Spicy Pear And Butternut Squash Soup

The weather has been horrendous lately. Snow, ice, wind and rain. Ick. it is the perfect weather for soup. Hot, spicy, filling soup.

Pears, roast garlic and plenty of curry powder work beautifully with the bitternut squash. Yummy!

Ingredients. 

3 Pears

1 Butternut squash

5 or 6 Cloves of garlic 

2 Large potatoes

1 Onion

3 Good sized carrots

Some stock (home made or from a packet, I personally don't have enough room in the freezer to keep fresh Stock on hand.)

Mild curry powder

Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Method

Peel, de-seed and chunk the butternut squash. Peel, de-seed and chunk the pears. Peel and crush the garlic cloves. In a deep baking dish (like a lasagne pan) toss the squash, pear and garlic in olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon of paprika and 1 of curry powder. Pop in a  hot over for 30 to 45 minutes.

Chop the onion, peel and dice the carrots and potatoes. Sweat the onions in a large soup pot with some oilve oil and some more seasoning if you like (I usually add another teaspoon or two of curry powder in at this point.) Toss in the carrot and potatoes and give a good stir. Spoon in the roast squash, pears and garlic. Pour over with warm stock until 3/4 to 4/5th full. Cover. 

When the potatoes and carrots are soft take pot off the heat and blend until smooth with a stick blender. This shouldn't be too much work. Pop back on the heat for 10 or so minutes until piping hot. 

Then serve up and enjoy! 

Minnie xoxo

A New Year

21 days into the new year and I finally post. Crazy. Its needed though. A few weeks to figure out what I want from 2013. Its a big year. Bloke and I are getting married in July. I turn 26 in September. For some reason 26 seems like a bit of a watershed. I don't know why. Weird huh?

Anyway what have I actually been up to?

Well Dad and A came to stay a lot which was really awesome! There was a lot of food and a lot of banter. 

That's my Dad, he had a beard before they were hipster cool. He doesn't understand hipsters but he likes their food. 

I've fallen in love with the display in the village carpet shop. 

I think she'd make a fetching end table. I jest! I'm just a bit taken with with the idea that I live in a world where life size plastic sheep are a thing. She is part of the campaign to buy british wool, which I heartily support. 

This is the only picture of the Christmas cake I got post feeding. It was too tasty. I didn't even manage to decorate it. Food blogger fail or win? 

I have had a few requests for whole cakes off people for next year, so I don't think icing was missed all that much by anyone. It was proper lush with some (dairy free alternative to) butter on. NOM. 

I got my flower girl her dress! it was on super duper sale. Hurrah for the sales!

I was not a fan of the weird beige/dark sand sash though. So some magic that involved scissors, my sewing machine and some ivory satin silk from my fabric stash resulted in this lovely transformation. 

And now I'm kind of obsessed with silk. Not really a practical or attainable obsession to have huh? 

So I'm distracting myself with some more of my stash and a lot of tulle because I have underpinnings to make! 

This is what 15 meters of tulle net and notions looks like. I'm still working on this one. 

So far I've made one layer of my underskirt. 

Its utterly huge and wonderful. 

And that's it, pictures wise anyway. I've done a lot of cooking and some of that will make its way to here I expect. My only real resolution has just to live life a bit better this year. 2012 was on the whole a good if turbulent year, so my aim is for 2013 to be just that little bit happier, more colourful and more friendly. 

I hope you've all had a bright and happy January!

Minnie xoxo

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The cake never got iced. It was too tasty. Didn't last long enough to see any icing.  Bloke has been down with a bad cold. I hope you're all having a better day than us!

Minnie xoxo

4 Days To Go

I think I've admitted defeat with regards to bloke's jumper. I am not the Yarnharlot, as lovely as she may be I can't drop everything to knit. There are other fun things to do like decorate the tree!

