I'm glad, orange you?

ORANGE! by grimmc3 featuring Ted Baker bags

1. Kate Spade Klick Sandal
2. Anthropologie Gravitational Pull Sunhat
3. Ted Baker 'Bobble Kisslock' Large Patent Wallet (this was my Valentines present from KC!)
4. Toywatch Jelly Watch
5. OPI - A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find

I am celebrating my current infatuation with the color orange.  Not really the shade of Florida's finest, but the deep, bright color of traffic cones and the lovely, if not fluorescent, items seen above.

This post is two-fold, really.  Inspired by my orange-obsession and by the aol homepage article explaining the importance of "super foods", I combined two of my favorie pastimes: eating and online shopping.  Admittedly embarassed that a) my homepage is still the standard aol.com that came with this bargain friendly laptop and b) I'm still duped into clicking on the page's scrolling pictures unveiling the worlds most invaluable news (ie, 'Kid Flushes Puppy Down Toilet', or 'What Happened to the Cast of Wings?').

To give credit where credit is due, I did find aol's picture of a butternut squash curious (especially after 'Armless Kicker tries out for Team') and thus clicked on to see where it would take me.  A fascinating article - using the term very loosely - in which there were more words than pictures (much unlike this blog) detailing the importance of superfoods, many of which are brilliantly orange: sweet potatos, butternut squash, carrots.  It's all about the beta-carotene and maybe some other long vitamin names.  Now I've been on a carrot kick for a few weeks anyway.  They're cheap, guilt free, and, when whole, have a whimsical ability to make you feel like/think of bugs bunny, attempt your best "what's up doc?" and coyly smile.  No?  They don't have the same effect on you?  Not the first time I'm in a category of my own...

Feeling challenged to create an orange superfood feast, I searched high and low for the best recipe while simultaneously browsing for some pretty orange things (see above) to enhance my summer wardrobe which happens to be boxed up somewhere in Dallas, or Baltimore, or perhaps scattered along I-40W.

Here's the recipe: Gordon Ramsay's Spiced Carrot & Butternut Squash Soup! 

I realize that April isn't exactly the time of year your body craves a thick, autumnal spiced soup, but I don't care.  This is England, people!  There are as many rainy, grey days here as there are sunny days in Miami.  Plus, I love soup.  And, it's so easy to make...usually. 

Enter: butternut squash.  while I've had squash in soup form, I didn't realize that I had little idea what one actually looked like.  Regardless, I perused the M&S food hall until I found the white-ish, half pumpkin, half gourd looking monster and marched on.

Dicing it into cubes was an entirely different ballgame.  Perhaps like cricket?  I've heard of it, I've even seen snippets of a match, but it's a bit odd and takes forever (days even!), as did the dicing.  The process wasn't pretty.  I hacked and butchered and even managed to cut the squash some of the time.  The result was 3 bandaged fingers.  I'm not even remotely kidding.  Could be the cheap knives in our furnished flat, or, believably, my impulsiveness and clumsiness.

I fought the squash and the squash won.  Moral of the story is, unless you have a few extra hours and appendages to spare, just buy it pre-cubed.

Regardless, the soup was delish.  Also, I used an immersion blender to puree it because that's how I roll.