Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Amaretti Cookies

This recipe is from Tyler Florence from Food Network. Oh how I love him. This soup is so good and easy! It also has no dairy in it, which is great. I bought my butternut squash from Costco and roasted it from there, super easy. I loved the sage leaves and Amaretti cookies in it, delish.

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 2 (2 pound) butternut squash, halved lengthwise, seeded
• 1/4 pound amaretti cookies
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 bunch fresh sage
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 4 cups chicken stock, either homemade or store-bought
• Pinch of grated nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish with vegetable oil. Place squash cut side up in prepared dish. Pierce each squash half several times with toothpick or skewer. Bake until squash is tender, about 45 minutes.

While the squash is cooking, use a handheld mixer with the chopping attachment to pulse the cookies until roughly chopped. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring the olive oil up to almost smoking. Quickly cook the sage leaves until crisp. Remove and reserve the sage, and saute the sliced onion. When the squash is done cooking, using a large spoon, scrape squash into the pot; discard peel. Add 3 1/2 cups chicken stock and nutmeg and puree until smooth, add additional stock to reach desired consistency. Stir soup over medium heat until heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with crushed amaretti; garnish with sage leaves.

Baked Potato Soup

You all know how much I love soup!! I think that it is the ultimate comfort food. I found this recipe once again on a food blog that I follow, ourbestbites.com. They posted it a couple of days ago and I thought it looked really good. I am sorry I don't post pictures, I don't know how to. I know that sounds really stupid, but I am going to have Dad help me, then I will post some... I promise!! Anyway, this soup is kind of like a chowder it is really rich and full of flavor, but it can be made very light.

Baked Potato Soup

2 TBSP butter
2-3 cloves garlic (I just used one small clove, it added really good flavor, but not too much.)
1/2 C flour
4 1/2 C milk (you could use skim if wanted and would be just fine)
1-14 oz can lower sodium chicken broth
4 medium baking potatoes - baked
2 C grated cheddar cheese, divided (I used the 2% Colby jack shredded cheese, I think that it would be really good to use some pepper jack cheese)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 C light sour cream
1/2 C green onions, chopped (I used dried chives, about a tsp)
8 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled, and divided

Melt butter over medium heat, add garlic cook for a second until fragrant, add flour and cook for a minute to get flour taste out. Slowly add milk, whisk until smooth. This will take a lot of whisking!! I was afraid that it wouldn't ever get smooth, but it finally did. Add chicken broth, bring soup to a simmer and heat until thickened. Stir often so it doesn't scorch.
Turn heat down to medium low. Cut potatoes in half length-wise, use a spoon to scoop them out of their shells. I used a spatula or wooden spoon to break the potatoes up once in the soup, leaving them chunky. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese, salt and pepper, and stir until the cheese is melted. Remove the pan from the heat stir in 3/4 C sour cream, 1/4 C green onions (or chives), and half of the bacon. You don't want to have the pan on the heat when you add the sour cream, it will easily curdle. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Ladle into bowls and top with remaining cheese, sour cream, onions and bacon.
The soup thickens up a lot. I actually added more chicken broth to make mine to the consistency that I wanted. I also found that the soup was really rich and didn't really need the garnishes, although they are pretty and fun.

Crockpot Shredded BBQ Chicken

Today I tried a new recipe. I found it on a food blog that I look at every now and then called My Kitchen Cafe. I will be completely honest I am usually very hesitant of crockpot meals, mine always turn out dry no matter how careful I am, but today I thought that I would give it a shot. The blog that I got this recipe from suggested that you serve this on rice or noodles. I served it with rice, but I think that next time I would serve it on a baked potato with some sour cream, or even just on the side of some yummy mashed potatoes. I am not a huge rice or pasta fan, I prefer my potato! You could even serve it on a roll and have a yummy shredded BBQ chicken sandwich. The only thing to be careful with is the sauce that you make stays thin and could make the sandwich a little soggy. There really are lots of possibilities, now on with the good stuff!!

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

4-6 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 TBSP olive oil (any oil will work, butter too)
1/4 C ketchup
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 onion diced (use how ever much you would like, I used about 1/4 of one and it was plenty)
1 TBSP soy sauce
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 C beef broth

In a large skillet heat oil, season chicken with salt and pepper and cook 1-2 minutes on each side, until nicely brown. Put chicken in crockpot. In medium size bowl mix remaining ingredients whisking well. Pour over chicken. Cook in crockpot on low for 6 hours. Shred and Enjoy!!

Zucchini Bread with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, tis the season for baking!! Today's weather made me want to cook, and that is exactly what I did all day long. I have been trying to make zucchini bread since, probably August. I never know which recipe to use, so I tried a new one. It turned out pretty good. The only thing I would have changed is to cut back on the flour just a tich. I thought it was just a little dry.

3 Eggs
1 C oil
1 3/4 C white sugar
2 C shredded zucchini
2 tsp vanilla
3 C all purpose flour (this is the correct amount, I wouldn't cut it back anymore than 1/4 c)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2- 8x4 or 4- mini loaf pans. Mix eggs, add oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Bake 60 minutes for the large loaf pans and about 40 minutes for the mini loaf pans or until toothpick comes out clean.

Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 C butter, softened
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 - 1 tsp maple flavoring (depending on preferance)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all together and top zucchini bread once cooled.

Peach Cobbler

Mom made this a couple of Sunday's ago and I thought it was really good. It was different than our usual cobbler but I liked it even better. Mom said the only thing she would have done different was put in more peaches and added a little cinnamon. I thought I would share it because I doubt if mom will get around to posting it.

Peach Cobbler
serves 4-6

6 peaches, peeled and sliced
4 Tbsp superfine sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract
vanilla or butter pecan ice cream to serve

Cobbler topping
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter, diced
1 egg
5-6 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 425. Put the peaches into an ovenproof dish that is also suitable for serving. Add the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, .and almond extract and toss together. Bake the peaches in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the cobbler topping, sift the flour, all but 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Combine the egg and 5 tablespoons of the milk in a pitcher and mix into the dry ingredients with a fork until a soft, sticky dough forms. If the dough seems dry, stir in the extra tablespoon of milk.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400. Remove the peaches from the oven and drop spoonfuls of the topping over the surface, without smoothing. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar, return to the oven, and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and firm-the topping will spread as it cooks. Serve hot or at room temperature with ice cream on the side.