Time flies. I was surprised when I saw that I hadn't posted for a week.
And do you know what else flies? Airplanes and helicopters. Which badly segues me to the Festival of Flight that we attended last weekend. It's a free, family-friendly event with all things flying. We met up with other family members with littles and had an enjoyable time exploring all the festival had to offer. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up as it does sometimes and was turning off before I could get many pictures. But rest assured that a good time was had by all.
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| This WWII military aircraft was built in a nearby town. |
Otherwise, it seems that our focus has been on house things. The stove is still not working (part is in and repairman is scheduled for Thursday), we're still dealing with getting the window replacement, we're waiting on an estimate to replace the leaking basement door, and have contacted a contractor to install drainage around Ward's shop. It all has my head spinning, but it all needs to be done before we have any more water damage.
And speaking of our stove not working, my trusty slow cooker is getting a workout. Yesterday, I made pumpkin soup with some puree from the freezer. If you've been reading here for a while, you know that cooking is basically a chore for me. I'm a get-in-and-get-out-of-the-kitchen kind of person. So, surprisingly, in the early days of the blog, I occasionally posted recipes, and the pumpkin soup is one of them. So from 2013, here's how I make pumpkin soup.
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What to do? What to do? On Saturday, I made a batch of pumpkin bread with my secret ingredient — chocolate chips. Delicious. However, when reading the recipe, I made a mistake and ended up with an extra can of pumpkin open. What now? I didn't want it to go to waste, so I thought I would try some pumpkin soup. However, most of the recipes included ingredients that one person or another in my family didn't like — mainly onions or pumpkin pie spices. Then, somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my brain, I remembered a sweet potato soup with peanut butter that my brother-in-law made several years ago when we were visiting, which everyone liked. That's what I would do. Make pumpkin, peanut butter soup. Once again, the recipe with the right fit eluded me, so I did some creative cooking and came up with my own concoction. It was very simple and included pumpkin, peanut butter, and curry.
And now for the reviews:
Ward said that it turned out pretty well and the flavors blended nicely with no one flavor standing out. In fact, he said that he couldn't taste the peanut butter at all. Wally said it was perfect and wouldn't change a thing. He did taste the peanut butter, but that was okay, considering that peanut butter is his favorite food. I, too, thought it was a good blend of flavors and was surprised at how filling it was. I like something to chew in my soup, so I added croutons. The perfect addition as far as I was concerned. It was super easy to make. I just dumped the ingredients into the crock pot and let them slowly simmer throughout the day until we got home from our busy schedules to try this very hearty soup.
Here's a recipe if you want to give it a try. All of these ingredients can be used in more or less quantities depending on your personal tastes. The soup is rather mild, so I was surprised when Ward and Wally didn't want to add a drop or two of hot sauce into their bowls. However, I served it with that option available.
3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Whisk broth and pumpkin together until smooth. While stirring, add peanut butter and heat until melted. Add spices and simmer for a few minutes. The longer the better, but 15 minutes would be good. Be careful not to scorch.
Slow Cooker Method
Whisk broth and pumpkin together until smooth. Add peanut butter and spices. Cook on low for six to eight hours. Stir before serving.
Serve with croutons and enjoy!
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Glad you had fun with all things that fly!
ReplyDeleteThis pumpkin soup recipe is perfect for my end of the month cooking time at I.P. It is simple enough for them to make entirely, I can add a few ingredients and steps so that won't alter the taste but will have enough steps for each participant to be essential to the prep. Thank you so much!
It is an easy recipe to add things to. I know your friends at IP will like making it. We'll see if they like to eat it. :)
DeleteThe Festival of Flight sounds fun. Once upon a time, in a previous life, I dated a pilot (he had his own small plane) and wow, airplane people have their own world. Was there lots of airplane geekiness going on?
ReplyDeleteAn incredible amount of airplane geekiness going on. The littles in our group enjoyed sitting in planes and fire engines, while Ward enjoyed talking with pilots about the physics of different wing designs. The various helicopters made me think about my niece who flies helicopters for the Coast Guard. As I said, a good time was had by all. :)
DeleteI'm going to try this recipe!
ReplyDeleteIf you like it, now is a good time of year to stock up on pumpkin. :)
DeleteI'm glad you and your family enjoyed the Festival of Flight. I love how you always find different things to do with the family. The pumpkin soup sounds interesting. We have a kabocha squash (also known as Japanese pumpkin) in the fridge - maybe we can make this soup with some of it.
ReplyDeleteIf you make the soup, you may want to put in more curry powder than we did. :)
DeleteMy son, finds many of the things we do, and he found the Festival of Flight a few years ago.
I'm sorry for all your water issues. Our house is inhabited by a water sprite, so I feel your pain. I've actually lost count on times a burst pipe or busted water heater flooded our finished basement. ~sigh~ Thank you for sharing this recipe; I've saved it to try sometime soon. Yum. We have a huge quantity of curry powder languishing in the cupboard; it caught my eye just the other day. Hugs, my dear.
ReplyDeleteWe had a flood in our finished basement too a couple of years ago. It was a stinky expensive mess to clean up. I have you have dry times for a while at your house.
DeleteThis pumpkin peanut butter soup is genius and sounds delicious and so easy to make. I think we would love it. I might try chunky peanut butter to give it a little more crunch. Glad you enjoyed the Festival of Flight ( cute name) .
ReplyDeleteI think next time, I'll add some other veggies to give it more to chew.
DeleteTime does get away from us sometimes!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a lot is happening at your house these days. Wishing you good luck with all of those projects. It sounds like a lot!
Definitely soup weather lately. Yours sounds interesting.
They replaced the part on the stove yesterday, and it still doesn't work. So they've ordered another one. Hopefully, that will do the trick.
DeleteI am definitely going to try that soup. Peanut butter enhances so many things. I find a heaping tablespoon of it in a pot of chili makes a nice difference. You can’t taste it, but it just does something. I’ve never thought to put it in pumpkin soup. Sounds really yummy.
ReplyDeleteI've never put peanut butter into chili, but I'm going to do that next time I make some.
DeleteTime do fly. Sometimes it seems like there was very little day in each day.
ReplyDeleteI've never had pumpkin soup but I'm not much a fan of pumpkin as a food although I thought pumpkin pie did taste okay.
Have a lovely day.
I like pumpkin pie, but am not thrilled when they put pumpkin pie spice into everything this time of year. But a lot of people must like it because they keep doing it. :)
DeletePumpkin soup? Interesting, I am not sure, I guess I'd try it once at least.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't already had something similar, I would have been very skeptical of pumpkin and peanut butter. But I like it.
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