vegan butternut squash bisque

Oh my God, this was so delicious.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
2 diced onions (or 1 big one)
1/2 cup soy milk (or cream)
1 Tbsp Smart Balance (or butter if you want to un-veganify this)
Cumin, curry powder, and cinnamon
Salt & pepper
Olive oil (I use the spray)

So, first cut the squash in half (lengthwise) and put it flat-side down on an olive oil'd baking sheet and bake it at 375 for 45 minutes or so. 20 minutes before the squash is done, start cooking the onions in the butter or fake butter at the bottom of a pot. Let them turn brown but not burnt. It should take about 20 minutes. Like I said. Pay attention, jeeze.

After the squash is done scrape all the squash off the skin with a spoon and put them in the pot with the onions. Then add the vegetable stock and spices (OK I didn't measure these, I just did like three good shakes of each one. I used this recipe as a base and it suggested using only nutmeg, but I didn't have any nutmeg, and also some of the comments on the recipe suggesting using the spices I ended up using). Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for half an hour or so.

Then, be super careful and put it in the blender with half a cup of soy milk. (Or cream, if you want it to be, well, creamier, and don't care about un-vegan-ifiying it. By the way, I used vanilla soy milk since that's what I keep around. I was a little worried it would make my soup taste too vanilla-y, but it didn't really come out in the soup at all.) If it's still hot, you should put a dish towel over the top of the blender and hold it down, because blending hot liquids will make the top of the blender fly off!! It's true, I read it on the Internet. Or wait until it cools. Or get a fancy immersion blender. Whatever.

I tried really hard to get a photo of this that made it look delicious but it is not a terribly photogenic food. TRUST ME IT'S AWESOME.

Anyway, this soup tastes totally super awesome. I ate it with some of the bread I made from the recipe I made last week and it was like being in a restaurant. A super awesome restaurant.

PS I also toasted the squash seeds in olive oil just like pumpkin seeds. They were a little smaller than pumpkin seeds but tasted basically the same.

"too lazy to go to the store" tomato sauce

My mom's garden has infinity tomatoes right now so I've been trying to use them up! I made gallons of chili and some salads and stuff and then I thought: pasta sauce?! So I looked up some recipes online and they all called for basil and oregano and whatnot, which I don't usually keep on hand because... I don't really make Italian food that much. And, as the title implies, I was too lazy to go to the store.

6 tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
4 chopped cloves of garlic
1 diced onion
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper

I chopped the tomatoes and cooked them in the oil for like 15 minutes. And then I threw in everything else and simmered it for another 15 minutes.

And then I ate it with some whole wheat penne pasta and it was yummy! Oregano? Basil? Who needs 'em?? Another time I ate this over some couscous and it was good. Another time (this recipe made a lot) I sauteed a zucchini and some mushrooms and put sauce over it and it was also good.

bread!!

You guys, I totally made bread. From scratch! With yeast and everything! Not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I followed the recipe from here pretty exactly.

• 4 cups of all purpose or unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt      
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 package dry yeast     
• 1 3/4 cups hot  water

First: mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a big bowl. Then it said to "form a well" in the dry ingredients and stir in the water and then the oil until it looks like dough. It specifically said to use a wooden spoon but I don't have one so I used a plastic one?? It turned out okay. I don't know what effect a wooden spoon would have but use it if you've got it, I guess.

Then, on a "well-floured" work surface knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it feels "elastic." I have no idea what that means because if you ask me it was elastic to start out with? So I just set a timer for 10 minutes and did that.

Then I put it in in a big bowl (the same one from before but I rinsed it out and then sprayed the inside with olive oil spray) and covered it with Saran wrap for an hour and a half.

Here again I diverged from the recommendation of that website because I don't have any "bread bowls." I have one metal loaf pan. And after the dough has risen for an hour-ish, you're supposed to divide it in half and put the halves in whatever you're going to bake them in (greased) and let them rise again for 20 30 minutes. But only one batch of the dough went in the loaf pan and the other half stayed in the bowl. It turned out okay I guess?

I forgot to say, pre-heat the oven to 375 and bake it for 20 minutes or until it turns "golden brown."

OH and I decided to make one loaf of cinnamon bread so I just mixed 1/4 cup of sugar and a couple good shakes of cinnamon in with the dough. There is maybe a more scientific way of doing that but it turned out pretty tasty.

It is tasty! Kind of dense and I wondered if maybe I didn't knead it enough, or whatever, but my friend Mary (who is an accomplished breadstress and sent me this recipe) says the recipe is for kind of dense bread and if I want something lighter I should try this recipe. WHICH MAYBE I WILL.

Oh and Mary says this recipe also makes good pizza dough which I will definitely try in the future. 

Also I have to say that clean-up after this was a bitch and there is still bread dough stuck to my sponge. Worth it? I guess?

PS I consulted with Mary and she said I should leave it out longer for the second rising and it will be fluffier. I made another batch of bread and left it out for more like 30 minutes on the second rising and it totally worked. Yeah bread!