A Fever Only Curable by More Pumpkin

Autumn is generally the hardest time for me as far as temptation. I absolutely love the September, October and November seasonal flavors out there. In New England, I have to use my self control when Dunkin Donuts pulls out the “pumpkin” line. Already this year I've had 3 pumpkin iced lattes and a pumpkin muffin. I kind of felt awful after the muffin, you know, with all the fat that I'm not used to, but that doesn't really keep me from wanting another one. I had a pumpkin muffin from Hannaford too, that one is much lower in calories and much smaller, so it was very good. I like Dunkin's apple cider too... need to get one of those. I hate drinking my calories, but it only comes once a year... and since I don't really jones for Thanksgiving food or Halloween candy, I gotta get some Autumn in where I can!

Today I had to do some complicated math to decide if, during the pumpkin season, it was cheaper to buy pumpkins and roast them myself or to buy pumpkin puree in the can. Little pumpkins were $.59 per pound whereas the grocery that I shop at only has “organic” pumpkin in a can. That inflates the price just by saying organic. So I got me two cute little pumpkins and brought them home...

And cut off their heads. Muah. Ha. Ha.

Of course Autumn yields healthy things too. Like pumpkins. And apples. You know, harvest time and all that. Brussel Sprouts supposedly? You can check out what's seasonal in your area in any given month on this nifty map from Epicurious. Those things will be cheaper... and cheap is pretty good. Eating healthy ain't cheap.

Today I decided to make something I found on Pinterest. I came across a recipe for a Apple Pumpkin Soup but I didn't really want to make it exactly how I saw it. Main reason for that is I had a ½ peck of Gala apples, which are my fav, and this soup called for Granny Smiths. And a lot of other stuff. I went simple, really. But it all started with the roasted pumpkin to make my puree.

I preheated my oven to 350 degrees... and got to gutting my pumpkins. Cut them in half with a big, sharp knife (pumpkins are nothing like cutting through the Adamantium armor of the butternut squash). I like using a grapefruit spoon whenever I scoop out the innards of the gourd. When you have your halves sans seeds, cut each half in half again. Line them up on a baking sheet.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. The skin should fairly easily peel off. If it doesn't, might be a good idea to bake another 5 minutes. A paring knife can help the process too.

You can create puree from here with a food processor, but I decided just to cube up the pumpkin and add it to my soup like that, since the immersion blender is involved.

Here's what you'll need for the soup:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

30 oz pumpkin (fresh or canned)

3 gala apples, peeled and diced

½ yellow onion, diced

6 c low sodium chicken broth

1 c water

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ c dark brown sugar

½ c skim milk (you can use cream, just your calories will be higher)

In a large (I'm not exaggerating... my pan was almost too small) add your olive oil. After heating up the pan a bit, throw in your onion and apples. Brown until onion is translucent.

Add broth, water and cinnamon. Bring to a boil and cook until apples are soft.

Add the brown sugar and the pumpkin. Boil for 15 minutes then remove from heat. Use the immersion blender (or a regular blender, but do that in small batches. This stuff is really warm) and blend well. When finished blending, add milk slowly and stir in to warm through.

I'd recommend letting this cool a bit before you start eating it. I would also recommend some salt to taste. It's not overly sweet, though I thought it might be... just needs a little salt but I tried to abstain; I'm kind of a salt junkie. Anyway, you get a gigantic portion for 173 calories. Enjoy! The whole recipe is less than 600 so I mean, if you're really hungry and you love soup... go for it.

With pumpkins come pumpkin seeds. Roasted those today too. Rinsed them off in a colander and dry them as well as possible. Dump them in a bowl to add your seasonings. I used 2 Tbsp melted butter and about 2 tsp of Pumpkin Pie spice. You can put anything you want on them. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the seasoned seeds out and bake at 275 for a really long time...

I started with 10 minutes and stirred them. Another 20 minutes and stirred. 15 more and stirred. Then 5. 10 more. Then they were done. Probably could have gone a little longer... but I was kind of tired of stirring.

I think I need a nap.