. Inspired by almost-Top Chef Master Michael Chiarello, it's sweet, savory, healthy and easy to boot. Break out the wool socks people, because we're getting ready for a cold night in.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Extra virgin olive oil
1/3 C diced onion
1/3 C diced celery
1/3 C diced carrots
1-2 cinnamon sticks (Not the cinnamon-type? Use just 1 for plenty of Fall flavor)
Salt & pepper, to taste
4 C Low sodium chicken stock
1 butternut squash, peeled & diced
1/4 C half and half (for thickness & richness...want to keep it healthier? Skip it!)
2 Tbsp brown sugar

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Peel and dice butternut squash. (Since this tends to require a very steady hand and a lot of elbow grease, I highly recommend picking up the precut, prepackaged butternut squash. For just a little more money, you'll save time and lessen your chance for lacerated fingers.) If using prepackaged squash, just do a little extra chopping to make sure the pieces are equal size.
- Coat squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on foil-lined baking sheet (will save you eons of time in cleanup!)

- Roast squash about 40 minutes until tender
- Separately, heat olive oil in stock pot, adding carrots, celery, onion, and cinnamon stick. Saute on medium heat until softened, about 10 minutes (I like to use my giant pasta pot so as not to worry about hot liquid splatters!)

- Add chicken stock, bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer
- Add roasted squash and simmer all together for 10 minutes

- Remove cinnamon stick and puree soup altogether* (see below for instructions)
- Once pureed, add half and half and brown sugar, stir until smooth
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste
- For extra points, garnish with chopped pecans, or serve with a slice of delicious toasted bread

*To puree soup, I highly recommend using an immersion blender. This recent purchase has become one of my favorite kitchen tools for it's amazing power to transform food as well as its ease of use. I use it for various soup recipes and Shaun even uses it to mix his whey protein shakes after the gym! It's a wonderful item. Seriously guys, I picked up this one from Bed Bath and Beyond for $24 with a 20% off coupon. A minute of subversive blending and voila! If you are not so much into investing in a new kitchen tool, you can puree the soup in batches in a regular blender or food processor - but be careful (!!!!) Hot liquid + blending = hot liquid splattering.

Got any other butternut squash recipes or additions that have made your own creations uber delicious? Anyone planning to try this? Anyone else with an immersion blender obsession???

Please Pass the Napkin

This past weekend I celebrated my sister Christine's birthday with the family at famed burger stop 5 Napkin Burger. Always one for a great, juicy burger, I cannot tell you how many times I've strolled past 5 Napkin wanting desperately to go inside. Somehow it just never happened...until Sunday. Located on the corner of 45th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Napkin feels like a dolled up diner with a bistro twist. With a menu boasting 7 types of burgers, salads, and lots of tasty apps, I stayed true to what the joint does best - the Original 5 Napkin Burger. Gruyere cheese, carmelized onions, and rosemary aioli on a soft white roll complete this uber juicy burger - classy, no? Enough talking...let's get down to the photo montage, shall we?

Outside the famous Hell's Kitchen Burger Joint.

That's one giant burger. Plenty of Gruyere and sweet, carmelized onions made this burger anything but average. You'll note the small cup of rosemary aioli - I ordered this on the side. Those of you who know me already know my distaste for the herb, but I figured when at Five Napkin...and I have to say, it was pretty darn tasty despite my personal feelings.

Let's get a bit closer. Perfectly medium, the burger was so juicy that it actually soaked through the bottom of the bun. Normally this would be a dealbreaker, but in this case I have to say, it kind of worked.

Never one to pass up dessert, especially when there's apple involved, I couldn't help but order the warm apple pie, a la mode of course. It was one of the best around, really shining with the cinnamon streusel topping, making this anything but your average apple pie.

It wouldn't be dessert in the Cannon family without a little taste testing, so I sampled Christine's S'mores shake. Yup, that's one giant, perfectly toasted marshmallow on top...yum!

In my excitement over dessert sampling, I simply forgot to snap a photo of the espresso brownie sundae so I'll just have to tell you...vanilla ice cream, espresso caramel, and whipped cream topped with salted peanuts (have you noticed my love of sweet and salty together? Genuis). While I felt it didn't stand up to the fabulous apple pie, it was a pretty close second, though my sister Kimberly would probably dispute that to the ends of the Earth.

Ultimately, this made for a perfect birthday celebration and I finally got my Five Napkin fix. They even took reservations for a party of 7 and actually seated us on time.Would I go back? In a clogged heartbeat.

Fall Treats: Apple Surprise Muffins

This past weekend, K and I braved the rain and snow for a long-awaited reunion with C out in State College, PA at her new Penn State home. Though the weather left much to be desired...and by much, I mean all to be desired...and wasn't quite the Fall foliage weekend I had counted on, one road trip, a football game, many red bulls, and lots of Domino's cheesy bread later, there's nothing quite like a girls only weekend with my sisters. Since C is in her first year at Penn State and living in the germ-infested, underfed dorms really leaves much to be desired, I thought a tasty, homemade autumn treat was in order to let my baby sister know how much I miss her. Though autumn is my favorite baking season due to the heightened pumpkin usage, I recognized that not all people are quite as obsessed as me. Keeping in mind K's penchant for chocolate and everyone's love of apple, I chose a chocolate-apple muffin as the ticket to filling everyone's tummies with Fall cheer.

This recipe was adapted from the cookbook Muffins: Sweet & Savory Comfort Food by Cyndi Duncan & Georgie Patrick. A gift from one of my bestests, this cookbook is fabulous for both dessert and dinner muffins. With options like bran, jalepeno corn, pb & j, rum raisin, frosted pumpkin, and chocolate chip banana to name a few, you basically can't go wrong.

2 medium apples, peeled, cored, diced
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar + 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C chopped nuts (I used pecans...yum!)
1/4 C melted butter
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa
3/4 C applesauce
1 1/4 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Combine apples, cinnamon, 1 tbsp sugar and nuts in small bowl; mix well and set aside. Thoroughly combine butter and cocoa; then add applesauce. In large bowl, combine flour, 1/2C sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in cocoa mixture and egg just until moistened. Place 1 tbsp batter in each of the 12 muffin cups; spoon 1 heaping tbsp aple mixture into each cup, pressing into batter. Cover each cup with 1tbsp batter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

My adjustments:
1) Since I was bringing this to a dorm full of hungry ladies (and left a few home for S and I wanted to be able to snack on one or two on the trip up) I doubled the recipe exactly.
2) I also left out the 'surprise'. In my haste to get all 24 muffins complete on a Thursday night, I simply folded the apple mixture into the wet ingredients, then filled the muffin cups with the mixture all combined.
3) I used muffin cups, not just the bare muffin tin
4) I also made a quick maple glaze for the top.*

Beware: These muffins are extremely moist. Between the applesauce and fresh apples, it makes for quite a wet muffin. I didn't mind as eating a dry muffin might as well be eating a cement brick.

Bottom Line: A great fall treat! Not quite as sweet as a cupcake, but more substantial than a cookie, these were a great weekend comfort food and a nice treat for C.

*Maple Glaze:
Combine 3 tbsp confectioner's sugar and 1 tbsp maple syrup. Whisk together and adjust ingredients to desired thickness. Drizzle on muffins.

The Cannon Girls take Penn State!