tasty tuesday: roasted butternut squash soup with rosemary cheddar biscuits

I really love making soups in Fall and Winter.  They're just so warm and cozy, and the combinations of flavors are endless.

It was a chilly afternoon a couple days ago when I decided that I just had to have butternut squash soup.  Nothing else would do.  And thus, this soup was born.  

My momma helped me out, and we made it up as we went along.  I knew that this soup wasn't quite complete without biscuits, so of course that needed to happen.  We decided to spice up our regular biscuit recipe with a couple handfuls of cheddar, as well a few sprigs of freshly picked rosemary.  There are so many Fall flavors going on in this meal, and they came together beautifully.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

by: Kelsey {from p.s.heart}

yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

4 lbs Butternut squash, peeled and chopped (or 1 large Butternut squash)

2 medium sweet onions, chopped coarsely

6-8 cloves garlic, halved

oil

seasoning salt

black pepper

8 cups chicken stock

1/4 tsp black pepper (to taste)

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

[optional]: toasted, chopped walnuts for topping

Directions:

1)  First, peel, remove the seeds from, and chop up your Butternut Squash.  We used a kitchen scale to measure out four pounds, but you don't need it to be exact.

2)  Chop up your onions coarsely (don't dice them finely, otherwise they'll burn when you roast them).

3)  Halve your garlic cloves,

4)  Place squash, onions and garlic on two cookie sheets (or a large roasting pan).  Drizzle with a little bit of oil, sprinkle with seasoning salt and pepper, and then roast in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes (until squash pieces are soft).  Be sure to stir every 10-15 minutes.

*We used 2 cookie sheets in our convection oven, but a large roasting pan will be fine, they just won't get as brown!

5)  In a large pot (we used our large le creuset, or a dutch oven would work nicely), add roasted squash, onions and garlic.  Add 8 cups of chicken stock, black pepper, curry power and cayenne pepper, and bring to a gentle simmer.  Be sure to keep tasting your soup and adjust spices to your own taste.

6) We used an immersion blender to puree everything, although you could also use a plain old blender and blend the soup in a few batches.  Once the soup is heated through, it's ready to serve!

7)  Top with sprinkling of toasted, chopped walnuts right before serving.

Rosemary Cheddar Biscuits

yields: ~12 biscuits

Ingredients: 

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped (ours measured about 4" long - note: dried rosemary will

not

 work well here)

1 cup milk

Directions: 

1)  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

2)  Using a pastry cutter, or fork, cut in margarine.

3)  Stir in cheddar and rosemary*.

*Remove rosemary from stem by sliding fingers down the stem towards the base gently.  Discard stem, and chop the leaves by using a rocking motion with a chef's knife.

4)  Add in milk, and stir together.  Be careful not to overmix here.  As soon as the dough starts to come together, use your hands to pull it out onto a lightly floured surface.

5)  Gently pat the dough down until it's about 2" thick.  Cut into squares, or you can use a cookie cutter to do this as well.

6)  Place on a cookie sheet, and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes (bake time depends on thickness).  If you're unsure whether or not they're done, just break one open to check!

Serve warm!

Do you have a favorite Fall/Winter soup?

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: pumpkin scones with caramel drizzle

Oh scones.  You are so beautiful....to me!

Seriously, they are so good.  Jordyn found a super solid scone recipe years ago, and has slowly tweaked it into perfection.  It's always her base whenever she experiments with new flavors, and this time was no different.  Her and I discussed ingredients and chemistry....and finally decided that we were just going to substitute pumpkin for sour cream, and cross our fingers that it would work.

Let' just say....it worked.  Magnificently.

Of course we added in a bit of cinnamon too, because cinnamon and pumpkin kind of belong together.  They're basically soul mates.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we then drizzled caramel all over them?  Because we totally did that.  Are you really surprised that there was caramel involved?  Nope, didn't think so.

Pumpkin Scones

by: Jordyn & Kelsey

Ingredients:

Scones

1 cup pumpkin

1 tsp baking soda

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, chilled (and cubed)

1 egg

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 F.

2)  In a medium sized bowl mix together pumpkin, baking soda and the egg.   Let this mixture sit while you combine dry ingredients separately.

3)  In a large bowl mix together the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.

4)  With a pastry blender cut in the chilled butter.  If you do not have a pastry blender, cut it into pieces with a knife before you add it, and then blend it with a fork.

5)  Now stir in the wet ingredients, careful not to over mix.  I usually end up with a mixture that resembles large crumbs and is a bit floury - rather than dough.

6)  Don't worry if it is a bit of a mess, dump it onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press it together until it sticks together.  (think biscuits or pie dough - you are NOT kneading bread!)

7)  Once it sticks together in a decent ball, cut it into 4 sections.

8)  Gently flatten out each section into a circle, and cut into 6 triangles.

9)  Transfer these triangles onto a baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until golden brown on the bottom.

While the scones are baking, make your caramel (we stuck ours in the fridge to help it cool down a bit quicker.

Remove the scones from the pan while they're still hot, and spoon the glaze over top (see below for recipe).  It should run nicely down the sides, and then harden a bit.

