Pumpkin Soup

Fun recipe for Fall!

Ingredients:
1 small pie pumpkin, baked
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 Tablespoons honey
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt to taste
Crispy Pumpkin Seeds (At the very bottom of the post.)

Method:
Mash up the baked pumpkin in the bottom of a 6 quart pan.
Add the chicken broth, honey, curry and pumpkin pie spice.
Blend with a stick blender until smooth.
Heat till steaming, then add the coconut milk and blend again.
Heat again until serving temperature.  I don't like to heat the soup to boiling with the coconut milk in it.
Add salt to taste, garnish with pumpkin seeds and serve.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

With all the junk that is in the commercial varieties of Ranch Dressing, I just can't bring myself to buy it.  But my menfolk love it, so I went on the hunt for a DIY version and after some tweaking, this is where I landed.

Ranch Dressing

Herbs:
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1 Tablespoon chives, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons freshly grated parmesan or Romano cheese
1 dash hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Base:
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 dash raw apple cider vinegar

Mix all of it together with either a stick blender, a Magic Bullet or a whisk.  It doesn't mix very well if you just shake the jar. **

Stores well in the fridge.  I just put it in a glass jar with a screw top lid and it keeps for weeks.

**My stick blender is as old as the hills, and I got it second hand, but there are tons on the market out there.
I got my Magic Bullet on sale at Costco, and they can be found online or in other stores, as well.  I use my Magic Bullet just about every day.  Best kitchen appliance purchase I've made in years!