Its a very tiny tree. Bloke surprised me with it and a few new decorations. Our old ones are still missing. Alas. The topper is a free printable from Jolly Allsorts. I am rocking lots of free printables this year. Mostly on photo paper because it makes them look a bit more polished. 

The lovely shiny baubles have been padded out with some salt dough pals. When I was a teenager I was very into art, painting drawing and the like. The talent has not stayed with me, so I just painted them block bright colours with acrylic paint and did a little fancy gold flecking with a little shiny paint and a dry brush.

Salt dough is easy peasy! Here's how you make it:

You just need half a cup of salt, half a cup of tepid water and slightly more than a cup of plain flour. Work the dough until its smooth , roll it out, cut out some shapes with a cookie cutter. Jab a hole with a cocktail stick or an old pen and bake in a low oven for a few hours until hard. Then you just paint and add some ribbon or string and hang on the tree. If you are particularly proud of your work seal with a water based varnish or pva glue. And just to be clear salt dough is not for eating.

Making salt dough ornaments is one of those things that is usually reserved for small children only, but its a lot of fun and I highly recommend it as a cheap and fun way to pad out, update and personalise your tree. With some patience and a little more imagination and some stunning results could be achieved, but I'll be honest I'm pretty proud of my simple stars, hearts and circles. I'm easily pleased.

I hope you all aren't too stressed by the run up to the big day!

Minnie xoxo

Get Down And Ceilidh On!

Tonight Bloke, Dad's girlfriend and I are going to the Vatersay Boys in the Barrowlands ballroom!

Excited doesn't even cover it. Its the perfect way to kick off the festive season.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Minnie xoxo

Christmas Knitting

Well actually this was supposed to be Bloke's birthday jumper. His birthday is in September. Yeah. Oops. So progress stands at the back being complete and I've done this much of the front:

An extra large makes it look like I've knit more right? Right?! 

The real problem is that its a very, very dull knit and has spent most of the year bundled up behind the sofa in disgrace. But I have 12 days to finish it. That's do able. I knit almost constantly but still do able. The pattern is one of the free Cascade patterns, W353. I've linked to the ravelry page because my gosh is the cascade one a pain in the bum. The sizing is one to watch too, it tends to lean on the larger side.

Anyway I need to get back to knitting! I must be crazy. Really crazy.

Minnie xoxo

The anti gift guide

This morning I read this article in the Guardian. Just how much of what you buy survives after christmas? Does it continue to be used? Hell can you even remember what great aunt Maude got you last year? Why do we put ourselves through this?!

Gift that are needed or are genuinely enrich the giftees life are wonderful. Flannel pjs for that friend who has moved to the cold north, a stand mixer for your sweetie or a beautiful hard back copy of a much loved often lent out and lost book for the giftee to cherish for ever and clutch while gleefully while they cry "Get thee to the library, this is mine and I love it!" I recommend a nice copy of Good Omens for this last one.

What I'm trying to say, in the nicest possibly way, if you aren't a child chances are I'll be giving you some kind of food based product. That I made myself. Because nothing says "I really care about you" like gout.  Gout and high blood sugar. And if you are a child chances are its educational, made of wood and most definitely does not make a noise. I am a meany.

Filling each others homes with random, expensive tat really is wasteful. "Look I really do care about you! I spent 20 quid on this thing I hope you'll like" doesn't quite have a wonderful ring to it. Now I'm not saying we should give at all. Gifts are wonderful, they make us all happy. Its a lovely feeling taking the time to search for that perfect thing. To wrap it up, stash it away and then to pass it into excited hands. The perfect piece of jewellery, or a nice set of tools. A stylish hat or a life changing piece of music. All wonderful things. I'm just asking that we put a stop to stuff for the sake of stuff. 

A bubble wrap tie for example. How long is that going to last? Also its costs a fiver! A waste of money and resources. That's an awful lot to simply say "hahaha you work in an office and I presume its dull." Er right. Time to rethink?

Anyway I have more baking to do. I promise I'm not the Grinch.
minnie xoxo