I Made Pumpkin Soup With a Baby Clinging to My Legs

And it was pretty quick, so I didn't get as annoyed as I could have. First I would like to tell you an easy way to get cooked pumpkin. You've probably heard this before, but just in case...

Take a pumpkin (or two or three, depending on their size) and cut it in half. Scoop out all the gunk and the seeds; set that mess aside and clean the seeds for roasting after you get the pumpkin in the oven. Put the pumpkin face down in a jelly roll pan; that's a cookie sheet with sides. Fill the pan with about an inch of water and cook the pumpkin at 375° for an hour or two, until it's tender when you poke it with a fork. During that time, here's what you can do:

1. Rinse the seeds from the pumpkin(s). Pat them dry with a clean dish towel. Spread them on another cookie sheet, drizzle them with a little melted butter and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Stick them in the oven with the pumpkin and cook them until they're done. Maybe an hour? I don't remember. But take them out and stir them a few times while they're cooking.

2. Take two of your kids to piano.

3. On the way to piano, make your oldest child, the "good" one, call his friend and apologize to him for chucking a basketball at the back of his head the day before.

4. Curse your husband for not making him apologize on the spot.

5. After you drop the kids at piano, go by the park to make sure your friend isn't mad that your son chucked a basketball at the back of her son's head.

6. Feel relieved when she tells you it wasn't at his head, just his back.

7. Chat with your friend while your baby eats other people's Goldfish crackers.

8. Introduce yourself to the mother of the Goldfish crackers and promise to bring her a dollar next time you are at the park to pay for the Goldfish, which you have no intention of asking your baby to stop eating.

9. Feel relieved that she says you don't need to bring the dollar, because you never have cash. Cash is for kids. Grown-ups use debit cards.

10. Worry that your blind acceptance of debit cards will lead to some sort of horrifying Handmaid's Tale scenario. Pray that our next president will be a Democrat.

11. Pick the kids up at piano. Marvel at how cute and earnest they are.

12. Marvel (silently) at how tone deaf your middle child is when he sings Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I mean, how hard is it? Everybody knows that song.

When you get home, take the pumpkin out of the oven; the meat should have separated from the rind. Scrape out about four cups of it and put that in a pot. Whatever is left, scrape into a freezer container, label it and save it for another day.

Add the following to the pot:

2 cups stock (I used vegetable stock because there is a vegetarian in our family. Chicken would be fine, too.)

About a half a cup of roasted red pepper.

One onion, chopped and sauteéd in olive oil until soft.

1-2 teaspoons fresh thyme or a sprinkle of powdered.

A healthy shake of white pepper.

Salt to taste.

Bring it to a boil and let it simmer until everything is soft enough to use the Pbrrrt*. Use the Pbrrrt to pureé the soup. After it's completely Pbrrrt-ed, add about a half a cup of half and half and Pbrrrt it some more, just enough to blend.

Eat it. Add more cream or milk if you want to cool it down or if you just want a creamier soup. I usually add milk for the children.

Go to Yoga.

Namasté, y'all!

* That link is to a fancy Pbrrrt, which is what we call immersion blenders, thanks to my French mother-in-law, who has trouble remembering names of things in English. My Pbrrrt is not fancy; it is made by Betty Crocker and works just fine.