Friday, December 10, 2010

Pumpkin Soup and Cranberry Scones

(Velvety Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese and Bacon from Allrecipes.com)

It's the holiday season, and I am in baking, cooking mode! All I want to do is fill my house with Christmas cheer and make comfort food, baked goods, try new recipes, and deliver cookies to friends, family, and neighbors! I love this time of year! Which is why come January I will be posting about weight loss resolutions/goals, but until then, let's eat on!
For Thanksgiving this year, the kids and I joined my college roommate Alison, and her family (who are like a second family to me) while Tad worked. I made this delectable Pumpkin Soup to bring to their house, and I made it last year for Thanksgiving as well. Last year I made it as an appetizer to the main feast. This year it was just part of the main meal. Tad loves it!! The blue cheese just melts into the warm soup when you garnish it, and the bacon gives it that extra crunch and taste that put it over the edge. Here is the actual recipe, but if you click on the link it will bring you straight to the recipe on Allrecipes.com and there you can print it in notecard format or regular format. Enjoy!

Velvety Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Blue Cheese
Allrecipes.com
Serves 6

2 (15 oz.) cans pumpkin
1 Quart chicken stock
1 cup half-and-half
1 shallot, minced
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
6 slices bacon
1 cup blue cheese crumbles

1. Stir together the pumpkin, chicken stock, half-and-half, shallot, molasses, butter, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and cayenne pepper in a large stockpot over low heat. Simmer 10 minutes.
2. Put the bacon in a large skillet and cook over med-high heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels, cool and crumble.
3. Ladle soup into bowls, top with blue cheese and bacon.

(Buttermilk Scones from Allrecipes.com)

This recipe came about because I had some leftover buttermilk on hand, and I knew that some recipes for scones had buttermilk. So I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and adapted it per some of the comments on the recipe, and added some of my own flair. They were so good and light, and we ended up giving some of these babies with some homemade chocolate chip cookies to Maddy's class teachers. She was suppose to tell them, "eat the scones warm with butter and jam." I'll include the recipe again, the link to the recipe, and then my notes and adaptations.

Buttermilk Scones
Allrecipes.com

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and buttermilk and stir until soft dough forms.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press dough into a rectangle about 3/4 in thick and 4 inches wide. Cut into 8 equal pieces.
4. Place scones on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10-15 min. or until golden brown.

Notes: I did 3 things different.
1. I took the advice of others and instead of cutting out the dough, I just simply dropped the dough onto a baking sheet into tablespoons or a little larger, and made small scones. They were small, light, and turned out perfect! And it was much easier than rolling it out, forming, and cutting. That cut out step 3.
2. I added dried cranberries, but you could add anything really. Cheese, chocolate chips, other dried fruits. I think I will be making these with chocolate chips in the near future!!
3. I added a pinch of sugar to the top of each scone. The scones don't have sugar in them, and this added a little sweetness, as did the butter and homemade strawberry jam we added to them!

Hope this adds to your already overflowing list of recipes to try this Holiday season! Happy baking/cooking!!!

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