Amazingly Simple Recipe: Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Autumn’s cooler temperatures and rich colors bring to mind the smooth, warm decadence of hearty soups. A quick YouTube search will filter through thousands of ways to make thousands of soups. . Soups like squash soup, with wildly varying flavor-altering ingredients from chicken stock to curry to apple juice to vinegar. 

Not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point within the last week, I became obsessed with finding and making the perfect squash apple soup. I sifted through a few dozen versions on YouTube, but I just couldn't find the right recipe. I was looking for a combination of rich and creamy with a little sweetness and spice. 

So I made my own recipe. It's delicious(!), but this is only my first go-round. If you decide to make a few edits of your own, I won't be mad a ya ;)

• 6 cups chopped butternut squash
• 6 Granny Smith, Michigan or other sweet apples, peeled & chopped
• 1/2 chopped large white or yellow onion
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 1/2 cup half and half
• Olive oil

1. Cover bottom of pot with olive oil over high heat. 
2. Add onions and ginger. Stir and cook until onions are translucent. 
3. Add broth, squash, and apples. Bring to a boil. 
4. Simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
5. Turn heat off. 
6. Use blender or bullet to blend contents together. 
7. Return blended soup to simmering pot. 
8. Add cream. 
9. Add any of these if desired: thyme, salt, pepper

Enjoy!

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Random Rant

So this post started out as a rant on a whole different subject, but I got sidetracked and started a completely new rant, and then deleted and deleted the former rant until all the old rant is gone.

-----


Part of the reason I travel is because learning how other people live is amazing. Even random interactions with people in other environments are amazing.

But also, I'm too confined by the social rules here. I need better examples of good friends. I need companionship from people with the same ethics, with no judgement, and who will earnestly listen when I talk. I need to be around people who enjoy helping others, and laughing out loud. The people I met in the DR just two years ago send me family photos and Skype calls, for God's sake.

I can't express myself freely here because I'm always judged. And I expect the head tilts and dismissive tones when I try now. Even still, I hesitantly attempted to explain my feelings about a recent incident to someone recently. And as expected, she mocked me and gave me the "well, THAT was stupid" response.

So.I no longer make excuses or ask for pardon for my feelings. But it makes me sad that I have such a large social network but no one who'll even get me.

I can be screaming in a crowd of a thousand people and no one will hear me.

But my friends from Brisbane, Australia... both people listened patiently and then explained back to me how I'm feeling. Neither did it as a method of pacification. Both actually finished my sentences.

They get me.

Honor Him

We often forget the grand task our fathers are burdened to bear. They can only show strength - as it's unforgivable for the head of household to appear weak - but be conscious and empathetic when we cry. Lest we not forget that our fathers came home with sore backs and tired feet from working enough to keep us warm and sheltered.

When your mother coddled and protected you, your father nurtured your sense of independence and survival.

When your mother insisted you join teams and clubs, your father worked tirelessly to provide the means for you.

When your mother gave you a seed and helped you cultivate it and watch it grow, your father taught you to take it by its stalk and tear it down and use it to nourish one thousand other things.

Your mother taught you to carry peace in your body to settle the unruly. Your father taught you to put up with bvll$h!t it only once.

He is the gear that shifts you from resolution to determination. You cannot make your own family without carrying the weight and the honor of his name. And you can't look in a mirror and not see him looking back, assessing his work.

Your father granted you shelter.

Conditioned your strength.

Made you fearless.

Except for spiders.

Rooted your stability.

Demanded your integrity.

Made you better.

Honor Him.

- Michelle Russell

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"Chained to the Rhythm" Hits Home

This new song by Katy Perry is FIRE! I'm digging the smooth dance hall groove and the danceable melody. It's already stuck in my head.

But the lyrics are really quite powerful, matched with a killer video that really drives the message home. I think both can easily match our emotions regarding our current state of affairs. And if you're an adult in America, at least one of the messages is heavy on your mind these days.

The video starts with Katy walking into a Utopian theme park with a crowd of oblivious citizens. Horrible, inhumane things are happening all around them, but the crowd remains unconcerned.

Katy boards a roller coaster with seats marked "male" and "female". Two people of the same sex can't sit together. They're scored at the end of the ride: the male gets 9500 points, the woman only gets 17 (gender inequality).

She passes a catapult that literally sends families home by hurling them over a wall (sound familiar?).

Not so subtle messages about the housing market, conservatism, immigration and how we're glued to our technology. (I love how the crowd enters the park, too busy taking selfies to enjoy themselves.) You'll even catch some references to nuclear war and the Flint water crisis (look for the people drinking the blue fire water).

But check the lyrics:

Chained to the Rhythm
Are we crazy?
Living our lives through a lens
Trapped in our white picket fence
Like ornaments
So comfortable, we're living in a bubble, a bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble
So put your rose-colored glasses on
And party on
Turn it up, it's your favorite song
Dance, dance, dance to the distortion
Turn it up, keep it on repeat
Stumbling around like a wasted zombie
Yeah, we think we're free
Drink, this one is on me
We're all chained to the rhythm
To the rhythm to the rhythm


Okay, so maybe I've listened a few too many times. But the lyrics hit a nerve (or seven or twenty) on a more personal level for me. If I'm listening but not watching the video, it feels like Katy's lecturing me about my life. All aspects therein.

Pretending everything is okay. My work. My friendships. My health. My world. Day by day, I pretend everything is okay.

Well, everything is definitely NOT okay. Keeping my opinions and frustrations about outrages shown to me and others every day, pretending to only see the topical and ignoring the strong current below, pretending everything is just perfect.

Katy's right. I'm stumbling around like a wasted zombie.