My favorite academic theory and yes, since I really am Dr. Sue I know quite a few of them, is distributed cognition. This theory changed my life!! The theory states that what we know is not only the knowledge that resides in our own brains but the knowledge that resides in the brains of everyone we know. If your friends or family know something, there is no need for you to know it. You just ask them when the time comes. Jerome Bruner, the theorist of my favorite theory, figured this out before Google, which may mean if you have reliable 24/7 computer access you don't need to know anything at all. Not true though, because unlike Google, if you want to count the knowledge as your own you've got to trust your sources.
Ever handy with distributed cognition, when I lost my recipe for butternut squash soup, I found it again on my daughter's blog Repast. I couldn't be more pleased about this turn of events. She is one of the reasons I started Dr. Sue's Kitchen to pass along my easy recipes for home cooked meals. I highly recommend that you read Repast, especially if you like to follow recipes. Her cooking style is amazing. She makes intricate, instruction laden recipes with absolute grace and precision. Her cakes are scrumptious. Last time she made appetizers, she brought teensy blini with sour cream and caviar. Now she is mastering bento boxes. I take no credit for her talent but I do think she's inherited a certain pioneering kitchen spirit from me. Bravo, girl! She's a beautiful writer too. I recommend that you read Toasted Spiral.
Soup knowledge is certainly being distributed. I learned today that Dr. Sue's son has a post about Squash Soup on his blog. Check out Floyd's Journal to see what happened. He is the second reason I started Dr. Sue's kitchen and I'm proud to say he's mastered Mac 'n Cheese. The third reason is for a friend in a post-reading glasses decade of her life who decided to learn how to cook. I figured there were lots of people like that who might drown in techniques and would do much better to start with simple 5 minute, 5 ingredient recipes.
With my knowledge refreshed, I made butternut squash soup. Naturally, I didn't quite follow the recipe, even my own, and made a few adaptations based on what I had on hand. Soup is like that. The one essential ingredient is a butternut squash, my new favorite winter vegetable. The squash looks kind of daunting, more like decor than dinner, but don't let that stop you. Bring one home, bake it, and you'll have enough for dinner and for soup.
Butternut Squash Soup
Cut a large (mine was about 3 pounds) butternut squash down the middle the long way. Scoop out the seeds. Bake cut side down on a pan covered with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt for about 1 hour at 400. Have some for dinner.
The Soup
1 onion finely chopped in the Cuisinart
3 stalks celery finely chopped
2 TBLS olive oil
1 dried hot pepper. Discard seeds and cut into 2 or 3 pieces
Coooked butternut squash
Leftover baked potato and leftover oven fried potatoes
or 1 raw potato peeled and cut into small cubes
Home-made chicken stock or canned or veggie stock or stock mixed with water. to make about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of liquid.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Saute the onion and celery with the hot pepper in olive oil until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop out the insides of the baked potato and add to the pot and stir it around with the onions and celery. I added some leftover oven fried potatoes too since I had them in the fridge. Or use the use a cubed raw potato but be sure to cook the soup until the potato is very soft. Add the cooked squash and stir. If you don't want the soup to be too spicy, fish out the hot pepper, or leave it in if you like it hot. Add about 3 cups of broth and stir it all together. The test for the right amount of liquid is that it should look like thick soup. You can always add more water or broth later. Simmer covered for about 45 minutes. Process the soup in the Cuisinart to make it smooth. Not sure if this is always necessary, but I had to take this step because of the french fries.
Season to taste. Serve with cream or sour cream if desired.
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