A Family Favorite

Some friends of ours had their first baby a week ago. We have all been so excited to welcome little Hannah Elizabeth to the world. Yesterday Eli and spent the morning making soup for their dinner. One of Eli and Luke's first and favorite foods has been butternut squash and I've started making it into a soup that our whole family loves. We even put three butternut squash plants in our garden this year with the hope they'll produce a bumper crop. It's relatively easy and delicious!

Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
white part of a leek, sliced
1 tbls. unsalted butter
4 cups chicken stock

Saute the leek in the butter until tender. Add the squash and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer until squash is quite tender, about 20 minutes. Puree in a blender and enjoy.

By far the most difficult part of making this soup is peeling and cutting the squash. So, if you don't have a younger sister around who you can con into doing this nasty work, poke a couple of holes in the squash with a fork and throw it in the microwave for about 7 minutes. This cooks the squash just enough to soften it up so it is reasonable to cut. Also, if I don't happen to have any chicken stock around, I'll just use water and throw in a couple of chicken boullion cubes.