Acorn Squash & Leek Soup

For lunch today I had the usual left-overs, but decided to add a grain to the kale & peanut sauce that I had yesterday. I chose the white basmati rice purely because it only takes 15 minutes to cook and I was already hungry. Let me tell you, basmati rice is a revelation, nice and buttery just as Isa and Terry promise in Veganomicon. It went really well with the kale and peanut sauce too.

I tried making a quick yeast bread from The Dirty South Cookbook (the flip side of Hot Damn and Hell Yeah). It went pretty well! Pretty easy, I went with half whole wheat pastry flour and half regular white.

In really good (cooking) news, I finally finished my never-ending leeks! Indeed cause for celebration. I googled "squash and leeks" since I also had an acorn squash on hand and a squash and leek soup recipe from Cooking Light magazine came up. It had recipe traits I appreciate: a small number of ingredients and simplicity. The roasted garlic it called for added flavor, and the squash gave it a creamy texture. Overall, a nice fall soup.

Final thing: the other day I toasted some pumpkin seeds following instructions on about.com's home cooking section, and they turned out great. I tried them before using a different method and they flopped, so I'm really happy I discovered that I can legitimately save pumpkin seeds based on taste and unrelated to the guilt-waste factor involved in throwing them away. Super easy & a savory healthy snack.