Hi. I’m Mateo.
So, what do you want to hear about first. The Mother of Cat’s knitting, the soup that she made this weekend, or… my fabulous new toy?
The Chewy box came this morning, and that little bird was in it! I knew that something was up because the box was chirping before the Mother of Cats got it cut open. Then she took the toy out… wow… I had to spend some time figuring out if it was going to jump at me, and then I started carrying it all around the house. Seriously, this was so exciting that I wasn’t even able to eat breakfast!!!! Everyone should have a chirpy bird!!!!
Hannah is like… whatever. She is so weird sometimes.
So, I guess that I should mention the knitting that has been happening this week before we get to the main course, the soup! The Mother of Cats finished her Alpine Bloom hat this week, blocked it, and then tried it on.
Yeah. The hat is too big for the Mother of Cat’s head. She sent a picture to everyone in her family and this hat will be heading off to New York to keep one of her cousins warm this winter. She has some ideas about how to adjust the pattern to get the hat smaller, but she just parked them at the back of the bus for now and started knitting away on her La Prairie sweater instead.
Alright, let talk about the soup. This has been a source of commotion for days. It all started when the Mother of Cats brought home this goofy squash and told us that she was going to make soup out of it. Hannah was like… can I have some tuna? I mean, the squash was parked right next to our cat food, but somehow the Mother of Cats didn’t pick up on Hannah’s hints that she needed some more tuna! Or Cookies!!
This squash caused lots of trouble this week. First the Mother of Cats had to buy a new peeler to use with the squash. She ordered it from Amazon, and the package got lost. So, she had to go to the store to get another peeler. She also bought a crock pot while she was there. Then she bought an immersion blender on Amazon. Hannah and I were going crazy playing in the boxes and chasing each other today while the Mother of Cats peeled, chopped, cooked, blended, and made the soup.
Perhaps this is the most expensive Autumn Squash Soup ever made. The Mother of Cats likes it, so I guess that’s good, even if it smells pretty nasty to me. She’s eaten two bowls, and she still has two quarts in the fridge.
Well, that’s all for now. I need to go find my chirpy bird toy.
This is the CoalBear, signing off.
Notes from the Mother of Cats:
- I have enough yarn left over to make another Alpine Bloom hat and I plan to go down a needle size to make it a little smaller. I also have in mind trying out knitting the hat in fingering yarn using the smaller sized needles.
- The La Prairie pattern is full of new skills to master. The pattern includes instructions on how to knit the tiny cables without a cable needle (Yay!), and how to knit the bobbles in a new way to me. This is not a sweater that you can take to the movies while knitting as it requires focused attention!
- Now, the soup. My latest blood tests came in showing that I have developed a type of anemia. A less common type, of course. Never mind, my doctor wants me to try to get more iron into my diet, so I’m trying to add more iron rich food to my diet (like squash), but I also need to try to maximize my ability to digest the food and absorb the nutrients. Hence the new, medium sized crock pot and the much safer for me to handle immersion blender.
- Here’s the recipe for the soup that I made today. Copycat Panera Autumn Squash Soup by A Simple Palate. This was really yummy; I added Thai green curry paste to mine.
- That squash is a butternut squash in case you didn’t instantly recognize it.
- What is this less common type of anemia, you ask? It’s an anemia of chronic disease with red blood cells that don’t have enough hemoglobin in them. As in, I have enough red blood cells, but they are not packing enough hemoglobin to do the job even though I have iron levels that are within normal limits. Squash, as it turns out, is a good source of iron.
- The little African violet that my sister sent me for my birthday is still blooming!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Why give us a choice, Mateo, if you know you will start with the chirpy bird? Of course the toy comes first. 🙂 I hope the squash soup does help, Marilyn.
Mateo: it all works out. I don’t share the chirpy bird toy, and Hannah ate all of the tuna.
🙂 Prrr
‘Squash’, eh ? – down here they’re butternut pumpkins. 🙂 I wonder why you don’t have pumpkins .. We have squash too, mostly the little ones – https://bartucciosfresh.com.au/products/yellow-squash-punnet. Is it worth all the hard yakka making soup for its iron content when you could just take a supplement ?
That’s a fabulous South African violet – amazing double bloom !
Hannah isn’t interested in your chirpy bird, Mateo ? – you should live so long ! 😀
UK call them butternut squash too, so I think Australia is the odd one out.
I noticed in an earlier post that bell peppers are called capcicums in Australia. That confused me until I hit google. What do you call those peppers?
They call them ‘capsicum’, apparently without the plural s !
So crazy. The chemical that makes pepper hot to the taste is called capsaicin; I’m guessing that the name is derived from that, but it’s funny because bell peppers aren’t hot because they don’t have any capsaicin.
Now, Marilyn: if you’re not careful you’ll be wanting to see some kind of logic in our language ! 😀
At the supermarket they just are labelled “peppers” but if you said Bell Peppers that would be understood. Chilli peppers are just labelled as that too, so nothing labelled capsicum.
We have a lot of peppers on our stores so they are labeled by the specific names.
Humph ! [grin]
The actual full name is butternut squash. We have pumpkins too, but there is an amazing variety of squashes and some of them are huge. I always go to the garden center around Halloween and score a bunch of squash then.
I guess there are problems with the supplements, and I also think that the doctors are trying to make me eat more. Like other people with significant intestinal issues (I seriously open the fridge door, look inside, and ask myself… what can I eat that won’t make me sick?) I now avoid a lot of foods and skip meals. If this doesn’t get better I guess there are iron infusions I can get. Anyway, it seems that getting iron from your diet is best. In general squash is safe for me to eat, and it also has a lot of potassium.
