As I sat down to make my menu for this week, I checked on the weather for the next few days (I always do...it tends to help me focus my cooking mojo) and saw that it is gonna be COLD here in the Chi for the next week (at minimum). I'm not talking, "Brr...I need me a sweater" cold. I'm talking, "Holy HELL it's cold outside!" cold. Today we had a whopping high of 12 F. here on the south side. TWELVE. It's 4 days in to 2010 and I'm already longing for five months from now. Screw this "winter" business. I'm totally and completely ready for Spring.

Anywho, that being said, I checked on the weather and decided that this week was perfect for some cozy comfort food. After all, when it's 12 degrees outside, you need something warm, filling, and comforting to make you forget that the high temperature for the day starts with the number 1. I started perusing through some cookbooks and online recipes and couldn't find "the recipe" to make for today. So, I did what any industrious Frazzoo would do in such a situation: I decided to improvise by pulling the trigger and praying. Thankfully for me, it worked!

This soup is a concoction of a few recipes I found in my cookbook stash. It's yummy and filling and warm. Make it today!

Baked Potato Soup
(Frazzoo original)

4 baking potatoes
1 onion, diced
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. beef broth
12 oz. evaporated milk (the liquid stuff in the can)
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 green onions, chopped
1 T. bacon bits/chopped bacon (you can use the jarred stuff, I won't judge)

Prepare 4 potoates for baking. Bake for 1 hour at 350 F. or until fork tender. Set aside to cool.

While potatoes are cooling, melt butter in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. When butter is nice and melty, add the onion and saute for a few minutes until nice and tender (about 5 minutes). Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. This creates your roux for the soup. It's a nice little base to start with.

Once you've got your roux (it'll look like a thick paste), add the beef broth, followed by the evaporated milk. Give it a good stir to mix it well. The potatoes should be cool enough to handle now. Cut them in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. It can be in small bits to large chunks. A good mix of small and large is what you want. If you can, scoop out the flesh of two potatoes and cut the remaining two in decent sized chunks.

Add the potato flesh to the soup and stir. Use your spoon to break up the large chunks of potato (the smaller pieces will melt into your soup as it thickens). Season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir, and taste for seasonings.

As your soup stands, it will thicken. Remove from heat when it's bubbling slightly and reaches your desired consistency. Stir in chopped scallions and chopped bacon. Test for seasonings and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir until heated through and serve warm.

Notes:

• If we had any sour cream, I would have added a nice dollop to the soup before serving. It adds a nice tang and some creaminess without being too overpowering.
• You can top this with croutons, more bacon, and cheese if you want. Any of your favorite potato toppings are game here.
• This gets hot pretty quick, so be careful not to burn your tongue like a certain Frazzoo did while rushing to finish dinner.
• I served this with some simple grilled chicken sandwiches, but it can stand alone or as a starter course for your meal. Just make a larger batch if you're serving it for a main course.
• Including the preparation for the potatoes, this takes about 90 minutes. However, once the potatoes are out of the oven, this was ready in about 30 minutes. Definitely a keeper for weeknights!

I really love butternut squash soup. I'd never even heard of it until I worked a year in a boarding school and the cook made it for dinner one night. From then on I was hooked, and we had some absolutely phenomenal butternut squash soup on our honeymoon in Galena. I've been itching to make it for a while and I decided that this week was perfect...and naturally, it was 60 degrees today. Ah, nature.

This soup was really great, and it'd be perfect for a chilly fall night. It's warm and filling and exactly what I was looking for. I looked around online and compared various recipes and decided that creating my own would be way more fun.

Butternut Squash Soup
(Angie original)

1 whole butternut squash, medium sized
1 c. water
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 T. butter
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced thin
2 c. vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 T. maple syrup
Salt and pepper
Slivered almonds, toasted
2 T. chopped fresh parsley

Heat oven to 350 F. Chop the squash in half--firmly plant the sucker bulb-side down onto a cutting board and give it a hefty "Hi-yah!" to chop it in half. Scoop out the seeds and membrane and place the squash halves face down on a baking sheet. Poor in a cup of water and roast halves in oven for 30 minutes, or until they're fork tender.

When squash is tender, remove from oven and set aside. Allow halves to cool until they're comfortable to touch and hold for a few moments. Scoop out the flesh and set aside.

Heat oil and butter in a large pot, about 2 minutes. Add leeks and saute until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add squash to pot, followed by broth and bay leaf. Mix together and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Add maple syrup to pot, stir well, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Taste for seasonings and add a dash more salt or pepper if necessary. Pour contents of pot into a blender, or use an immersion blender, and puree soup until smooth. Stir in fresh parsley and top almonds.

Notes:

• This was really nice and velvety. I loved the texture and how warm and buttery it was.
• A dash of salt and pepper is really all you need, any more and the salt cuts in on the natural sweetness of the squash.
• I'd like to try different blends of seasonings to compliment the squash, so I'll have to do some experimenting. Thankfully when they're in season, a butternut squash is only about 78 cents at my local produce market!
• If you don't have an immersion blender and have to pour your soup into a blender, I'd suggest pouring it back into the pot and heating it through. I tasted my soup shortly after I threw it in the blender, and it had definitely cooled down. If you DO have an immersion blender, just keep the heat on low until it's pureed to your desired consistency.
  

By this point, unless you're a new reader, it's no secret that I love my crockpot. I've already used it a few times since the start of the school year (we've been in 4 weeks already) and I honestly just adore it. I'm always on the hunt for new recipes and I really enjoy coming home to a finished meal. Some might counter that crockpot cooking "isn't really cooking", but I disagree. I'm still making dinner, and it's no one's fault but my own when dinner is a flop whether it's on the stove or in my crockpot.

I saw this at the end of August on Crockpot 365, and I wanted to make it ASAP. I didn't really care that I was making soup on September 1st, and it was warm and filling and delicious. I could go on (and I will) but see my notes for my...well, notes.

End of Summer Harvest Soup
(Adapted from The Crockpot Lady)

1 lb. Italian sausage, crumbled
Salt and pepper
1 T. olive oil
3 c. chicken stock
1 c. chicken broth
1 14 oz. jar prepared pasta sauce (I used tomato & basil)
1 onion, diced
4 zucchini, cleaned and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
2 summer squash, cleaned and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
1 T. dried Italian seasoning
1/3 c. dried red kidney beans, rinsed

Season sausage with salt and pepper. Brown sausage in olive oil and transfer to slow cooker. Pour chicken stock and broth into slow cooker and add pasta sauce. Add zucchini, squash, onion, and tomatoes to slow cooker. Throw in the beans and season well. Give it all a big stir to combine.

Cook on low for 10 hours, or until beans have reached desired tenderness. Serve with pasta or crusty Italian bread.

Notes:

• This is so, so wonderful to come home to, and I love that it combines some of my favorite summer vegetables. The tomatoes really burst open and released some great flavors, and the zucchini was melt-in-your-mouth tender.
• I forgot to serve this with pasta. If you use wheat-free or gluten-free pasta, add it about 20 minutes before you're ready to serve. If you use the regular stuff, I'd suggest cooking it first and adding it to the soup as you're serving or it will turn into a mushy mess. Ew.
• I added the Italian sausage as a protein for the soup, and I'm glad I did. It paired perfectly and added a little "sumpthin sumpthin" to the meal.
• If you have a homemade marinara you'd prefer to use...go ahead. I went with the jar of pasta sauce because it was easier to add in the morning over making pasta sauce the night before.