Fridge 'n' Pantry Cleanin' Soup

I had a nice butternut squash languishing in my crisper drawer and it had been there for some time so I went looking on the internet for recipes the other day.

Some called for bacon. Others said, "Add potatoes." Still others wanted carrots, celery, sage or corn - you name it, it has been added at one time or another to butternut squash soup!

So, I decided to add them all. I roasted the squash for 40 minutes in the oven until it was tender and almost sloppy. I sauteed diced onion, celery, small red potatoes and carrots until tender, then added two rashers of crumbled, cooked bacon that we had left over from that morning's breakfast. That's when I realized that I forgot to replenish the chicken broth in the pantry last time I made soup.

Hmmm, what to do for liquids? I didn't want to just add water - no flavor... hmmm...

New idea! One of the recipes I read spoke of adding apples to the mix; I didn't have any apples in the house but I did have some Martinelli's sparkling apple juice that we bought for a party where no one took the non-alcoholic route, so I popped it open and glugged it in to the pot (sadly, the interestingly fizzy character of the juice didn't last) with the baked squash (scraped the squash out of the skin and discarded the skin), and simmered all that for about half an hour, just until the veggies were soft. I pureed the soup in a blender but didn't strain it as I knew I was going to stir in some frozen corn that I had in the freezer - and it was soup!

What would I do differently next time? I'd add something citrus, I think, perhaps Meyer lemon juice, as this soup was almost sweet with all that apple juice and corn. Not bad, but I'd like something a little zingier next time. And I'd keep the bacon for a garnish, as it got a little lost in all that soup.

But, it does feel good to have a pot of hot soup on the stove and space in the fridge and pantry for new provisions. Plus, it really looks pretty in the bowls I made years ago in my Pottery Period.