Hero's Lunch

Because My Beloved owns and runs his own small business, around this time each year he must do his taxes. Not a chore anyone relishes but he tackles it with a will so I figure he deserves a good lunch after a morning of wrestling with figures, deductions - and squashes.

I had brought home a ten-pound mystery squash from the farmer's market (they told me it was a "red kabocha" but when I compared it to some online pictures, it doesn't look anything like a kabocha) so decided to make some soup.

MB whacked it in half for me with our largest knife, a menacing foot-long near-machete that my Hawaii brother gave me years ago. I roasted half and steamed half to try out the differences, and used part of the roasted half for the soup.

I softened a large chopped onion, two diced carrots and two diced Pink Lady apples in about a tablespoon of bacon fat, then added about a quart of chicken broth and some of the roast squash, plus a generous shaking of dried rosemary and thyme, simmering it for about twenty minutes before pureeing it all in a blender.

Garnished with bacon and Swiss cheese bits, it was really delicious, very herbal and not too rich, despite the bacon. I made grilled Swiss cheese sandwiches on dark rye (pumpernickel) bread to go alongside the steaming bowl of soup, a Hero's Lunch for my hardworking honeybun.