Taste of Fall #3: Tomato & Pumpkin soup & Pumpkin Cookies!

I tend to enjoy the Fall season. The weather gets nice - usually make great beach days in Florida -, I start getting in the Holiday spirit, and for the most part when I think of Fall I start to also think of Food. I mean Fall does = Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season approaching in general. And the Holiday season is always full of good food. So I decided I wanted to do something special on my blog every Thursday during Fall. Taste of Fall! 

Every Thursday I plan on having other bloggers come over and Guest Post with Fall Inspired Recipes. Some may be healthy, some may not but I'm hoping they will all be yummy! With that said, let's get to our Guest post!

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Hi Everyone. I’m extremely honored and excited to be guest posting for Precious in her fall recipe roundup!

A little about me: During the day, I’m an attorney living in Chicago. When I’m not lawyering, I climb mountains, hop the globe, rap to Eminem, dance to Britney, excel at baking cupcakes, and wear short skirts with wool tights. In other words, I’m a fancy bad-ass. J  Because I’m single and found myself talking to myself too much, I started TWO blogs in the past year. One is my ongoing “life project,” if you will, a work-in-progress-culinary-trek-around-the-globe. If your taste buds like to explore, check out all the random, weird and mostly delicious international tastes at The Hungary Buddha Eats the World.  For everything else that pops into my head, you can find my rambles at The Hungary Buddha Busts a Move.

Now, onto the food.  That’s why I’m here, after all.

There are few things I enjoy more than cooking…and eating. Luckily, they go hand in hand. I can confidently say that my favorite weekend days are spent in my tiny walk up kitchen, and any given Saturday or Sunday you’ll find me whipping up a week’s worth of dishes, my favorite pop station blaring in the background.  Well, pop or Michael Buble, depending on the time of day. Yes, I like Michael Buble. No, I’m not 60 years old. I accept this.  You should, too.

Today I’m sharing two of my favorite fall recipes. One healthy. One, not so much.

First, the healthy: 

A tomato and pumpkin soup. 

I came across this non-traditional tomato soup of sorts in my culinary travels when I “cooked” Africa.  It’s creamy without cream and thanks to some jalapenos; it has some kick to it.   I found that it’s best to make this a day in advance to let the flavors meld. The first bowl was underwhelming. However, the second was phenomenal and I found myself extremely sad when I finished this pot o’soup.  It’s also vegetarian if you use vegetable rather than chicken stock.

Olive oil for the pan

1 onion, diced

2 jalapenos, diced

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can canned pumpkin

1 TB honey

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp dried thyme

5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 can cannelloni beans

Parsley, finely chopped to garnish

Goat cheese, to taste

Salt and pepper

 Directions

1.   Heat some oil in the bottom of the stock pot, enough to coat. Add the onions and jalapenos and sauté until soft.  Add the spices and cook another two minutes.

2.  Add the honey, tomatoes, pumpkin and stock.  Simmer about 10 minutes.

3.  With an immersion blender, puree until smooth.  Add the beans and boil for about 5 minutes.

4.  When you are ready to serve, add goat cheese and parsley to each bowl.

As far as the unhealthy, here are my aunt’s pumpkin cookies.  I make these bad boys once a year, and while awesome standing tall on their own, I think the scarcity factor makes them even better.  Absence definitely makes the stomach grow fonder in this case.  They are sweet, cakey…everything a pumpkin cookie should be.

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Now that your mouth as probably watering for the ingredients to these cookies I thought I'd make you all wait until next week. Come back next week to get Chrissy's Pumpkin Cookie recipe!!

You can also reach Chrissy on these networks.

Follow her on Twitter @lulubelleND

Her blogs:

The Hungary Buddha Eats the World @ www.thehungarybuddha.com

The Hungary Buddha Busts a Move @ www.thebuddhabustsamove.com

This is also like a mini link up.

No rules. 

But if you have a Fall Inspired Recipe you want to share, link up!

Also if you want to Guest Post the recipe, email me at thecoilybombshell@gmail.com!

xoxo, Preshii


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