soup night.

I haven’t made soup since college, when I attempted a turkey meatball and noodle 30-minute meal. It sat in my refrigerator in a giant vat sporting no less than 20 servings. Needless to say, I made it through about four bowls before I wanted to toss it over the side of my balcony in a gesture far too dramatic for a Rachel Ray recipe. I’m now a vegetarian. Coincidence? Maybe, but it still made me shy away from delicious homemade soup for about three years.

Then, without a warning, I started craving butternut squash soup the other day. Fuuuck, what to do? I couldn’t allow myself to rule out yet another food group as a result of ill planning, because that would really polarize me at dinner parties. Instead, I decided to man up and give soup another go.

After quickly browsing some recipes online, I chose to loosely follow this one due to its simple-mindedness. It’s like an unassuming Ned Flanders of a dish. Who could resist?

I melted two tablespoons of butter, and then added about 1/4 of a massive Spanish onion to the mix. Once the onion turned translucent, I added a pound of cubed butternut squash, two carrots chopped and peeled, and four cups of vegetable stock. I seasoned with about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. I then covered the pot and simmered for about 20 minutes.

sim simmer

Meanwhile, I made a panini (all the better to dunk with, my dear) as such: I drizzled both halves of ciabatta bread with olive oil, and pressed them both for 3 to 4 minutes. Then, I spread one half with Taleggio cheese and a handful of arugula. I chopped the other 1/4 of my Spanish onion, and then sauteed it in olive oil on the stove top. Once the onions had caramelized, I spread about half of the mixture on the top of my ciabatta. I added salt and pepper, and then smushed the sandwich together. The entire thing went into the panini press for 5 minutes.

I removed the solids from my soup, and then pureed them with a hand-held mixer until they looked like this:

pureed butternut squash, carrots and onions

Finally, I stirred the pureed soup back into the broth, and simmered for a few more minutes. I tossed in a few dashes of cayenne pepper for a kick, and then ladled into a bowl. I added a dollop of Taleggio cheese on top, and then violated that soup with my pressed panini. The soup was really flavorful and so tasty, although in my haste to eat (it was 10:30 p.m. by then), I neglected a few wayward carrot and squash chunks. The cayenne pepper was a great addition, though. And as for the panini? It may have upstaged grilled cheese for LIFE.

Butternut squash soup with caramelized onion, arugula, and Taleggio cheese panini

dancing, yeah.

There’s this hip hop teacher whose class I liken to a roomful of Rice Krispee Treats holding hands with the Spring line from Free People. Meaning, it looks incredible and dreamy, and damnit I want to be part of that. He teaches at Broadway Dance Center at the most inconvenient times, though, such as 3 p.m. weekdays. Not so possible with my rigid schedule, Bam. The other day, I was randomly looking through the schedule, and GUESS who was subbing another teacher’s class at 7:30 p.m.? I got a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach that could only mean pure, unadulterated kismet, so I went.

My classmates included, but were not limited to, a boy who has yet to learn the meaning of testicular descension, two French girls, and a class heckler. I chose a spot midway back, next to the small child and clear across the room from the heckler. I wanted to swoon without mediocre commentary, thank you.

I don’t want to oversell this, but the teacher was better than Jesus. Well, Jesus never danced (to our knowledge), but if he did, I think my teacher could have taken him. I’ve been taking hip hop for years and even taught it while in college, relying on a few made up moves such as “the baseball swing” and “the bowling ball.” In central Florida, such moves could easily pass as edgy. This class featured not one, but TWO skateboard moves that would have sent my prior students into fear-induced comas. And my students were troopers. They once stuck with me through a troubling phase in which I added “the slow motion run” to damn near every combination. That gets tired, not unlike how tired one would be if doing the run in real time. Yeah, I went there.

Anyways, the class was kind of awesome. Now I want to sneak out of work next time he teaches one of his 3 p.m. classes. My skateboard moves had real promise.