Okay, I'm a little behind!
Tuesday for dinner, I made squash soup and focaccia bread. My first time making either of them, and they turned out great. I wish I had taken pictures...that's something that I want to start doing, but my hands always end up too covered in dough (or something) to hold my camera, haha.
The soup:
3 yellow squash, sliced thick
1 cooked acorn squash (these are one of the simplest side dishes ever, but also great in soup...I'm make another post for cooked squash!)
Any other squash you have...really, just throw any squash in there.
2 russet potatoes (keep in mind that you can really use any potato and any number of potatoes...this is just what I did!)
1 zucchini
3 (or so) stalks of celery
3 (or more) carrots
1 tomato (I wish I had used a tomato)
Lots of spices....I used salt, pepper, curry powder, a tiny bit of chili powder and cinnamon, and 3 cloves of garlic (minced, of course)
Some sort of stock (veggie, chicken, beef, etc) for a richer, deeper flavor, and additional water
Jared keeps a ziplock bag of chicken bones in the freezer for making stock. I started by boiling 5 large bones for...hours. You want to wait until you see the water become thick, and the meat/bones kind of fall apart. Really, you can't boil it down for too long. The longer you wait, the more flavor and nutrients are released from the marrow. (Note: you can hammer the bones a little to crack them before you boil them, to speed up the process a little. You have no idea how fun it is to clobber your food with a hammer until you try it!)
The great thing about making stock this way is how extraordinarily cheap and easy it is....and there aren't any weird ingredients like in the $5 cartons of store bought stock...even the organic stocks have strange preservatives and things, and there's just no need for this- if you eat chicken, you can save the bones and make stock. Easy. If you want vegetable flavor in there with the chicken (or just do veggies!), you can boil carrots, tomatoes and any other veggies you want in there as well. It all gets strained out in the end, though, so this time I decided to keep my veggies aside for the actual soup.
When I couldn't wait any longer, I poured the stock through a colander, and then put the broth back into the stew pot (we have an enormous stew pot, it's wonderful).
I chopped up all the squash and veggies, and threw them in the pot, then filled it up with filtered water until the water covered everything else.
Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat down to a medium simmer, and make sure you don't forget to stir it every 10 minutes or so. Keep it covered, otherwise. If the water level drops, add a bit more. Cook it until the squash breaks apart...you shouldn't really be able to see peels in there anymore, except for the potato peels. You'll still see the carrots. Trust me, it will all break down. I cooked mine for probably 4 hours total. It ended up with a thick and almost creamy texture.
The focaccia:
I used this recipe...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/focaccia-recipe/index.html
The only difference is that, at 425 degrees, mine was done and golden on top after about 10 minutes...you'll want to keep an eye on it!!
Also, it's really good with some sliced chicken and pepper jack melted on top, after you've baked it already. Amazing bread. The salt on top added such an awesome flavor, and it was surprisingly buttery...especially because I didn't use any butter!
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