Welcome back! To school and to cooking and to music.

Right down to business. This week I made a very simple roasted autumn veggie soup. Leaves on soup for visual effect. Hair because I always cook with hair. So good! Paired with music which celebrates fallness and or the sounds of yellowish orange images atop dusty skies and falling leaves.

To make delicious soup a loooooooop:

1 large butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeds removed

4 smallish or 2 real big potatoes

1 onion cut into 4 pieces

4 cloves of garlic, NOT peeled

3 big carrots

4 celery stalks

1 apple cored and cut into big chunks

1/4-1/2 cream

6-8 cups vegetable stock

glugs of oil and some pats of butter

lemon or vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350 f
In a large roasting pan or cake pan or any big pan, throw all of the vegetables into that pan and add a few good glugs of oil and or lots of butter. Have the squash with the skin side facing up. Add about 3 tsp of salt and lots of pepper. Keep skins on garlic as the skin will provide a protective layer to roast the garlic in.
Throw into oven covered for 20 minutes
Uncover and bake for 25-30 more minutes, or until roasty with brown and tender.
In the meantime, heat up 6 -8 or so cups of veggie stock in a big pot. Use whatever stock you have if not veggie stock, or use water.
Veggies should be tender. Scrap out the lovely bits of squash. Squeeze out your garlic. Should be like toothpaste. Stir all veggies up and mash up. Put your hands in there and feeeeeeeeel it mon. Taste it too. Add more salt or pepper if you think it would taste better.
Add your mushy roasty veggies to your big pot of stock
Bring to a simmer
Blend with a hand blender or in batches with your favourite Christmas present from 2011 the MAGIC BULLET!
Add some cream if you want too :)
Season with salt and pepper. Missing a kick? Add some lemon or vinegar to bring out flavour.
EAT!
Fanciful suggestions: top with crisp bits of apple, or goats cheese, or bacon, or croutons. Or. All.