Pumpkin Soup

Still trying to find my blogging mojo - must have put it in one of the boxes I have yet to go through when I was sorting out the office.

Paris is 22 weeks and 1 day old. We have been yes/no double guessing ourselves with solids for a few weeks. Yes because when she has access to it, she devours it and wants more. No because her once a day waste disposal habit (IYKWIM) seems to S.T.O.P. and I reread all the literature and feel like I am torturing my child.

Currently, we are on a yes cycle, and on Saturday I bought a pumpkin. Pumpkin is one of those vegetables that is part of our family folklore. Actually, it is the only vegetable that is part of our family folklore.

Apparently, my aunt used to be a rather fussy eater and not a great "doer" when a baby (read modern day lactose intolerance symptoms without the diagnosis) and so being introduced to pumpkin saved her.

My father also has a tale about fattening bulls for sale on pumpkin.

I also remember a stigma attached to it when I was a child of certain families referral to it as "pig food" because they would never contemplate putting it on their own table.

Being a Queenslander, Pumpkin Scones are also inextricably linked to a (now) historical figure in our state psych.

Before V came to Australia, Pumpkin to him was a vegetable only ever found in pies.

My pumpkin soup recipe is dead easy, and is one of those "collective subconscious" recipes where the copyright belongs to everyone.

Put some butter and olive oil in a pan (because you feel like a chef when you mix up the start like that).

Add some roughly chopped onion and garlic (good cooking is all about starting with onion and garlic, isn't it?)

Add peeled and chopped pumpkin (toss out the seeds - go on, I know you also have that little "I could roast them" voice but the whole cleaning them and then doing it - FAR TOO DIFFICULT. Oh, and if you put them in the compost, be prepared to overcome the whole "what a waste" little voice as you pull out the million pumpkin seedlings that are in your future.)

Add stock (I am a convert to Vegeta myself - sprinkle and add water, but pretend you are all faluting with saying "add stock")

Boil until all mushy. Mush.

Eat. We had some leftover garlic butter so I tossed crusts that 'Salina chopped off her lunchbox sandwiches (which I save in the freezer because that little voice sometimes gets through) and baked them - BEST CROUTONS EVER!.

Of course, Paris gets a version without the oil, butter, onion, garlic or stock bits - and her mush is much more sieved than ours.


Check it.**

(Anyone else wonder what bulls look like after eating pumpkin? Must ask BB if she could photoshop us something.)

So - tell me (or blog it and link me) YOUR best soup recipe.

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** (oh, and yes, we got a new highchair - decision making was one of $$ as there was this one, and then the ones that were over 3 times the price. Of course, degree of difficulty was we didn't like the colours available - just the display one. One of the pluses of living in a smaller community is that you can ask for the display one and you will find out you KNOW the manager who you have to ask and he will do it then and there for you...)