Confessions of a foodoholic

" The Savory Pumpkin Soup"

When one gets invited to a pot luck, dinner, one's first question to the inviter is automatically "what can I bring?" Thinking the gracious host would respond with a salad, or a dessert, the self proclaimed foodie replies, "can you bring a soup?
Maybe a pumpkin soup. "

"Sure, I'd love to" I replied . Now I'm thinking a soup, a pumpkin soup. Thats pretty specific, but I love making soup, and pumpkin soup, sounded like an exciting challenge. Thoughts of sweet hot cinnamon and toasted earthy aromas filled my head. I was stoked. cooking and dinner parties make me very happy, as well the challenge of working with a new ingredient was extremely intriguing. I turned to my friend, with eyes wide and overly excited I say Oh it will be so good roasted, with cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar, or honey.

"She quickly kaboshed the idea saying, "oh I really hate sweet dishes, you know the fruits in salad type of thing. " My face began to get red, I knew I was dealing with a control freak, my visions of delicious sweet pumpkin soup were going to be banished. Displeased with having to come up with another plan, I guess I was just going to have to be more creative then I originally thought.

I decide to check out a few recipes to see what other types of spices go well with pumpkins. I hate following recipes, and measuring, but always do some research to maximize the possibilities of deliciousness. Sage came up a few times, as well as carrot and bacon. Bacon was immediately stricken from the list of ingredients, my boyfriend is kosher, and keeping butter out of this savory soup is going to be challenging enough. For the non Jews out there, stay tuned, I'll explain this whole kosher situation later.

So I decided sage was it. I was going to roast a pumpkin, and some squash, and use sage to get the aromatics started.

The night before the dinner, I was chit chatting with my dear friend, the gracious host, and self proclaimed foodie. She made a joke about finding a recipe for an interesting sounding savory pumpkin soup that sounded "just delish" and then said, I didn't want to be too much of a control freak by suggesting it. We both agreed that dinner was going to be a lot of fun, and said good night, as it was getting late.

I wonder, if she didn't want to be a control freak by suggesting it, then why did she bring it up at all? CoL, thats right I said CoL (chuckle out loud), and I couldn't help myself. I can relate, a control freak in the kitchen, I'll admit sometimes I also have that problem, but its mostly in my own kitchen. If its a potluck dinner and you've asked someone to make a specific something, you've just got to let them do it, or say no thanks a bottle of wine would be fine... I'm boiling by now. I too like to have control, especially when it comes to cooking, and I know my way around a kitchen.

Twas the night before Christmas. The dinner.
Truly a night of magic and Col's, and deliciousness, or not deliciousness in some cases. The roasted pumpkin squash soup was a real hit. I finished it with thyme, toasted pumpkin seeds, and smoked sea salt. I was also a huge fan of one of the others guests mango and candied almond green salad. As for the un-mashed potatoes, the wilted spinach and quinoa asparagus mess...
all I have to say is lease pass the roast!

Happy Holidays Yall