(e:imk2)'s mum hooked me on to the pear and butternut squash soup from the Wegmans recipe collection.
I didn't have stock and I am not really okay with throwing away any vegetables after boiling them in water for making the stock - so I improvised on the recipe.
0. Chop. Chop. Set the rice cooker to cook some orange lentils.
Cumulative time to step 1: 4-5 minutes. (3-4 minutes if you are good at that game where you jab the knife between your fingers on the table really fast and try not to stab your hand. I figure if you are good at this, you will be good at chopping vegetables really really fast.)
1. Saute garlic, onions (preferably red), the hottest jalapenos you can find and ginger on low-medium heat in peanut/olive oil till the onions soften and become translucent. I guess you could caramelize the onions and increase their flavour but I don't have the patience to do this. The recipe is supposed to be ultra-quick and dirty.
Cumulative Time to step 2: 9 minutes
2. Add butternut squash or pumpkin or one of those typical fall squash vegetables, finely chopped celery - a whole bunch, carrots and tomatoes. Make sure you clean the celery well - no need for peeling. Add salt and a tablespoon of fresh or dried thyme. Fresh is better but dry works as well. Saute for a good 4-5 minutes - at the end of this step the squash should be almost tender but not quite.
Cumulative Time to step 3: 13-16 minutes
3. Take the cooked orange lentils out of the rice cooker and smash them. Add them to the mix. Add chopped pears and water to cover it all - bring to a rolling boil. Turn the heat up higher to make this step go faster.
Cumulative Time to step 4: 19 minutes
4. Pour everything into a blender and puree the hell out of it.
Cumulative Time to step 5: 24 minutes or forever (if your blender breaks down).
5. Pour into a bowl, dilute with water, add salt and pepper (rewarm if necessary), finely chop cilantro leaves/stems/roots and and mix it in. Mix in chopped red onions and chopped jalapenos if you want an extra kick.
Cumulative Time to step 6: 27 minutes or never (if you are just reading this. GET CHOPPING!)
6. Enjoy! Reach for seconds... :)
PS: This soup freezes really well. I portioned it out in those smaller hummus boxes so that I could just pop the contents of one box into a bowl, add water, microwave it for a couple minutes on high and vary the extra seasoning and garnish. They also make fabulous lunches - because (depending on your portion size) they contain at least 2 servings of vegetables, 1 serving of fruit, plenty of fibre, complex carbohydrates from the squashes, proteins from the lentils and are very balanced.
wha?! $90 on clearance? yeah that's a little steep.
Ann Taylor does sell one of those and it's for $90 in the "Clearance" section.
Out of my range. Make that, WAY out of my range. :)
I have a couple like that, from Ann Taylor. And they do have a petites section- may be worth taking a look. They usuall have pretty good stuff on the sale/clearance racks, too.
Heheh - this comment brought a hearty laugh. :)
I now have a blazer and trousers for the defense and almost have a shirt. I just saw this woman online and it reminded me of how well my advisor in Rochester always dresses - then I wondered if I could ever wear this kind of a shirt - because whatever I do, I end up getting dark non-feminine shirts. I am just not enough of a "girly girl" and probably will never be.
I've been pondering your sartorial concerns and have even asked several equally tiny non-plinys where they shop. Our next adventure will include several stops at stores that should have clothes that are both appropriate for dissertation defenses and properly sized. :-) Maybe they'll even have a satiny shirt like this.