B E B E R E

Am a little bit tired out today, as had trouble sleeping last night. When I'm tired I think of food,* so why not share a couple recipes I fiddled around with recently?

Sunday night, was out heeding the Call of Nature, so got home too late to make a proper dinner. Still, we needed something warm and filling. Ended up with a quick and dirty butternut squash "veloute:"

Butternut Soup

1 12 oz package frozen butternut squash
2 tsp chicken bouillion powder
2 c. water
1 onion
2 small (2-3" diameter) potatoes
1 tbl olive oil
curry powder to taste
1 c yogurt

Slice onion, saute in olive oil until transparent. Dice potatoes, add to pot with chicken bouillion, water, squash. Bring to rolling boil; cook until squash is thawed and potato is soft.

Transfer all to blender and puree.

Pour back into pan, add curry powder to taste (and a bit of salt and/pepper, if you'd like), and heat to a simmer. Stir in yogurt.

Makes a really filling meal for two or a more reasonable one for four. Goes well with fresh, crusty bread, cheese and salad.

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The crab apples are best harvested after the first frost. We haven't had a frost yet, and I really had an urge to make jelly, so ended up experimenting with something I'd been wanting to try for a while:

Burgundy Jelly

3 1/2 c wine (I used a *very* cheap burgundy)
1/2 c fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 c sugar
1 pkg sure-jell pectin

Decided to try a 1:1 wine/juice:sugar ratio to see what I'd end up with. Followed the pectin package instructions and let Sure Jell do its magic. I ended up with 5 8 oz jars, one 4 oz jar and a saucerful of leftover jam. Worked like a dream.

Pavel smeared a bit of the stuff over some goat cheese on an ak-mak and told me that it was actually pretty good. I'm wondering if this might be nice over vanilla custard or ice cream. In any event, am thinking of making more to give as gifts, it's so lovely and inattendu.

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*We used to call this tired-hungry thing the "hungry horrors" at my last job.