Butternut squash soup

By a couple requests via Instagram, here is the butternut squash soup recipe! I adapted it from Deb's Summer Squash Soup. I subbed quite a bit of ingredients out based on what I had on hand, but it's very similar to hers. I'd be nowhere without Deb.

soup:
6 tbs of butter
2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste, how much do you love garlic?), chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 decent sized butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 carrots, chopped
4 cups chicken broth

pistou (drizzle sauce as I call it):
4 cloves of garlic (I LOVE GARLIC), chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves, I'd say like 10 or so good sized leaves, more if they're smaller, chopped
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs of water
1/4 tsp salt

Throw your butter in a big ol' sauce pan and melt it up. Brown it for good measure because browning butter is always a good idea. Just as it's beginning to brown, toss in your garlic, cook for like 45 seconds and then add your chicken broth and veggies. Bring to a boil and cook partially covered until tender; took my veggies about 15 minutes.

While your veggies are boiling, make that drizzle sauce! Throw your garlic and basil leaves in your food processor and process (is that the correct verb?) until everything is of a fairly small and uniform size, and slightly like a paste. Add the olive oil and water little by little and continue processing until you've got something like a watery pesto.

Once your veggies are tender, set the pot to the side and let cool for 10 minutes or so. Then pour everything into a blender and puree, little by little. Return to your pot (by way of a bowl) and put that baby back on the stove. Add your salt and a little water if it's too thick, I added like 1/2 cup. Cook for a few minutes, then ladle that business into some bowls. Drizzle your pistou over it, as little or as much as you like (this business is garlicky, watch yo'self!). Serve it up with some toasted and buttered bread of any variety. It is unstoppable on buttered bread.

And that's it! Super easy, although peeling and chopping that butternut squash up is a tad labor intensive. Honestly, it's such a pain. But this soup is real good. And healthy! This vegetarian-esque lifestyle is forcing us (me) to get creative in the kitchen with veggies. Not all my experiments are successful, but this one definitely was!

Oh and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! I am proud to be an American and proud of the progress we're making in this country. Good things are happening and although they aren't happening easily, they are happening and that's what matters. Food to politics? Phewww! Go 'merica! Eat some squash soup!