Cauliflower Soup & Biscuits

 

 

I love, love, LOVE soup in the fall, so when I found this recipe for cauliflower soup I had to try it.  My husband does not care for cauliflower, but, like my pumpkin soup, he was pleasantly surprised.  What's even more surprising is how filling it actually is, even without biscuits.

 

Here is what you need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 head of cauliflower - cut up in florets (about 6 cups)
• 1 potato - peeled and diced
• Salt
• 1 clove of garlic, minced/pressed
• 1 tablespoon thyme (not ground)
• 4 cups chicken/vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• Pepper

Heat soup pot on medium heat and add in olive oil.  Add in cauliflower and potato.  Sprinkle salt and sweat veggies for a few minutes.

 

Add in garlic, thyme, broth, and water and some salt and pepper.  Simmer until cauliflower is tender (about 10-15 minutes).

 

Puree the soup in a blender.  You will probably have to do it in smaller batches.

 

 

 

For the biscuits:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup milk

Preheat over to 450*.  Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Using a pastry blender (I now have one of these!!!), cut in butter.  Make a well in the center and add in the milk.  Combine.

 

Spread dough out on a floured surface.  Knead dough by folding it over and pressing it together a few times.  Roll out to desired thickness.  Cut biscuits using a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or the top of a glass.  Reroll scraps as necessary and then give up on that last one that will always look a little *special*.

 

Here is our *special* biscuit.

 

Place the biscuits on a baking sheet and throw them (no, not literally) into the oven for 10-14 minutes.

 





 Serve biscuits warm with soup garnished with some pepper and your choice of cheese and enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones

Saturday was a typical rainy, cold, fall day up here in the mountains and we needed something warm for breakfast.  Our typical lazy breakfast of cold cereal wasn't going to cut it.  I looked though my pumpkin recipes and found one for pumpkin scones.  Now, in my family, scones are much different than what you'd get at a pastry shop.  Ours are basically fried bread dough that we lather in butter and cover in powdered sugar.  The recipe I found was one for "normal" scones.  Our scones are infinitely better than "normal" scones.  Always.  But I thought I'd give them a shot anyway.  You know, for the kids (who were actually really excited about them).

Here's what you need:

2 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 stick cubed cold butter
2/3 c. pumpkin
3/4 c. cream

First, preheat oven to 400*.  Or, if you're slow like me, you can do this halfway through the prep work because you forgot and still have plenty of time to spare.

Next combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium sized bowl.  I *accidently* added a little extra spice.  You can never have too much!

Then toss in the little cubes of cold butter and google "pastry blender".  Then google "what to do if you don't have a pastry blender".  At least, that's what I did.  I ended up using a fork to mash them up and used my fingers once I got tired of the fork.  It definitely took a while and I'll be ordering a pastry blender from Amazon before I make these again!

Did you preheat the oven yet??

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and the cream and stir it into the flour mixture. On a floured surface, pat the mixture into an 8-inch square-ish shape.  Make sure you put enough flour down so it doesn't stick to your counter, or you'll have to ball it up and start over.  And, yes, I'm speaking from experience.

Then cut into triangles, like so...

I wanted smaller ones so I ended up cutting them in half again. Also, a pizza cutter is for more than just cutting pizzas!

Transfer to a greased baking sheet and toss them (but not literally) in the oven for 20 minutes.  I sprinkled the tops of mine with a little bit of pumpkin pie spice before baking them.

Add a little butter to the scones and a glass of milk, and you'll have a perfect little breakfast to kick off the fall season!

Pumpkin soup!

Fall is my favorite season by far because it involves all of the best things:

~Pumpkins
~My birthday
~Pomegranates
~Scarves
~Boots
~Pumpkins
~My birthday
~Comfort Food
~Pumpkin everything

Did I mention my birthday??  (It's in November and no, I won't let you forget...)

Anyway...

When I was in Vegas this weekend, I stole my mom gave me three of her Food Network magazines for me to go through.  October's issue had pumpkin recipes all over it (and now some of my drool).  Fifty recipes.  5-0!  All with pumpkin.  I made #1 and #2 tonight, because I'm ambitious.  HA!

#2 = #1 + apples + bacon

So here's what you need:

15 oz. can of pumpkin -- I just used half of a 29 oz can because I'm planning on using the rest tomorrow!
2 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. of cream
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice -- I would definitely add more as it was a little bland for my tastes.  We ended up sprinkling more spices on as we were eating it.
1 apple, peeled and cubed
4 slices of bacon

Whisk together the pumpkin, chicken broth, cream, and pumpkin pie spice in a pot.  Heat to boiling and simmer for 5 minutes.  Don't forget to whisk while it's heating up!!

While the pumpkin soup is cookin', heat some butter in a frying pan and add the cubes of apple pieces.  I let that cook on low until the soup was almost done.  I used a Fuji apple, but would be interested in trying other kinds to see how it affected the taste.  I would prefer something with a stronger and sweeter taste to offset the pumpkin.  Still, it was good!

Once I got the apples on, I added some bacon to another frying pan and burnt it to a crisp.  Ok, not really, but I let it get a little crispy.  Once it was done, I wrapped it up in a paper towel and crunched it up so we would have our own little bacon bits.

As soon as everything is done, pour the soup in some bowls and top with the cooked apple and bacon.  I had grabbed some ciabatta bread at the store earlier, so we used that to dip in our soup.

So yummy!!!  Here's the proof....

 

 

Omnomnom...so good!

Apple deliciousness!!!  My bacon picture was blurry.  Boo!

Even Cooper (sorta) liked it!