Cooking with Abandon

So the Halloween dinner party went pretty well, though most people weren't able to stay very long past the actual dinner. Some stayed around for the movie, and a pretty good time was had by all.

Recipes that were a hit: definitely the pumpkin shaped cheese ball, which we'll have to put the recipe up for. Also the smores brownies were enjoyed. We deep fried some chicken tenders (pre-cooked) and then tossed some in buffalo sauce and the others in bbq sauce.

The pumpkin tomato basil soup from a couple of posts ago went over pretty well. I fudged a lot of it; I didn't use fresh pumpkin, but instead chose canned pumpkin. It went well, but despite the much larger ratio of pumpkin to tomato, it still had a distinctly tomato taste. Also, there was much too much of it. Even having some leftovers for the next day or two, I still threw most of it out. Must scale back the recipe.

This one is also from recipezaar. Again, another soup, but I love anything tomato basil.

Posted by recipezaar member Tish.

SERVES 4 -6

INGREDIENTS

1 small pumpkin
7 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
4 cups chicken broth
8-10 carrots, peeled, sliced, diced
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup mushroom, sliced
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground pepper
1/4 cup cream
1 teaspoon sugar

DIRECTIONS

1 In a large pot, put Chicken Stock, pumpkin and carrot.

2 Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 1/2 hour.

3 Put butter in a frying pan and sautee onions and mushrooms until browned.

4 Add tomatoes and continue to fry for 5 minutes.

5 Puree all ingredients in a blender. Place pureed soup into the soup pot.

6 Add spices, sugar and cream at this time.

7 Simmer for 10 minutes.

8 Serve with fresh croutons.

I'm on the lookout for recipes to use tomorrow at our Halloween dinner party. I'm going to be pastry-ing it up tonight, but I also need to come up with some things for dinner too.

This soup comes from recipezaar. It was posted by a user called English_Rose from Cheshire, England. It is something I would like to consider if I can find a good pumpkin (and also learn how to prepare one).

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 lbs pumpkin, roughly chopped
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
2 pints water or vegetable broth
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons cream

BROOMSTICKS

4 part-baked breadsticks
2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1 Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes to soften.

2 Add the pumpkin and sweet potato and cook for a couple of mins, then add the water or stock. Season with salt and ground black pepper, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 25 mins until the pumpkin and sweet potato are really tender.

3 Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F Cut the breadstick dough in half lengthways, then make several cuts one third of the way up the length to look like broom bristles. Repeat with the other bread, put onto a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 5-8 mins until golden.

4 Stir the milk into the soup, whiz everything together in blender or processor in batches until smooth.

5 Return to the pan and gently warm through. Pour into bowls and finish with a swirl of cream.