Upgrad Stranth

Julius and I did our first round of maple sap collecting!  One of the cool things about Julius’ pack is they tap maple trees all over our town and then collect the sap then boil it down to make syrup.  They then sell it to fund the troop!  Tonight Julius and I put our headlamps on and poured and hauled 28 gallons of sap around in the dark.  I have a terrible sense of direction so it probably took us 30 minutes longer than it should to first find the buckets then the trees marked on the map.  But I was pretty proud of myself that I succeeded.  I am so directionally challenged that we walked the completely wrong direction for at least 5 minutes before I realized I had the map upside down.  Thank goodness for GPS or I probably would never have made it out of Rhode Island.

Patricia took one of the shells from our bathroom decor and decided she was going to give it to her teacher.  It was so sweet that I had to let her do it.  Watching her give it to her teacher was so funny.  It went something like this:

Patricia:  Ms. Laura here’s a shell.

Ms. Laura:  Wow that is such a pretty shell, do you think an animal lived in it?

Patricia:  Yeah.  It’s shiny.

Ms. Laura:  It is so shiny, where did you find it?  (Probably thinking Patricia would answer the beach).

Patricia:  My house.

Me:  Patricia wanted to give it to you.

Ms. Laura:  You wanted to give it to me?!

Patricia:  Yeah.

Did I tell you I began another sourdough starter?  I’ve lost track of how many days? I’m at day 15 I think… It seems to rise about 50%, but it doesn’t double yet.  I’ve got so much discard that I’ve been making boatloads of sourdough discard recipes.  I’ve made multiple batches of crumpets, English muffin bread, multiple batches of sourdough pancakes (my kids say they are the best pancakes ever and that is high praise).  I want to make English muffins next and freeze a bunch of breakfast sandwiches (oh and pizza dough and pasta).  You may remember me talking about eating too much bread last time I made sourdough.  Well that is certainly going to become a problem if I don’t get this starter established soon.

Much like “if you give a mouse a cookie”.  If you give a Lexi a piece of bread she’s going to want some soup to go with it.  (Or butter, I mean it honestly would probably go the butter route, but let’s say for the sake of the story I went the soup direction.)  The bread might explain why I’ve been thinking of soup so often.  That or the fact that it is feeling like an actual New England winter these days!  Julius and Patricia are usually pretty good soup eaters.  Will’s favorite soup is my original acorn squash soup.  It’s delicious, but there is no protein in it.  Since Julius needs protein packed into every meal (and really so does Patricia since she’s 99% tomato) I decided on a whim to re-do the squash soup with protein.  I think the added cannellini beans make the soup creamier and don’t distract from the flavor of the squash at all.  Will actually didn’t notice I’d done anything different when I first made it.

Acorn Squash Soup 2.0 or Acorn Squash Protein Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 medium acorn squash
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 celery, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 3 cups veggie broth
• 4 cups cooked white beans (cannellini etc) – 2 cans.
• 2 tbsp lt brown sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup whole milk or heavy cream

1. Cut acorn squash in half, scoop and discard insides.  (Actually I lately make roasted squash seeds with the seeds!)
2. Place cut side down on a pan drizzled with olive oil, poke holes in skin of squash with a fork.
3. Roast at 400 for 35 minutes or until soft. Let cool then scrape squash from its shell into a bowl.  Set aside, discarding shell.
4. While the squash is roasting, chop your veggies.  Saute the veggies in 2 tbsp butter or olive oil in a heavy bottomed stockpot until soft.
5. Add in 3 cups veggie broth.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add in squash from step 2 and beans.  Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
7. Remove pot from heat and puree with an immersion blender until smooth.  (Or puree in batches in a blender).
8. Stir in 2 tbsp brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.