Oh, wait! It's Tuesday! *sigh*

What does one do when one has an entire "day off" to play with?

If you're crazy like I am, you do this:

1. Make a huge batch of curried butternut squash soup
2. Keep an eye on the next batch of maple syrup while Hubby is doing farm chores
3. Do Turbo Jam
4. Mop floors
5. Vacuum entire house
6. Compost in the garden
7. Clean dining room
8. Clean living room
9. Clean games room
10. Clean guest room
11. Clean greenhouse
12. Groom Chance (that dog is crazy looking! He's got burrs in his thick coat! Arrrgh!)
13. Cat litter
14. Make supper
15. Clear old raspberry canes so the new ones can come in (This took me over an hour and a half and I'm only half done!)
16. Laundry (3 loads)

Man! It feels like I did a lot today, but looking at the list, I only got seven things scratched off! Argh. Imagine what it's like when it's not a day off?
Since I'm in the sharing mood, I thought I'd post my Curried Butternut Squash Soup recipe with you.Flipping through my vegetarian bible from when I was a university student, my eyes wandered across the dog-eared, food stained pages. You know a book is treasured when it looks used and as though it has had better days!

I love, love, love butternut squash (or "squish", as Hubby likes to call it). I love it sliced in half, seeded, and baked in the oven as is. No need to add anything to it. Butternut squash is perfect on its own. I also love making this green bean and butternut squash dish, but today I felt like having soup. The soup I make is a slight adaption of Mollie Katzen's Curried Squash and Mushroom Soup from her Moosewood Vegetarian Cookbook. Though I love the original recipe, I've made a similar soup with my own touch. For some reason, I didn't like the mushrooms in the soup, so I omitted them. I also changed a few other things. Here's my recipe:

1 butternut squash
2 1/2 c. water
1 c. orange juice
1 Tbs. butter
1 c. onion, chopped
2 or more cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
pinch of cayenne pepper

The cookbook calls for the squash to be halved, seeded, and placed face down on a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven and baked for 40 min. I usually do this and the squash comes out very sweet and buttery. This time, I didn't have 40 min to bake the squash first, so I cut the squash up into 1 in. pieces and cooked them in a pot with a bit of water. Once soft, I used my hand blender (you could scoop little batches and put it in a blender/food processor and puree). Puree squash and water, and gradually add orange juice.

In a skillet, heat butter (or oil if you want to make this dish vegan) and add onion, garlic, salt and spices. Cook over medium heat until the onion is almost translucent and everything is sauteed well. Add the saute to the pureed squash. Blend together and you're done! Yummy!

For Jimmy:
This is what we see from our living room window...
We spotted ninteen deer yesterday around supper time. Driving back to the Island from Espanola the other day, I counted seventy (Yes, SEVENTY!) deer, two raccoons, six Sandhill Cranes, and too many Canada Geese to count.