Gingered Pumpkin Soup

Here it is only October and I've been sick with a cold for three weeks; granted the Type 1 Diabetes can keep my immune system down, but enough is enough, right? The congestion moved into my ear about a week ago and some days I've been hours on the floor incapacitated with vertigo; sounds like the Alfred Hitchcock kind, but not....and nausea to boot. It's been hell to say the least. I've tried several soups for the upset stomach and cold symptoms, but all have left me feeling worse, so finally today, feeling a bit better, I decided to give this recipe from Sunset magazine a try. I skipped the pesto part of the recipe due to lack of ingredients in the house. Instead I toasted raw pumpkin seeds and sprinkled raw organic sugar on them right from the oven, tossed it around and topped it on my soup. The ginger was a bit spicy and the sugar coated pumpkin seeds balanced the heat perfectly.
You know ginger, I've said it before, is respected for its healthful benefits. Native to Asia, ginger has been highly valued around the world as a cooking spice, dating back 4,400 years, my use of it...not quite so long. Culinary uses aside, ginger’s medicinal properties are prescribed to aid digestion, alleviate nausea, diarrhea, as an anti-inflammatory for arthritis, heart conditions, cold and flu symptoms, headaches, and even painful menstrual periods. I think this recipe is a good one to keep close this winter when you feel that cold and flu invading your home. The heat moves the fluid in the head and soothes that nausea quickly. Thank you Sunset. I've included the pesto portion of their recipe in case you'd like to try that. I think toasted pecans and sage sauteed in butter will be my next topping. Stay well!



Oh, I did add a few changes to the Sunset magazine recipe, they are in parenthesis...just so you know, you can adjust any ingredient to your taste. I used an immersion blender, because I've never been too skilled at the blender thing with hot soup---burns me every time.

INGREDIENTS:

SOUP
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons ground coriander
(1/4 t cinnamon)
4 1/2 cups peeled, 1-in. chunks pumpkin or other orange-fleshed squash (from a 2 1/2-lb. squash)
4 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt----(less would be better)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
PESTO
1 small garlic clove
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, plus slivered leaves
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds
Preparation

1. Make soup: Sauté onion and ginger in oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat until golden, 5 minutes. Add garlic and coriander and cook until softened, 1 minute, then add pumpkin, broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer, covered, until pumpkin is very tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Purée in batches in a blender until very smooth. (I used an immersion blender here; it is much safer.)

2. Make pesto: Pound garlic, whole mint leaves, salt, and 1 tbsp. oil in a mortar into a coarse paste (or use a food processor). Add remaining oil and pumpkin seeds and pound until coarsely crushed.

3. Drop small spoonfuls of pesto over bowls of soup, garnish with slivered mint, and serve remaining pesto on the side.

THE FALL SHOW

The first time I visited Colorado, a friend drove me to Rocky Mountain National Park, standing at the overlook to Long's Peak, I was humbled to tears. I truly understood for the first time what the Arabic and Psalm 48 expression "God is Great" and "Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain" actually means. I soon moved to Colorado to be closer to these glorious mountains.

Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I took a drive up the scenic byway "Peak to Peak" highway to check out the fall display of golden aspen leaves. Glorious golden, sunlit aspen trees from Boulder to Estes Park were on display just for our viewing. I felt blessed again with God's greatness. I wanted to share just a few photos with you, share the blessing.

Aspens and Long's Peak

A Bull Elk sitting in the meadow at Rocky Mountain National Park waiting

for the girls to arrive, so to speak.

Aspens lit by the sun at the park.

Me and my happiness shining with the aspens.

OUR DEEPEST FEAR

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; It’s in everyone.
As we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

In posting this, I'm attempting to express, in the most graceful manner, the struggle I'm having with a girlfriend who, of late, turns out to be against me and my "brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous" self. Lately, instead of being the ever-supporting, encouraging friend we all need, she blasts me with derogatory comments about my silvering hair, my inability to stay well, my lack of outside employment, my care for my Yorkies, my daughter, my sculpture abilities, ...the list is large. I struggle to break away from her friendship, knowing that there must be something painful happening in her life for her to want to cause me such pain, perhaps, without knowledge. I'm angry at her and really don't want to be around her anymore. In fact, I have chosen not to attend certain events lately, because she was going to be there. I don't want to feel bad about myself and I don't want someone feeling that are at liberty to tear me down just because I am nice and they think we are friends. I suppose we are not, not right now anyway. Avoiding her is hurting me further, so instead, I'm choosing to be true to the glorious beauty God has rooted within me and, for the time being, to pull away from the darkness this "friend" shadows me with. Someday, I'll be able to support her and remind her that her light is her power, if she is open to it, but for now, I must give myself permission to expand and grow in order to strengthen the self-esteem I've allowed her words to damage. I'm going to live to honor God's goodness, God's gift to me...I can help more people by living this way. It is always difficult to pull yourself up after someone has crushed you, but it is always the only choice.

Steve Jobs Death

Apple co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, died today. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. During a commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, Jobs expressed his feelings about facing his own death after this diagnosis. I am thankful for these words and his creativity,
I type this on a MacBook, because Jobs understood how my brain works. Thank you Steve Jobs.


Below is an excerpt from his June 12, 2005, speech.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery, and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but a purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google(GOOG_) in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early-morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitch-hiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And, now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.