Much Love to the Hamilton Farmer's Market. And Martha.

     It's September, and I'm back in school so I've been slacking a bit in the blog department. We were definitely overdue for a great meal over here. Good eating hasn't exactly taken a backseat-I still cook every meal rather than eating out. My food just hasn't been that exciting or blog-worthy. Mostly just big batches of healthy food like chicken breasts, brown rice and roasted root vegetables and eating that throughout the week. I needed to be a real kitchen playa and step up my game.
     On Saturday I made one of my twice weekly trips to the Hamilton Farmer's Market, and I loaded up. There's some awesome vendors there, offering everything from homemade sausage to gluten-free baked goods, local produce, artisinal chocolates, and I'll stop there because I could go on all day.

    My farmers market dinner was a collaboration between myself and my lady Martha Stewart (we simply love working together). Martha supplied a recipe for individual Sausage and Feta Pies (actually in the book the recipe came from "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook" they were called "Hand Pies" but that sounded mildly peverse to me. Is that weird?). My coutribution was a Butternut Squash soup with ginger and fresh corn. The two recipes made a perfect autumnal meal. It was nice to get in some good comfort food before another week of the decidedly uncomfortable college experience. Woe is me.

Martha and I really nailed this one.

Butternut Squash Soup

with Ginger and Fresh Corn

(my first attempt at actually writing down a full recipe of my own creation. This soup is inspired by similar soups my mom makes, but I think I've seen lots of recipes like this.)

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil

2-3 Cloves Garlic, finely diced

2-3 Tbsp. Ginger, finely diced or grated

1 medium onion, diced

8 cups roughly chopped butternut squash (you can use other root vegetables too, turnips, carrot, whatever. I threw in a couple sweet potatoes)

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup corn kernals (I cut it straight from the cob, but you could use frozen)

1 tsp. curry powder

salt and pepper to taste

a few dashes of hot sauce (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the onion and saute for about two minutes before adding the ginger and garlic and continuing to cook until the onions are translucent. Add the butternut squash/root vegetables and the broth. Turn the heat up to high until boiling. Lower the heat and let simmer until the vegetables are cooked through. Take off heat and let cool for a few minutes. With a hand blender carefully blend the soup to desired consistency; I like to leave it with some chunks. Put back on medium heat and add corn, cooking the soup about 10 more minutes until the corn is tender. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper and hot sauce, if desired. Stir well and serve! This makes about 8 servings, and like many soups is extra delicious the next day.