Pumpkin Soup from My Favorite Italian Cookbook

This soup is easy, quick, and cheap. What more can you ask? The original recipe calls for spaghetti in the soup, but that just sounds horrible to me. To give the soup a little texture, I don't blend the finely chopped onions.

1 lb. peeled pumpkin (I buy it already cubed, which is what makes the recipe so quick.)

1/4 cup butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 cups milk

pinch of grated nutmeg

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese, if desired, to sprinkle on top

Cook onion in butter until it softens, stir in pumpkin, cook for a few minutes more, add chicken stock and cook until pumpkin is soft. Puree in blender. Return to pan and add milk and seasonings. Ta da.

I've used another method for this. Steam the pumpkin and then mash, blend, or use beaters to get it smooth. You can freeze the pumpkin if you want at this point. Then to finish soup, cook onions in butter and then add rest of ingredients. This way you can cook up a bunch of pumpkin at once and have it on hand for super quick soup.

It's Not the Kringle We Grew Up With, but It's Doggone Delicious

1 cup butter

2 cups flour

1 cup sour cream

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons water

1. Cut butter into flour until crumbly, stir in sour cream and mix well. Form dough into ball and cover tightly, refrigerate over night.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Have filling prepared (see below).

3. Divide dough into 3 equal parts, keep two parts in the refrigerator. Form dough into rectangle and roll out on floured surface until it is approximately 12" by 17". Put 1/3 filling down center. Cut strips on two sides about an inch apart. Alternating from one side to the other fold each strip towards the center like you're braiding. Repeat with rest of dough to create 3 danishes. Arrange on lightly greased baking sheet.

4. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes and then drizzle powdered sugar mixed with water on top. Ta da.

Filling: You can use prepared filling, or jams that aren't too sweet, but we liked this easy prune filling the best. You can make it with any dried fruit.

1 1/2 cup pitted prunes, lightly packed

2/3 cup water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

Simmer ingrediants until very soft and most of water has evaporated. Remove from heat and mash. Finished.

TV News About Joey

I'm so proud of Sherman Luke!

Tattoos & Jesus

Remember at Easter when you were a little concerned about all of Kayden's tons of tattoos? Here's a photo of me with my missionary friend, Cara!

True North

I read the book "Young Man and the Sea" to my class recently, and this paragraph struck me:

Trust your compass. That's another thing my dad was always saying. Trust your compass because you can't trust your instincts in the dark or the fog. Without a compass a man will steer himself in a circle, nine times out of ten. Give up on the compass and you're lost for sure.

In Ecuador, the call the correct direction for life "true north." Jesus is our true north and it's soooo, soooo easy to forget. Trust your compass. Trust His Word.

Interesting...

"May you turn
stone, my daughter,
into silk. May you make men better
than they are."

— Stephen Dunne

Object Lesson: Frownies

Part 1: Do Not Set Aside the Grace of God

Part 2: Do Not Set Aside the Grace of God

You should become a mosquito-ologist (Quote from a student)

We've come to that time of year where we are obsessed with two things: the humidity and mosquitoes.

If mosquitoes were something we only had to battle outside, it would not be a big deal. But mosquitoes are a constant full-pitched war here. They're worse downstairs than up, so I make hit and run trips downstairs to get food or coffee and then skedaddle upstairs to eat and drink.

I've been researching and I've learned:

• Blue is the favorite color of mosquitoes.
• They also like dark colors.
• Mosquitoes are attracted by sweat (water supply).
• They are also attracted by the CO2 oozing through your skin.
• They are also attracted to the CO2 let off by candles, and so if you have lit candles around, they will be attracted to it and immolate themselves. (This has led to our house looking like we are having a continual seance.)

I also started a small fire in the kitchen--Mike had to come and put it out, when I decided to burn palo santo (Holy stick), which is a wood that grows here than repels mosquitoes. I set up a grate on the stove, put some palo santo on and lit the burner. Then I blew the fire out and the incensy smoke wafted around and got rid of the mosquitos. The second time I got distracted and the next thing I knew I had quite a blaze going on.

Obsessed.

Christmas and New Years 2009

The view from our room in Quito.
At our favorite Italian restaurant. New Year's Eve lunch. (Instead of fighting the crowds for dinner.)
Our favorite room in Quito. We could lie in bed and watch the fireworks that went up all over the city at midnight.

At the hosteria in Banos.

At home for Christmas: Mike, Noemi, her dad Raphael and behind the couch Emily-Mike's cousin-and Abigail.

We had a nice Christmas (the best part was talking with all of you) and an even nicer trip to Baños the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas. We had ladies' and men's studies. I can only speak for the ladies, but they were like sponges. What fun to teach. Then we went on to Quito where we hid out for three days, watched a whole season of "24", and ate at our favorite restaurants.

As you know, this has been a Christmas season full of ups and downs. In the spirit of Philippians 4, I'm choosing to think on good things. Here's my list for this last week of the year:

We found rhubarb in the grocery store and had rhubarb pie for Christmas.

We found dates in the store and had grandma's famous date balls.

Our favorite room was available in Quito. (See above.)

The English bookstore and three of our favorite restaurants were open in Quito when most everything else was closed.

We had wifi at the hotel.

The weather was perfect!