Honey Butter Carrots

My friend, Rebecca, took this picture a few years back of the mantle at our beloved old cottage up north.

So many lovely evenings have been spent in that old place.

We just returned from our yearly Thanksgiving weekend when we close it up and say farewell for another season.

Fall is here and I always start to make these carrots again in the fall.

Carrots are a perfect fall food and this is the best way to eat them, in my opinion.

These carrots are simmered until sweet and soft in honey and butter.

A perfect side to our dinner, Chicken with Braised Cabbage and Fennel.

Honey Butter Carrots

5 C carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Butter
1/2 C water
pinch salt

Place honey, butter, water and salt in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Add carrots.
Simmer 5 mins covered at medium heat.  Remove lid and simmer until liquid is almost all gone.
Done.
Perfect.

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Jim and I have an ongoing...um...discussion, of sorts, going as to whether or not doughnuts are a breakfast food or not. (I suppose anyone who knows us can guess which of us is on which side.) Some Saturday mornings, when they don't think I'm looking, Jim and Clara will to sneak out for such contraband.

Now, when the November issue of Everyday Food landed in my mail yesterday morning I was immediately drawn to the pumpkin section. These doughnut muffins have me reconsidering my doughnut for breakfast ban, mainly because they are just so good it hardly seems right to limit them.

Oh Lovely Butternut..

This is not my first nor will not be my last post about the butternut. I love the dear squash. So versatile, it can be put in just about any course, sweet or savory. Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Jamie at Home, has lots of uses for squash. (He also gives lots of tips on planting and growing squash and other gardeny things.)

Janis makes the gorgeous frosted squash cupcakes from time to time and they never disappoint in all their sweet fallish goodness.

With the cold rain outside my kitchen window, last night, I started into making Jamie's 'Superb squash soup with the best Parmesan croûtons'. Jamie is pretty much the king of long, adjective packed recipe titles. Yum though. It was thick and rich and hot and easy to keep warm if you're not sure when your husband will get home for dinner. We all ate way too many of the Parm-y croutons...jibs looked like a glazed doughnut by the time dinner was over, all buttery and happy.

Do this soup and don't forget the croutons.

Superb Squash Soup with the Best Parmesan Croutons

Olive Oil

2 small red onions, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 sprigs of rosemary leaves picked

(I added a few sprigs of thyme too because my garden offered them.)

1/2-1 chili, seeded and chopped

sea salt and pepper

1 Large Butternut squash, unpeeled, chopped in chunks, seeds removed

6C good chicken stock (I put in 3/4C Sauvignon blanc as well)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

16 (or however many you want) slices of ciabatta bread (we used Caldense buns)

A block of Parmesan Cheese for grating

In a very large sauce pan, heat up the olive oil and add the chopped veg and herbs and chilis, except the squash. Stir and cook a few minutes until they soften up a bit.

Add the squash, stock and S.B. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer an hour or so.

While the soup is cooking, drizzle olive oil over both sides of bread and grate the cheese over both sides as well, packing the cheese on firmly with your hands.

Place in a clean fry pan and cook until brown on each side.

Back to the soup, I used an immersion blender to puree the soup but you could do it in batches in a blender or food processor too.

Divide into bowls and pass around the croûtons.

Jibs says, "Please remember to dip your croutons!"