I've been really busy, and making a lot of thrown together stuff. I have good pumpkin soup recipes, but they take a little effort. The hardest part of this soup was getting the stock from the garage freezer, because once I went downstairs but forgot my keys, then I brought up the wrong stock, and finally did get some green stock. I don't remember what's in that batch of green stock, but it's mighty tasty. :) I don't season stocks, but it for sure had a lot of greens, and I'm pretty sure celery and onions. And leeks.

Anyway, I had some pumpkin in the fridge that I'd steamed and prepped. and the weather got cold out, so I decided to turn it into soup. :)

JC's Easy Pumpkin soup

makes about 6 cups

2 medium sized sugar pie pumpkins cooked and seeded, peels removed, and forked to an even consistency.

approx 3 TBSP butter

1 pint green stock or any light but tasty stock

approx. 2 tsp. Penzey's Arizona dreaming blend (ancho chili pepper, black pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, spices, cumin, citric acid, Mexican oregano, cilantro, lemon peel, chipotle pepper, red pepper, jalapeño, cocoa and natural smoke flavoring.) -- Substitute any smoky seasonings and spices you like.

• Brown the butter on med-high to lightly caramelized but still pretty liquid.
• Add the pumpkin and mix well. Turn down the heat to medium.
• Steam out any excess water until the pumpkin is a nice paste about the texture of warm tomato paste.
• Add the stock and spices, mix well, and let it steam down to a consistency you like for soup, then remove from heat.
• If you like velvety, puree and aerate it with an immersion blender (or jar blender if you'd rather). It tastes great even without blending.

Serve good and hot in a warmed dish. Bubbe's bread and butter pickle chips (I call them "sugar pickles" because they're super sweet and really tangy) go very well.

I tried adding some plain yoghurt and arugula, which were fine but the soup was better without them. It's really good soup.