Indian-Style Squash Soup with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

Tonight's Jack Bishop soup has a guest star: fresh-baked Anadama bread by ME! More on that later. Let's talk soup.

Another out of the ballpark hit. This soup requires a few different steps to make, but it's all very easy. The soup on its own is delicious, but I love the spiced pumpkin seeds that you sprinkle on top. They are just delicious, and I love the crunch that they add to the soup. They're also yummy to snack on sans soup.

And now, my bread. A certain conservative political blogger friend recommended to me the book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I had tried to make bread from a different cookbook, and the flavors were not there. So, I read this highly scientific book and followed the recipe for Anadama bread (combo of polenta and bread flour plus some light molasses, salt, water, yeast, and a little butter). This bread is a two day event. Sadly, I messed up Step Two this morning, and I think that's why the bread didn't rise all the way. BUT, it tastes amazing. Bread baking is an art and a science, but with only a little knowledge I was able to make delicious bread even after messing it up!

As you might have guessed, I'm giving the soup the full 5 stars. It's just fabulous. Tommie will be eating well when he gets off his plane tonight.

Butternut Squash and White Bean Stew

Does rosemary make everything taste delicious?

I'm so glad this stew turned out well, because I really dislike working with squash. Scooping out the seeds isn't so bad, but peeling it is just tiring. Whole Foods had a huge display of different varieties of squash this week, so we selected delicata to be different. The taste seems the same to me (in this stew at least) as butternut. Because the delicata is a smaller variety though, I felt like I had to do double duty prepping two rather than one big butternut squash.

Other ingredients include tomatoes, beans (I went with Great Northern), and onions, but the lead flavor was rosemary that I picked fresh from our garden. I love rosemary. Love it.

Tommie and I give this dish 5 stars. You burn some calories prepping the squash, but it's worth it.
(BTW, since this blog is about food, and not my crazy political views, we felt anonymity was less important, hence Hubby's name now being Tommie.)