Yum Yum Roasted Pumpkin Soup

This recipe, loosely based on the San Francisco a la Carte recipe, made a perfect batch of soup for our family tonight. Even the girls enjoyed it and, best of all, all of the veggies in it came straight from my CSA box! We ate it on the side of a small serving of grilled salmon and kale sauteéd with bacon and garlic.

3 cups roasted pumpkin flesh
4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 leek, finely chopped
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup milk
croutons or roasted pumpkin seeds

Cut a pumpkin in half, scrape out seeds and strings. Place cut side down on a foil-lined, greased baking sheet. Roast at 375 degrees for one hour or until soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool until you can handle the pumpkin. While the pumpkin is cooling, finely chop the onion and leek. Melt all of the butter and, when the butter is foamy, sauté the onion and leek until limp. Sprinkle with flour and seasonings, cook and stir for three minutes. Slowly add the chicken broth and allow to come to a simmer. Scoop pumpkin flesh from roasted pumpkins and add to the chicken broth mixture. Warm over medium heat until the rest of the meal is ready to be served. Add half and half and milk before blending the soup until smooth. Ladle into bowls and top with a few croutons or roasted pumpkin seeds before serving.

Liar, liar pants on fire!

My friend Susi sent me this article today about how Tyson Foods injects their chickens with antibiotics "in ovo" (before they hatch) and, despite that, have been labeling those chickens as raised without antibiotics. Shame on Tyson and all the other chicken producers who use the same practice. Liars, liars pants on fire. We should hang you by a telephone wire.

There are multiple reasons not to eat meat treated with routine antibiotics. The most common one is because, as I'm sure you all know, rampant use of antibiotics reduces their effectiveness. The strongest microorganisms survive the antibiotic treatment and breed, creating superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics. As responsible citizens, most of us try not to contribute to that problem. We don't take antibiotics unless our doctors are positive that we need them. When we do have to take antibiotics, we finish every pill prescribed so that the drug has a chance to kill every bug it was meant to kill. We don't take antibiotics for preventative purposes. So, why would we buy meat that is treated with routine, preventative antibiotics? I can tell you why. It's convenient and it's cheap.

I'll say it again: it's cheap. Cheap, people. Think of the big yellow signs in the grocery store: Buy one get one free! Boneless skinless breasts only $0.99/pound! Cheap chicken feeds our family while making only a small dent in our wallets.

Here are a few other grocery items that are cheap, even when they're not on sale: chickpeas. Lentils. Potatoes. Kidney beans. Barley. Quinoa. Rice. Pinto beans. You can find great recipes for these items in any vegetarian cookbook or on the web. You can buy them dry for under a dollar a pound. Even the organic versions are cheap. Why do you think people in other countries live on rice and beans? They're cheap! Even cheaper than cheap chicken!

It's hard to find good chicken. Healthy chicken. So hard, in fact, that my family and I have only had chicken a handful of times since we changed our eating habits last January. Good chicken is available, but you have to search to find it and you may have to drive a long way to get it. Just recently I was looking for a new source for chicken and found this fabulous farm in South Carolina called Oaklyn Plantation. Of course I was hoping to find something closer to home,but if it's good chicken and it's not available within one hundred miles of my house, I don't really care what state it comes from. The folks at Oaklyn Plantation are honest to goodness farmers who raise honest to goodness meat and poultry. It seems like they've figured out that the only way to make a living through farming these days is to produce a healthy product in a way that is healthy for the environment and healthy for consumers. That's why their chickens are pastured and their beef is grass fed. What makes this farm spectacular is not only the quality of what they're selling, but the price. For the quality of meat you'll get from Oaklyn Plantation, it's a bargain. B-A-R-G-A-I-N. Bargain. The cost of shipping is what will do you in, but that's not the farm's fault, and even with 3-day shipping added the meat is still cheaper (and better) than what you'll find at Whole Foods or Ranch Foods Direct. Come January I plan to order at least one, possibly two, twenty pound boxes of chicken thighs. I miss chicken thighs. We used to eat them once a week in our house. Brynn's favorite main course is skinless, bone-in chicken thighs rubbed with her favorite seasoning and grilled. What mac-n-cheese is to most kids, these chicken thighs are to Brynn.

It is possible to survive, even thrive, without eating supermarket chicken. In the past ten months Scott has lost fifteen pounds (by the way, that is not typical for a thirty one year old man who spends most of his day at a desk and drinks beer every night). Callie has grown about four inches. Brynn is in the middle of a growth spurt, too. In the past ten months my kids have needed to go to the doctor not once, not twice, but ZERO times. In fact, they don't even know their doctor's name. They are eating healthy food. They are getting monthly gentle chiropractic adjustments. Sometimes they even wash their hands. Sometimes they lick the cart at Costco and eat off the floor at Whole Foods. They are not getting sick. I don't think my kids are living in a sterile world. I think they have strong immune systems that fight hard for them. I don't think that Scott is trying to lose weight. I think he seeks out healthy food and refuses unhealthy food. I think that eating healthy food is causing my family to be healthy. And, apparently, a healthy diet does not require Tyson chicken. So don't buy it.

I admit it. I'm a hoarder.

This morning I saw this post, written by a fellow Grant Farms CSA shareholder. I love how she extols the virtues of the misunderstood egg; I truly believe that eggs (especially GOOD ones) are much healthier for us than we've been taught. See her post for more on that, or check out the book Real Food by Nina Planck. It was also a comforting post to read because it let me know that I've got company. You see, I've grown very attached to the eggs delivered by my CSA. And I know the CSA season is coming to an end. And one of my shareholders keeps failing to pick up her CSA share which, as it turns out, means that she is enabling my hoarding problem. I don't hoard pets, I don't hoard clothes, I don't have piles of junk lying around my house. But, please, don't open my refrigerator. I hoard eggs.

Yes, it's true.

I don't hoard all eggs, though. Just good ones. And, fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), my CSA delivers several dozen beautiful eggs to my house every week -- one dozen for me and the rest for my shareholders. Scott picks out our share, making sure to get the box with the most turquoise eggs, because he knows those are my favorite (really, it's the little things that keep a marriage happy). And then the next morning I check the cooler to see if anyone failed to pick up their share. And sometimes there's a dozen. Once in a while, two dozen. Ha ha!! Imagine my delight! But, really...look at these eggs! If you were in my situation, you'd hoard them too. Because the thought of the season's final delivery makes me shudder.

I'm pretty good at giving away forgotten veggies. When people don't come get their share, one of my neighbors usually gets a free box of veggies for the week. But I'm not so generous with the eggs. I am proud of myself, though...I did give a dozen to my friend Laura last night. I hope she knows what a sacrifice it was!

So I've admitted it. I'm a hoarder. Now here are my justifications. Going back to buying eggs in a grocery store will, I fear, cause me to have a breakdown. And eggs as fresh as the ones in my fridge last a while. The holidays are coming. I go through a lot of eggs in a regular week, but when I'm making pies, custards, cookies, and special breakfasts, I go through even more. These eggs will get eaten, probably soon. And I worked hard for my CSA this year, taking care of my shareholders and adopting unwanted veggies. These eggs are my reward, and let me tell you, they make being a CSA host worth the effort!