A few weeks ago I took a cheese making class, it was very interesting but I won’t be making my own “real” cheese anytime soon. I will however try hanging cheese, hang goats yogurt or creme fraiche in a cheese cloth for 24 hours and it makes a chevre or cream cheese respectively! 

Do you know what turns milk into cheese?! Rennet, an enzyme from the stomach of a feeding calf, kid or lamb. However now most cheese produced in North America is produced with a GMO version made by the lovely people who brought you Viagra… Yum! Most imported cheeses from Switzerland or France are still made with real Rennet. 

Sorry for the photo quality or lack there of, I took them all with my phone. 

Judging from my posts one might be fooled to believe I have an obsession with squash and soup. Mmmmm, not quite. I do have a fondness for buying squash at the farmers market, how could I not when they are always in season and look so cool! But then I get home and they sit on my table going bad while I try to justify why the hell I bought yet another squash. I usually end up making the squash recipes on a lazy Sunday afternoon with no time constraints and little hope that they will turn out, giving me lots of time (and daylight) to take pictures. So on that little note any squash recipe suggestions besides soup and bread would be greatly appreciated as I fear my squash buying days are far from over. 

Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash
1 carrot
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 celery stick
5 cups homemade chicken or veggie stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Topping Suggestions:
Goat cheese
Pea Sprouts (or any other sprouts)
Cream

Directions:
Roast butternut squash and carrot in the oven at 375 or frying pan until soft. Mix remaining ingredients to the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cooked squash and carrot to broth and simmer another 20 minutes until everything is nice and soft. Take a big spoon and scoop out the chunky bits (squash, carrot, onion, celery) in batches and transfer to blender. This allows you to slowly add the desired amount of stock while blending in order to customize your soup thickness.  Top with anything you might like or have plain.

Notes:
Pea Sprouts: YUM! This was the first time I’ve tried pea spouts and they went amazingly with the soup. 
Homemade stock:  THE most important thing, it will make a world of difference to your soup. I’m a horrible stock maker, I throw anything and everything into the pot, cover with water and let simmer for 2-3 hours. It wasn’t until I actually read a proper recipe that I realized how wrong I was doing it. I don’t really care if it has little floaty bits and is cloudy, it always taste good.
Ingredients: I usually eyeball all ingredients so this is a guestimate of amounts. Use your common sense and adjust everything to your liking. Don’t have something? Improvise!