Life update: I’m blogging to you from my new kitchen in Boston!  To be fair – I moved to Boston around 6 months ago… and I’ve been so caught up in life and work that I haven’t even considered anything I’ve made to even be “Gourmet Analyst worthy!”  Lame I know… but unfortunately true.  Today is September 19th and I’ve already been to one Oktoberfest, drank hot apple cider and eaten butternut squash ravioli (more to come on that in a future post).  What I’m trying to get at is… Autumn is here and it’s my FAVORITE!  I’m so excited in fact, that for the first time in a long time, I was inspired to create in the kitchen… and I kind of missed you guys. 

Ladies and Gentlemen – I give you … Autumn Butternut Squash & Apple Soup!

• 1 Medium sized butternut squash – the most sexually explicit vegetable out there
• 2 large apples – I used juicy Fujis
• 3oz (a small chunk) of sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 small medallion/large scoop (2oz-ish) of goat cheese
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• drizzle of EVOO
• 1.5 oz dark Rum
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbs  brown sugar
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 2 pinches salt (or to taste)
• dash of pepper
• 2 pinches nutmeg

1. Heat up the oven to 375F
2. Dice your butternut squash into 2 inch cubes.  I used the advice on The Kitchn’s Home Hacks “How to Cut a Butternut Squash”  Seriously it’s good advice and it might save you a finger… or at least 20 minutes of your life. 
3. Dice your apples into 1 inch cubes – you can leave the skin on if you want
4. Cover a baking pan with tin foil, or use pyrex and toss your cubed squash and apples in the pan
5. Drizzle the cubed fruits and veggies with a bit of EVOO and sprinkle with your 1tbs of brown sugar
6. Let roast in the oven until you can easily stab one of the squash cubes with a fork all the way through (this should take around 40 minutes)
7. Remove from the oven and transfer your squash and apples to a food processor add the low sodium chicken broth bit by bit as you pulse the mixture until smooth
8. Transfer your smooth mixture to a medium sized saucepan and add milk and rum, keeping heat at medium low.
9. Chop up the cheddar cheese into small bits and add into the soup with the goat cheese, stirring occassionally until melted, combined and sexy
10. Add in pinch of garlic powder, 2 pinches of nutmeg and a dash of pepper
11. Taste test and add salt until you reach desired flavor
12. Curl up next to a fireplace and enjoy – and then go run through some crunchy orange leaves with beautiful leather boots…