Harvest Blessings Soup

I was craving some squash soup yesterday, and with the bounty of fall surrounding me, I decided to playa round a little. The recipe I came up with was a huge hit in my house - C actually said it was the best soup I'd ever made! So, Ithought I'd share the blessings with you :)

Harvest Blessings Soup

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 large butternut squash (can substitute acorn or delicata squash) peeled, seeded and cubed (about 2 cups)
1 medium yam or sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large granny smith apple (or other tart apple), peeled, cored and diced
1 cup apple cider
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 t ground ginger
1 t gound nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 -3/4 cup light cream
salt and pepper to taste

put butter and oil in dutch oven over medium heat, add onions and garlic when butter is golden. stir often while onions cook about 5-7 minutes, until translucent and soft.

Add squash, yams, apples, cider, stock and spices, stir to mix well. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Remove from heat and process in batches in blender or food processor. Return to pot, add light cream and stir well to mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!!

seriously, can we just start today over?

or maybe just erase it completely from the calendar? (Warning: postpartum hormone filled whiney-ness is about to ensue. Proceed at your own risk)

As if it's not bad enough that my second-to-youngest is waking up before the crack of dawn (yes, that's really early, folks) But there's nothing like checking email first thing (while aforementioned child insists on watching Barney. Purple dinosaurs should be forbidden before 8 am and at least 2 cups of coffee)

Anyway, back to the email - checking email and finding out that some nasty hacker has set up a phishing scam on your website. Your business website. And the person who alerted you to this fact has also alerted your local police. Now there's a wake up call you want to get (seriously, NOT)

So, come to find out that it's likely a security breech with either my forums or my shopping cart (both of which need to be upgraded and checked over to ensure that the security is fixed now) My host is a gem - Be hosting, and I want to send Erica some flowers for getting rid of the phishing crud from the site approximately 34 seconds after I emailed her. She rocks, seriously.

So, I spend a good portion of the morning (while nursing at the lapop, naturally) trying to get the forums updated and security-checked, when I realize that the only way really to do it is to do a clean install of the forums. Which means I lose all the posts, members, everything.

Can you see me now?


So, it's now exactly 5:16 pm, and I just poured myself a glass of merlot. I am going to forget today ever happened, drink my glass of wine, and watch Star Wars with my boys tonight. Tomorrow, back to work. Onward...

Cha-cha-cha-Changes....

Turn and face the change.

(I've had the Shrek version of this song in my head all day long. God help me)

Changes are afoot aplenty for me these days - new babe, new blog, new sneakers.

First, the babe - Rusty was born Oct 3, 6 weeks early. He weighed in a 5 pounds 11 ounces, and was in NICU for a week. We're all home now, lovin' up on the wee pumpkin, and he is the most incredibly sweet and placid baby. The only time he makes noise is in the dead of night when the rest of the house is (finally) quiet, and I'm convinced it's because he doesn't like the silence. He's already revelling in the chaos that is made by his three older brothers.




Next, new blog. I've given up on ever getting the spam in the comments under control with b2evo, so as much as I love the ease of it and the layout I had worked on forever, I just had to change to blogger. I'm hopeful that the 800+ "new comment" messages that I get in my inbox every day (all for spam comments) will be abated by the nifty moderation here with blogger. I will eventually move the old archives over from b2evo, but honestly folks, let's not hold out breath for that to happen. Remember the first change I wrote about above? Yeah, he's not too keen on allowing mama unfettered computer time.

Last, new sneakers. this is actually a change-in-progress. My beloved cross trainers have finally bit the dust and the soles are literally falling off, so I'm ont he hunt for some spiffy new footwear. I'm thinking maybe some of these:



or maybe these stripey ones:


Both found at my fave online shoe shop

But now, I must go nurse a babe. again.