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READ ON MY KINDLE DURING THE TRIP TO ENGLAND: The Forgotten Garden (by Kate Morton, on my Kindle); several generations of women pepper this book with the story of their lives. It all revolves around a young girl who arrives on a pier in Australia in 1912 with no papers, no family. Nothing except a small white suitcase with little concrete information about her past. She’s four years old and keeps silent about what little she knows. Her story starts there, but then it jumps forward to 2005 when her granddaughter inherits a house in Cornwall (England), purchased by the grandmother and kept secret until after her death. There’s some secrecy going on with all the women. Then the story jumps back to 1975 when the grandmother is a middle-aged woman and you hear part of her story. Much of the book revolves around a walled garden at this house in Cornwall, and how it relates to the “big house” where the grandmother lived some of her early years. It’s quite a complex web of a family saga. I liked it, although each new chapter jumped to a different time, and it’s not until the last 10 pages or so that everything resolves. Good read.

Also read The Queen’s Governess (by Karen Harper, on my Kindle); this one is about a young girl from an impoverished family who is taken to Court and eventually becomes a playmate/governess to Elizabeth I (the story is based on fact, but is a novel). The two girls grow up together. It tells the story of  Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I’s mother) and others of the court at that time, the intrigues, the murders, the beheadings, and the perseverance of all of the potential kings and queens. Fascinating story, particularly since we visited Castle Howard where where a small part of Henry VIII’s story transpires.

And, I read The Invisible Bridge (by Julie Orringer, on my Kindle) too; a riveting story about a young Hungarian Jew who goes to Paris to study architecture, just before the start of WW II. He manages to scrape together enough money to eat, but barely, falls in love with an older woman, yet his work comes to the attention of some of the school’s teachers. He’s one of only a handful of Jews at the school. Then the Nazis begin invading. And the story goes into plenty of detail about the hardships, the imprisonments and eventual deaths of many of his friends and family. I could hardly put it down, though. Heart-wrenching, however.

STILL READING: Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster – by Alison Weir (paperback from Costco). I was expecting this book to be along the same genre as Philippa Gregory’s novels – honing in on a particular English royal woman – telling her story in novel form. This is not one of those types. It’s non-fiction, and tells the factual story of Katherine Swynford, who eventually became the Duchess of Lancaster. But her journey from young bride to Hugh Swynford (this takes place in the 1300′s) to the Duchess is bursting with intrigue as she was John of Gaunt’s mistress for some time (eventually he married her when she was 46 (certainly an advanced age for that century), which caused all kinds of royal scandal). In that period of history no one related to royalty married for love. It was all about family, bearing many children to inherit land and wealth, to fight for the king, to maintain title and fortune. The Duchess’ children eventually became the House of Tudor (King Henry VII). Katherine Swynford was both reviled (because of her immoral behavior) and loved (by nearly everyone who knew her). Alison Weir is obviously a stickler for research – the footnotes comprise over 40 pages of fine print. She paints a different picture of this woman than was done by Anya Seton in her world-famous novel Katherine, first published in 1954. I was infatuated with that novel – it was one of my all-time favorites. But it’s a romance, and apparently many of the supposed facts – well, aren’t. Life in those times were not romantic. This Alison Weir book is not exactly easy reading; it’s almost like reading a textbook. But it’s fascinating and I’m enjoying it very much.

FINISHEDTime and Again – by Jack Finney (paperback); read for one of my book clubs. Written in the 1940′s it was a runaway hit back then. An early look at time travel. It’s about a U.S. government experiment in the 1960′s (this is fiction, remember), sending a selected few men back to the 1880′s in New York City. They were told to observe. Not to change anything. To be unnoticeable. Yet one of the young men, just couldn’t quite do that  (of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be a story!). It’s his adventure you read. The writer is a master at description. The reader feels transported to that time. Our book club really enjoyed it. Generally I’m not into that kind of book at all, but I found the book fascinating. There is a sequel as well, called From Time to Time.

