Butternut Squash Soup

Brace yourself, I am about to let you in on one of the Davis Family Fall favorites!  It's one that makes you want to snuggle up by the fire!

No, this is not orange coffee... this is Butternut Squash Soup. Delicious, creamy, buttery... Butternut Squash Soup. And yes, it's in a mug. Don't you eat soup out of mugs??

It is one of our family favorites for the fall/winter months. And because it's one of our favorites... I am going to share the recipe with you!

You will need:
1 Butternut Squash
2 Sticks Butter
2 Yellow or White Onions
2 (8 oz) Blocks of Cream Cheese
8 Chicken Bouillion Cubes
1/2 tsp Marjoram
1/4 tsp Red Pepper

1. Peel and dice squash into 1 inch cubes.

2. Saute onions in butter.

3. Add all ingredients except cream cheese into crock pot. Cover with water, cook on High for 4 hours.

4. One hour prior to serving blend with immersion blender (or blender, in small batches) until smooth. Stir in cream cheese, cover and simmer 1 hour.

(Just a quick side note: Immersion blenders are amazing! I have made this soup for years without one and blended it in small batches in my stand up blender. NOW I have an immersion blender and it is Ah-mazing. Seriously! A little "Zzzip zzzip" with the immersion blender and in less than a minute it's as smooth as can be. I'm telling you, if you don't have one, you need to add it to your Christmas wish list!)

Finally, serve in bread bowls! (or in a mug, if you don't have any bread bowls on hand...) My husband's favorite way to eat it is with some garlic bread for dipping. Yum.


Oh! A little sneaky mommy side note:
This soup is tasty enough for the kiddos to eat but the last time I made it, my squash was HUGE. Like too big to fit into the crock pot kind of huge. So, I cooked what wouldn't fit in the crock pot separately and blended it in the blender. THEN I added it to the boys mac-n-cheese! They couldn't even tell it was in there! I felt sneaky, like the sneaky chef kind of sneaky. Mwuahahaha (that was my evil laugh, in case you were wondering)

I hope you will try the soup! I promise, you will love it if you do!

He's F O U R

If you see this kid in the grocery store hanging around his mom's legs, he will probably wave at you and say 'Hi!'. If you linger he will continue... "My name's Tristan. I was this many (holding up three fingers) but now I'm this many (now holding up four)."

He is right, he was this many and now he is four. Roughly 6 weeks ago was his birthday but he is still chattering about it almost daily.

Even as a newly turned four year old, he is full of why's and what for's. (which is awesome and makes for constant learning opportunities. but at the same time can drive this momma a little on the crazy side of life when I have to give a play-by-play of all that I do.)

He is very interested in what things smell like. (this must be a boy thing. his daddy has the same intrigue.)

He has no concept of time. Anything that happened in the past whether an hour ago, a day ago, week, month or year ago to Tristan, it usually comes out "remember, last night with a long ways to go?" "you remember, two days ago?" "Earlier, last morning..." or "remember, the other time..."

He counts everything.

One of his favorite things to do is hunt, find and catch bugs and or lizards.

He prays the sweetest prayers. Along with praying for family, friends and food he often prays for bugs, animals and movie characters.

He is learning lots of verses for Cubbies (Awana program with our church). He does so well and LOVES his vest. He calls it his "bery best".

He is a wonderful big brother. Don't get me wrong, he loves to pick on his little brothers but he also loves to love on them. He is always helping me when he can with the little boys. He makes his big brotherness known.

On that note: if you were that random person in the grocery store, he would go on to introduce you to all of us, "This is my brother Peyton and he's 2. This is my other brother Kohen and he's zero, he used to be in my mommy's tummy!" as he pats me on my stomach. Oh, yes, he goes there... often.

Some of T's favorites (in his words):

Food: peanut butter and jelly and cheetos
Movie: the dragon one (How To Train Your Dragon... we've watched it at least a thousand ten times since we bought it.)
Toys: umm... cars
Game to play: hide n' sneak (yes, we say sneak instead of seek)
About being the big brother: being the biggest boy
Number: 4
Letter: T
Candy: a candy cane (not sure when the last time he actually had a candy cane was... or why he said this?? but he did.)
Story: Gabid and Goliaff (David and Goliath)
Outfit: umm... I don't know. (not sure why I asked this... you'd think as a momma of 3 boys I would've known this one would be a dud.)
Animal: frog, cow, frog again, a cat and a puppy and a turtle.
Song: everyfing else (Everything Else, from Seeds of Purpose)
Book: no more monkeys jumping on the bed
Color: Green

Then he looked at me with a shrug and a smile and said, "that's all I got."

Sweet T at four, you are so much fun!