Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Autumn Soups!

Sometimes, in the name of simplification, you have to stop paying attention. I didn't track our food spending at all this summer. We just kept on shopping at the Farmers' Market, eating fresh food as much as possible, and getting our regular stuff.

I confess I make too many stops at convenience stores. Even if I'm only buying powerbars, pretzels, and Diet Coke, it's still unnecessary spending. Today I bought a Starbucks regular coffee and a bottled mango juice for my girls. Still ran me over $5 and we skipped the sweets.

Fall is officially here. Over the weekend I made the first of my autumn soups, Butternut Squash Bisque. We were in Ocean City (I had a conference Th & F, and we piggybacked a little weekend away onto it!), and I brought the squash with us. It can be a challenge to cook in a rental kitchen--especially when it's a trailer on the bay side with fake wood paneling and a mustard-colored, leaky gas stove. But I persevered. I roasted the squash in the oven because I wasn't up for the workout required for chopping it raw. But roasting takes a LONG time.

Here's my basic recipe without the roasting part:
- Cut the squash into small cubes. Good luck not chopping off a finger--squash hides are tough!
- melt a stick of butter into a pot (indulgence!!) while you chop a large onion and a clove or 2 of garlic
- add the chopped onion and garlic, and cook until soft
- chop any additional root vegetables (I've added potatoes, turnips, and other kinds of squash)
- put all veggies in pot & barely cover with water or broth
- add marjoram, thyme, pepper, and sea salt (I am particularly generous with everything but the pepper. Do lots of tasting.)
- simmer until a fork goes easily through the veggies
- use an immersion blender to smooth the whole thing
- add some cream at the end and stir in.

(If you roast the squash ahead of time, all you have to do is add it at the blending point, although you'll want to simmer it with the herbs for a bit.)

Yum, yum, and triple yum. It's honestly our family's favorite soup, and making it just says "Fall is here!" to me.