Hannah is all about the tuna, Mateo is all about the bunnies and the toys!
And, of course, there must be a nice feeling of accomplishment when you make yourself something to eat that you actually enjoy (I hope to all the gods !). 😀
It was an enormous coup!
I just remembered that I should have explained that I have to home cook everything because… no salt, no lactose, low fat, and absolutely no kale diet. 🙂 A big vat of soup really helps fill the fridge. I made a cheese strata with ham (that had been cooked in a crockpot to get some of the salt out) and green chiles. I am now set up for a week.
Oh, you and green chillies ! [grin]
Everything is better with green chiles!!
That soup looks delicious! Thanks for the recipe. We’ve been eating a lot of butternut squash this season because we can get a big one for $2 from the farmer’s market. Hope the soup helps with the anemia!
It is really good soup, and now that I have all the stuff I will be making more. I always go to the farmers market in the fall to score a bunch of squash. I absolutely love Sweet Dumpling squash!
La Prarie looks pleasantly challenging! Love the colour you’ve chosen, it’s so rich.
It is a good one to knit while listening to an audiobook because you really can’t take your eyes off the knitting. Now that I’ve become more proficient in the pattern it is an interesting knit.
Hi Hannah and Mateo!! Keeping mum on her toes, I see? That hat is beautiful; so glad you found a taker. That soup will only be expensive once!! I love butternut suash soup. Yours looks delish. Did you add pumpkin?
I did add pumpkin. The recipe called for a half can, but I just dumped the whole can in. It really tastes great, and now that I have all the stuff I’ve been thinking of other things I can use that immersion blender for.
I would have done the same; that leftover pumpkin would have gone to waste. I love my immersion blender. It is great for a bit of whipped cream without all the fuss.
I can’t believe that I didn’t buy one earlier. Whipped cream! What a wonderful use! I used it last night to make lemon bars.
Perfect!!
Well, drat. I just managed to delete my comment. Anyway, love the hat. The soup looks delicious and perfect for these last few blustery days. That crossovery knitting looks very complicated. And the violet is gorgeous; I’ve never seen one like that.
Thanks for all the feedback. My sister sent me the violet from Amazon; it was one of three in a gift pack from a garden center. It is a miniature called Rob’s Loose Noodle, and the blooms are nice. I cast on a new hat last night that hopefully will fit right.
Oh, you and purple ! [double grin]
I’m smiling at the idea of a chirping box arriving on your doorstep. It’s great to see the boxes put to good use as well.
I LOVE that Panera soup. It’s hearty and delicious. How great that you found a recipe to replicate. I hope it helps with your anemia. Do your kitties ever pounce on your knitting needles as you work your magic?
I was smiling at the idea of it chirping away in the delivery truck and as the driver brought it up to my step. I hope it made his/her day. The soup is very good on the second day, too. This is absolutely a keeper recipe. The green curry that I added gave it a little zip that is nice, too.
That’s good to hear. I think of it as comfort food. It’s nice to know it has health benefits as well.
My kitties are really good about letting me knit. They both are tempted by the moving yarn, but I try to keep it out of their way and they are good when I say “NO” before they can pounce. Hannah will chew through the yarn if she can get her chompers on it, so I as especially careful with her. The real trouble comes when I try to block my knits. They more right in to roll on the wet wool like it is party time. I have to cover everything with towels right away to keep it safe.
Wet wool is a kitty attraction. All those organic fibers.
I made some butternut squash (we call them squash in the UK too, not pumpkins) and lentil soup last week…and the week before, no idea it was high in iron. I usually just cut it in half and put cut side down in a baking tray and when I’m cooking something else in the oven pop it on the bottom shelf. This softens it so it’s very easy to then peel and I then add it to stock, carrots, onion and lentil. It goes so well with sage I usually put lots of that in or smoked paprika.
Oh, sage. That does sound good. I was kind of afraid to cut the thing (because of my hands) but it was easier than an acorn squash. I almost just stuck the whole thing uncut into the crock pot to roast for awhile before I tried to cut it, but I managed okay. There was onion, carrot, pumpkin in the soup that I made, but now I’m thinking… add some lentil!! My next soup is going to be creamy Tuscan tortellini soup with chicken. There are a bunch of recipes, and there will be iron in the spinach and chicken.
FWIW, the soup, albeit pricey, looks excellent and delicious. Brilliant new toy for Mateo; my Hannah would LOVE that bird.
Beautiful projects in all my favorite colors. I do enjoy a good upgrade to technical skills every now and then…. although sometimes I just want to knit garter stitch scarves.
The soup is still really yummy as a leftover. I’ll be using all that equipment for other things, so the price will go down over time. I’m already thinking that I need to get another squash before they all disappear from the stores.
https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/blood-donation-process/before-during-after/iron-blood-donation/iron-rich-foods.html
Thanks for the resource. I also have to maintain this diet… https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22466-low-fodmap-diet
I did buy some (low sugar) breakfast cereal this afternoon while shopping with my son and will try that out to see how I do.
Just an idea- we have squash this year and I was looking for an easy peel way to deal with them and found 2 suggestions- bake briefly until the skin is slightly soft or pierce the skin all over with a sharp fork and micro-wave a minute or so. Both seem preferable to the problems I have with any peeler I’ve ever tried!
That peeler that I got was the best thing ever. I did come up with the microwave options when I did a google search, but it’s hard for me to handle things that are hot because my fingers are so sensitive so the peeler seemed safer.