Countdown to Turkey Day! Deeelish!

Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays; I love the family, friends, memories and entertaining and getting everyone together enjoying a great meal!  So, in spirit I'm going to start passing along some excellent holiday meal ideas...For starters is tonight's recipe...Enjoy!

Julia's Home Again Pumpkin Soup

What You'll Need:

• 1 medium-sized pumpkin
• salt and pepper to taste
• pumpkin puree, about 4-6 cups
• chopped fresh parsley
• 1-2 cloves of minced garlic
• about a cup of finely chopped shallots or vidalia onion
• chicken stock (get roasted chicken stock if you can)
• chopped fresh thyme
• dash of nutmeg
• dash of ginger, ground
• chopped fresh sage
• Heavy cream or whipping cream (whipping preferred)

How You'll Do It:

• Clean off the exterior of your pumpkin and cut the top off, just as you would for Halloween carving.  Remove the seeds and rinse out with milk.  Then season the inside with salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet and bake at about 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes
• In your sauce pan, add all of your ingredients except for the parsley and cream
• Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and you want it to simmer for 30 minutes
• Then put the mixture in your food processor or blender (gradually, not all at once) and puree again and then put back in your pan, stir in your heavy cream and simmer another 30-40 minutes
• When the pumpkin is done cooking and your soup is ready, pour the soup in the pumpkin/ garnish with parsley and use that as your serving dish...better yet, when you scoop the soup out try and scoop some of the 'meat' of the pumpkin into your soup...So wicked good!  Now that's holiday goodness! 

This is great as a side dish, appetizer or snack...I call it my 'home again' soup, obviously because the pumpkin goes back into its home.  haha...Enjoy and Happy Holidays!