Spoken from the Heart— autobiography by Laura Bush (hardback from Costco). What a delightful read. It’s not about politics. It’s about Laura’s journey from her young years growing up in Midland, Texas to loving parents, to college grad to school teacher, librarian, to meeting George, whom she barely knew even though they grew up in the same small town, then marrying him. She didn’t come naturally to being a public speaker, but did it, to help her husband. I enjoyed reading about her early years more than the years at the White House. Much of that part was about all the social events required of the President and First Lady. Still interesting, though. I enjoyed the book very much.

IN THE POWDER ROOM: Our guest half-bath has a little table with a pile of books that I change every now and then. They’re books that might pique someone’s interest even if for a very short read. The Greatest Stories Never Told; and Sara Midda’s South of France; and  Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See; (edited by Bill Shapiro); Monet’s Table: The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet (Joyes); The Trouble with Poetry (Billy Collins).

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Posted in Soups, on February 4th, 2009.

crockpot-butternut-soup

Seems like there are just a hundred ways to make butternut squash soup. I’ve posted a few – my roasted butternut squash soup  (the most complicated of all of my butternut soups, but probably the best tasting too) – and my next favorite, zippy butternut squash soup with jalapeno and ginger. Then there’s another one, roasted butternut squash soup with pancetta and sage too. All of those are made with oven roasting and/or on the stovetop. All the soups are do-able, but I thought hmmm, maybe I could use my new slow cooker and make the jalapeno and ginger one even easier than it already was.

I looked up the ingredients and piled them into the slow cooker. Which means this is one of those recipes when you can throw it in the pot and forget it. No pre-cooking of anything. I didn’t saute the onions, or garlic. All I did was set it on high for about 2 hours, then at low for another 3-4 hours. Then I put everything in the blender, (in batches) along with just a bit of heavy cream and it was lick-the-bowl delicious. I didn’t add the brown sugar because it didn’t need it. I didn’t have creme fraiche which was called for in the original recipe, either, but otherwise the ingredients were very close to the first one. Quantities were a bit different. What makes this great is you can put everything into the crockpot and not have to bother with waiting for it to simmer. If you’re not going to be home, just do the normal thing – set on automatic (the older crockpots did that for you – my new one doesn’t) and it cooks for 2 hours at high, then switches to low until you turn it off.

butternut-soup-bagOnce the soup was smoothed out in the blender, I reheated it and served the soup with some toasted pecans on top. If you are going to make this, I’d recommend using my Peppered Pecans (my all-time favorite spicy nut) to garnish the soup. I happened to have had some leftover pecans from the Radicchio Salad I made a week or so ago which had a touch of cayenne in them. They were great on the soup. I particularly liked the texture change – the soup needs something to give it a different texture from the silky smooth consistency of the soup. Or, if you don’t want to be fancy, just toast some pecans in a nonstick skillet. The recipe made about 12 cups (2 cup servings), so I divided up the leftovers and put them in freezer bags (pictured) to go into my ongoing soup library.

Crockpot Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger & Jalapeno

Servings: 6
3 pounds butternut squash — peeled, cubed
4 cloves garlic — peeled, minced
1 medium yellow onion — diced
1 whole jalapeno chile pepper — seeded, in chunks
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup ginger — about a 2-inch chunk, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pecans — toasted and minced
1. Into the crockpot place the squash cubes, garlic, onion, jalapeno, salt, ginger and chicken broth. Add enough broth to not quite cover the squash. Push the ginger and garlic down into the liquid.
2. Turn onto a high setting and cook for about 2 hours, until the squash is completely soft. Turn temperature to low and continue cooking for another 2 hours or more.
3. If time permits, cool slightly, then in batches, puree the soup in a blender. Do not fill more than half full as the heat and steam may blow the lid off.
4. Serve immediately, or cool and reheat later. Garnish with toasted pecans, if desired.
5. If doing this in a traditional crockpot, set temp to low and cook for 6-7 hours, then continue from step 3 above.
Per Serving: 299 Calories; 18g Fat (50.4% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 36mg Cholesterol; 1410mg Sodium.
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  1. Marie

    said on February 4th, 2009:

    This soup looks fabulous Carolyn. I love butternut squash soups of any kind and I ADORE your soup library!! What a fabulous idea!

    Do you mean, Marie, with all the cooking you do, you haven’t discovered flat-freezing soups? Makes it so easy to defrost! . . . Carolyn T

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