We chose to make our own caramel, and then added a bit of icing sugar to make it a glaze.

Homemade Caramel

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

7)  To make it into a glaze, slowly add a bit of icing sugar until the caramel is a bit thicker.  How much icing sugar you add depends on how thick you want your glaze! 

Now dig in!

These scones make the perfect addition to all of the wonderfully foggy Fall mornings we've been having out here on the West Coast!  Well, let's be real here.  They make the perfect addition to basically any morning, anywhere.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey & jordyn

diy: TARDIS painted pumpkin

I really really love Doctor Who.

If you didn't know that before, I'm sure it's blatantly obvious now.

(Remember the

TARDIS shoe diy

?  More proof.)

This pumpkin actually has a funny story behind it.  I found it while we were harvesting pumpkins about 6 weeks ago, and I thought to myself: "What a strange looking pumpkin.  It's almost shaped like a rectangle!".  I instantly knew that it had to be mine, and that I was going to paint it like a TARDIS.  So here we are!  I painted it like a TARDIS, and am quite pleased with it.

Materials:

-blue paint

-black paint

-white paint

-paintbrushes (one large, one small)

-white paint pen

-a lot of patience

Directions:

First I washed and dried my pumpkin to ensure no dirt remained.  Then I painted 2 coats of blue paint over the whole thing, letting each coat completely dry before applying the next.  Next, I used a small paintbrush to paint fine black lines along the "corner edges" of the TARDIS, and let it dry.  I used a pencil to then outline the black rectangle at the top of each side (where "Police Public Call Box" will go), as well as the 8 panels on each side. I painted the black boxes in, as well as mixed a dark blue colour to outline each panel.  After everything was dry, I wrote out Police Public Call Box using pencil first, and then used a white paint pen to write over top of it.  I printed out the little sign for the front door, and stuck it on with double sided tape!  

{*Update: I fixed the missing windows :P  so now it looks much better}

Let it dry, and you're good to go!

Happy pumpkin painting!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

[baked] apple cider donuts

I've been seeing a lot of Fall bucket lists going around the interwebs these days, and sometimes they make me chuckle. I live on a pumpkin patch where I pick apples for my job, we make apple cider on a weekly basis, there are hayrides every day of the week, and picking corn is kind of like a boring version of a corn maze.  Sooo....I've definitely crossed off most things on these bucket lists without even trying!  It reminds me not to take things for granted, and every day I feel so blessed to live and work in such a cool place.

However, one of the things on my Fall baking bucket list was to make apple cider donuts!  I had never actually heard of such a thing until I came across a post on tumblr about them.  I was instantly intrigued, and thought they sounded like the epitome of a Fall dessert.  Warm, cozy, fluffy donuts with apple cider and cinnamon?  Perfection!  

My expectations were cautiously high for these donuts, and I wasn't disappointed!  I also quite successfully convinced myself that because they were baked donuts (and not deep-fried), they must be healthy for you.  Am I right?

Apple Cider Baked Donuts
adapted from: eat, live, run

yields: 11-12 donuts

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 cup buttermilk  [or 1/4 cup of milk with 1/2 tsp of vinegar....let stand for 5-10 minutes before using]

Topping:
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon (or to taste)

Directions:

1)  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

2)  In a smaller bowl, mix together the softened butter with the eggs until fluffy (doing this ensures that your butter doesn't re-solidify once the cold buttermilk and cider are added).  Add buttermilk and apple cider, and mix well.

3)  Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until just blended.  Try not to overmix!

4)  Spread the batter into a greased donut pan.  I used a large spoon to drop the batter in, or placing your batter into a pastry bag to pipe into the pan makes the process nice and easy.  Fill each mold about 3/4 full.

5)  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. You may want to break open a test donut just to make sure the inside isn't gummy!

6)  For the topping: melt the butter in a bowl that will fit a donut inside it.  Then, dip each donut quickly into the butter, and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

*These are best on the first day, as they tend to get a bit soggy once you place them in a container.

Do you have your own version of a Fall bucket list?  I'd love to hear what's on them! 

-kels

pop tarts and apple pie pops

Today I thought I'd talk about a few creative ways to use up extra pastry you might have lying around after making

pie

, tarts, turnovers, piroshki, strudel....you get the idea.  After making my apple pie, I decided to use up the extra pasty by making little pie pops, as well as pop tarts!

Or, if you want to just straight up make pop tarts or pie pops, here's the recipe for the pastry (although beware, it does make quite a bit of pasty!):

Pastry

from: Company's Coming - Desserts

Yield: Pastry yields enough to make 4 pies.

Ingredients:

5 cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 lb Lard (or vegetable shortening)

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar

Cold water

Directions:

1)  Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar in a large bowl.

2)  Cut up lard and add to dry ingredients. 

3)  Using a pastry cutter (or a plain old fork works as well), cut in lard until your mixture is crumbly.

4)  Break your egg into a liquid measuring cup and beat well.

5)  Add vinegar to the measuring cup.

6)  Add very cold water to the measuring cup, until the mixture measures to 1 cup.

7)  Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture slowly, and stir.

