Poultry Stock take one (p. 117) and Butternut Squash Soup (p. 129)

So why does my post start with Poultry Stock TAKE ONE (p. 117)? This conversation might clear it up...

Me (washing the chicken): Do you think the variety meats go into the stock?

Josh: Which variety meats?

Me: I don't know, the chicken neck, gizzard, liver, and heart?

Josh: I don't see why not.

Me: So I should just throw them in?

Josh: Sure.

So I did. Apparently, believe it or not--the liver makes the broth taste like liver! That's probably fine if you like liver. But we don't. Ick! I used the stock once and threw the rest away :( And there is only one picture of this failure...you will have to wait for take two!

If only we had smell-o-computer!

I decided to do this in the first place because canned chicken stock is expensive and salty. It seems stupid when a chicken is less than five bucks, and you end up with both the cooked chicken and the stock--really cost-effective! So if you are trying to save money, make your own stock and eat the chicken.

So what did I make with my liver-chicken stock? It needed to be something strong...I figured I would make Butternut Squash Soup (p. 129). I'll admit, I love squash--all squash. I grew up eating a ton of it because squash plants are prolific and my father always planted tons in his garden.

The squash--to remove the seeds, I used a spoon, but a grapefruit spoon would be much better. I don't have any grapefruit spoons though....

The recipe doesn't say to cut the squash in half, but i thought they might cook better that way.

Pre-cooking:

Post-cooking--so much lighter!

Now onto another problem--scraping the cooked (and slightly cooled) squash from the skin. I hate doing stuff like that and I tend to burn my fingers. So I looked around at my cooking gadgets...if a peeler can peel a raw squash, why not a cooked squash? So I tried it. It worked extremely well! I highly recommend doing it this way.

I love this style of peeler. I think they peel way better and you can dig out potato eyes with the end.

Leeks. Some of you may remember that I was intimidated by them before...I've read so much about how you have to get all the grit out that I was convinced they were difficult to wash. They aren't! But you do seem to waste a lot of the leek--really, the whole top gets thrown away (unless any of you know anything to do with it!). The leek/ginger mixture smelled really, really good).

The uncooked squash mixture...simmering...yum....

It only has to simmer for about 20 minutes. This is not a slow soup, which is great!

Pureeing the soup...of course, this wouldn't be a problem if I had an immersion blender or a food processor that wasn't a three-cup. But I don't. So I used a blender.

Let me tell you, if you like to live on the end, pour hot soup, using the incredibly hot steel handles of the pot, into a blender. Then use such-said cheap blender, holding the top on, so the entire kitchen isn't covered in butternut squash. It was absolutely terrifying.

But eventually, it worked.

The finished soup....I know it's not a very good picture, but the soup was absolutely delicious. So good--but a little thin. I might use a big butternut squash next time.

The weirdest thing about this soup? I made it with the squash that was on the table. Later, I went back to the table, looked in the bag--and there was ANOTHER butternut squash! So the one I used must have been ancient--or the butternut squash has learned how to clone itself! Apparently, squash stay good for a long time...