Butternut Squash Soup and Soft Pretzels

I am loving the first signs of Fall!  A ton of bloggers out there are posting the first fall celebrations or dedicating entire posts to The Hoodie.  It is GLORIOUS!!  My favorite season is upon us and I am starting out strong.

In order to cook a proper Fall meal, you must open all the windows and sliding doors in the house, throw on your favorite sweatpants and bask in the glory of cool fresh air wafting through the house.

But check the weather report before you plan soup and make sure it's not going to be raining, humid and 80°F.

Oops...

Here are two amazing recipes I found this week for Butternut Squash Soup and Butter Soft Whole Wheat Pretzels!

Butternut Squash Soup
adapted from Allrecipes.com


Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2-3 small/medium potatoes, cubed (or sweet potatoes)
• 1 medium butternut squash
• 6 cups of homemade chicken broth
• Pinch of curry powder
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Himalayan sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Sour cream (optional)

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds.  Lightly grease a pan with some olive oil and place the squash, flat side down, on the pan.  Bake it for an hour.
2. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, carrot, garlic, and potatoes 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Scrape pulp from butternut squash into soup pot. Pour in chicken broth over vegetables. Season with curry and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 20 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
3. Strain the vegetables into a bowl and blend until smooth. Return to pot and season with salt and pepper.
4. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

This soup was amazing.  Thick enough to be filling and a great option if you don't have any meat thawed.  I'll be making it again very soon!!

Now, moving on to the soft pretzel!!  I found this whole wheat soft pretzel recipe and was SOOO excited to make it.  Here is a picture of the finished pretzel from Laura's blog.  Don't they look amazing?  (She is one of my favorite real food go-to recipe blogs!)

(Credit)

After I started the dough and put it aside to rise, I sat down to read the comments on her blogpost.  Just about every comment declared these pretzels to be delicious.  But then I saw this one:

I immediately started to panic!!  I don't have "hard white wheat" berries!  I only have the darker red wheat berries.  I was super frustrated because I had wasted 4 cups of freshly ground whole wheat on a potentially disgusting bread substance.

When they were done baking, I pulled them out of the oven, buttered and salted them and took a little bite.  One little bite turned into 5 very large bites...just to check if they were really as delicious as I thought they were, or if I was just being hopeful.  They were SOOOO yummy!

Then I went back to the recipe to figure out why.  I took Laura's recipe and halved it...all except one ingredient.  I completely forgot to cut the amount of butter in half!  Well, it worked out perfectly!!!

Laura's Amazing Soft Preztals
from HeavenlyHomemakers.com (makes about 12 pretzels)

Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon raw honey
1 and 1/4 cup raw milk
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup raw honey
2 teaspoons Himalayan sea salt
4 cups whole wheat flour
Melted butter
Kosher salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup of very warm water, 1 Tablespoon of yeast and 1 teaspoon of honey.  Stir well and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it has started to foam.
2. Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan.  Add 1/4 cup of honey, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 & 1/4 cup of milk.  Heat it to about 120 degrees.  (I just heated it until it was hot to the touch but not too hot to touch!)
3. Pour it into the yeast mixture and stir.
4. Stir in 4 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 cups at a time.  I added some unbleached white flour to this mixture until it reached a better consistency - about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup.
5. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.
6. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 & 1/2 hours.  (Tip: Turn on the oven to 200 degrees.  As soon as it preheats, turn the oven off and place your bowl of dough in the oven.  The warmth will help it rise.  Just make sure you turn OFF the oven or you will begin to cook the dough.)
7. Knead the dough a little to get the air pockets out.  Then grab a fistful of dough and shape it into a snake and shape into a pretzel.
8. Place pretzel on a greased pan.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
9. When they are done, brush with melted butter and top with kosher salt.  Be generous!! 

Finger Lickin' GOOOOOO-OOOOOD!!!!