8)  Use your hands to work the mixture together until it no longer crumbles apart.  This is where experience will come in, as you don't want to overmix the dough!  Once you make it a couple of times, you'll get the feel of it.

9)  Divide into 4 equal parts.  Each part will make one pie, so you can choose to use it all at once, store some of the dough in the fridge* for up to 2 weeks, or pop some of into the freezer for later!

*If you do refrigerate your dough overnight (or for a few days), be sure to take it out at least an hour before you roll out it.  Otherwise it will be too stiff!

Now, pie pops and pop tarts follow the exact same steps, except for the different shapes....and for pie pops you'll want to insert a cake pop stick inside before adding the top layer.

First, you'll want to roll out your dough, and cut it into equal shapes (circles for pie pops, rectangles for pop tarts).  Then, place a dollop of filling inside (we chose to use raspberry jam or nutella in each one).  Place a matching shape over top, and use a fork to firmly press the edges together.  We chose to use mini cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes in the middle, but that's totally optional!  Finally, to help the pastry brown while it's baking, we brushed a tiny bit of egg white over the top of each pop tart (and also sprinkled some coarse sugar over as well).

Thanks goes to Jordyn for the use of her hands in most of these photos!  She is also a nutella addict...so that addition was hers.  You may or may not be aware of the fact that I'm really not a fan of nutella.

So yes, I'm a huge weirdo who doesn't like pie or nutella.  Don't judge me.

Homemade is definitely better than store bought...although perhaps a little less nostalgic in the case of pop tarts.  But these both make great treats that are perfect finger food for parties!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey (and jordyn)

diy: black and white painted pumpkins

Today I have another simple idea for decorating pumpkins that doesn't involve carving (in case you missed it, I made

dip dyed glitter pumpkins

last week)!  I decided to do some simple colour blocking with black and white, and I love how they came out.

Materials:

-pumpkins

-acrylic paint

-paint brush

-tape

Directions:

First I taped off each pumpkin, either diagonally, horizontally through the middle, or crisscrossing across the top.  Then, I simply painted the areas I wanted black or white, and left them to dry.  I did one coat of paint for the black, and two for the white paint.  Once they were

completely

 dry, I carefully removed the paint.

*Of course I couldn't resist adding a bit of glitter to one pumpkin, and just painted on a bit of modge podge and sprinkled some glitter on!

The possibilities are endless, and I think that silver and gold paint would look pretty awesome as well.

Happy pumpkin painting!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: apple streusel coffee cake

Coffee cakes are one of my favorite cakes.  Second only perhaps, to chocolate cake.  Depends on my mood I suppose.  And coffee cakes in Fall are just plain delightful.  There's something so cozy about them, and the fact that they usually contain cinnamon makes them even more wonderful.

This recipe came from my friend Rachel, and I am so in love with it.  You've got cinnamon, apples, and a streusel topping....what more could you ask for?  So much goodness.

Make this on a crisp Fall day, and serve with hot coffee!

Or hot chocolate, or milk, or whatever.  For those of us that aren't really into coffee...

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used elstars)

Streusel topping:

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, cold

Directions:

1)  In a large liquid measuring cup, combine milk and vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes to sour.

2)  Next, mix together streusel topping: Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a small bowl.  Cut in butter until you have coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

3)  Now you can start getting the cake batter ready.  Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy.

4)  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5)  Add vanilla and mix well.

6)  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

7)  Add flour mixture to butter mixture in four additions, alternating with the milk mixture in three additions. (You want to start and end with adding the flour mixture).  Mix together until just combined.

8)  Spread about half the cake batter into a greased, 9x13 pan.  

9)  Place apple slices close together in a single layer over the batter, and then sprinkle with about half of the streusel topping over the apples.

10)  Spread the remaining batter over everything, and sprinkle the remaining streusel topping on top.

11)  Bake at 350 degree for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

diy: dip-dye glitter pumpkins

Oh man, am I ever in love with my latest project!  Dip-dye glitter pumpkins!

I've had this idea in my head for a while, and was so happy that it came out exactly like I wanted.  Kind of rustic/farm-y mixed with glam.

I think these would make such fun and versatile decorations, from adding a bit of sparkle to your home, or they could even be used as part of a center piece for Thanksgiving or a Fall wedding.

Materials:

-pumpkin(s)

-glitter

-modgepodge

-tape

-paintbrush

Instructions:

1)  First make sure your pumpkins are clean and dry.

2)  I chose to only glitter half of my pumpkins, so I used masking tape to tape about halfway down my pumpkin.  Or you could freehand it if you really wanted to.

3)  Paint on modgepodge wherever you want glitter, then sprinkle glitter generously over the modgepodge.

4)  Shake off extra glitter, and touch up any spots you missed.

5)  Once your pumpkins have completely dried, it's a good idea to gently paint on another coat of modge podge!  This will dry clear (I promise...mine did!), and will help keep the glitter from getting on absolutely everything.

I hope you all have a fun and tasty Thanksgiving weekend!  Our farm is going to be absolutely bonkers busy, but I'm thankful that I get to spend it with my family!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey