Cooking at Midnight

Three Squash Soup.  An accidental stress reliever.

Lately I've felt overwhelmed by the many small but persistent annoyances in my life.  It's funny I have plenty of "big" annoyances/problems but I develop plans to tackle those issues and don't feel so overwhelmed by them because I know they are there and I have a plan to help me cope with them.  It's the little ones that get me.  Laundry needs to be folded (10 min). The dishes need to be done (20 min).  The Basil needs to be trimmed back and made into pesto (40 min). Pictures need to be saved to a back up disk (20 min).  The Little Monster needs a Dr's appt arranged (10 min).  I need to call me Mother In Law (10 - 300 min).  None of these annoyances would take too terribly long to solve (except maybe the mother in law one) but when they are all shouting at your senses at once it can be overwhelming.  I don't see a 10 min project but rather I see a collection of projects that will take days or even weeks to accomplish (and let's not even get started on things like the dishes that seem to magically reappear as soon as you've turned your back on a supposedly clean and empty sink).  Sometimes the hopelessness of catching up can freeze me in my tracks which actually just gets me further and further behind.

Today was such a day.  We have acquaintances coming over Friday.  Acquaintances, not 'friends.'  If friends were coming over, I wouldn't worry about the pile of old mail on the top of our computer desk that might fall and smother me as I type one day.  I wouldn't worry about the collection of plant pots sitting in the corner of the dining room waiting for me to have the time to transplant my Rosemary and Thai Basil.  I wouldn't worry about the sewing project "in process" on the table in the corner.  But these are acquaintances so I stress, and worry, and freeze.  They are nice people and probably wouldn't care.  But until I know for sure, I'll stress and clean and stress and organize and stress....And glare at my husband because in the end it's all his fault. (Silly husband wants a social life or some such nonsense.)

After spending more time spinning my wheels than accomplishing what I set out to do, I decided I needed a win.  Something I could look back on today and point to as one project I accomplished in its entirety.   For some reason I decided that project would be finally using up the stack of winter squash that have been sitting on my counter for the last month.  So armed with several small pumpkins, two delicata squash, and one butternut squash I started searching for a recipe.  Surprisingly, I found one.  The recipe here can be used for any winter squash and uses additional ingredients that are common staples in most kitchens.  (the only major change was using Curry powder instead of coriander, cumin, and cayenne.  Although my current batch veggie stock has a decidedly cumin and coriander flavoring so they were still in the soup.)   My determination to finish a project is how I found myself roasting squash at 11pm, sauteing onions and apples at midnight, blending it all together at 1am and currently writing a blog post while I wait for the soup to cool down enough to put in the fridge.   Yes, I'm up at 1:50am but I'm also happy I accomplished something even if it was a silly little goal that only freed up two feet of counter space.

P.S. The soup is delicious.