Sunday Dinner

We had our meeting stay for lunch on Sunday and really had a great time. I warned them all that they would be my guinea pigs while I tried a "Thanksgiving" turkey dinner with a south of the border flair. I think it was well received, I served sunburst squash soup (below), cornbread and chorizo stuffing, green beans with bacon, mushrooms and a Gorgonzola dressing, sweet potatoes made with honey, chili powder, vinegar (I really liked these), cranberry jalapeno chutney, a brined turkey served with pecan mole sauce. For the less adventurous I also had mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and a friend brought a veggie dish.

Sunburst squash soup:
Ingredients:
2 tsp. olive oil
3 Lbs. banana (Hubbard) squash, peeled and cubed
1 Lb. onions diced
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. butter


1. Heat oil in a soup pot and saute' onions until translucent. Do not brown
2. Add squash cubes and spices and toss to coat.
3. Add stock, bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and Cook just until tender
4. Strain and reserve stock
5. In a food processor puree soup with enough stock to make a medium thick soup.
6. Add cream and stir to heat through
7. Add butter and adjust seasonings if necessary
8. Keep on low, do not allow to boil. If it gets too hot the soup may separate.

Serve dotted with your favorite green and red bottled hot sauces pulled out from the center to form a sunburst. (Gentry did not do this step- we had 25 people to serve, and they were waiting!) This was a bit spicy for some people but for those of us with missing taste buds from past experimentation with adrenaline producing, fire stomping, flame breathing, hair smoking, sweat drippin' food- it was very mild. We used Tapatio for the hot sauce. Yummy!