Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

So my tendency whilst cooking is to reference actual recipes for time&temp, but to kind of do my own thing the rest of the way.
I volunteered at the Mercato today, and got $20 to spend there for my troubles. I came home with eggs, mint, beets, a pearapple, squash and white cheddar. The squash is being made into soup! It tastes pretty good so far. Here's what I did:

2 x small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced (~3/4")
1 x handful baby carrots, cut in half
1/4 onion, slivered
3 x cloves garlic, smashed
2 tbsp oil, drizzled
salt, pepper, & cinnamon to taste
chicken stock (like 3 cups? 4ish?)

1. Preheat the oven while you chop the veggies. Put the veggies in a pan (used 9x13 pyrex) drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper & cinnamon, and add ~1 cup chicken stock. Put pan in oven.
2. Stir every 20 minutes or so, add additional liquid if needed. I didn't need to. When everything's soft & mushy, move into a heavy bottomed pan. Add additional chicken stock and simmer for a while.
3. Blend. Thin with more chicken stock or water if need be.

Lately I've been buying whole chickens and either roasting them whole, or chopping them. And then making chicken stock! Yay! I love it.

NOTE: Had to add a whole lot of water while pureeing. Also, more salt and less pepper. The less pepper part is difficult, so don't put too much on to begin with. Also added a hint of ginger, and a splash of honey.

End: not the best I've had, but for once in my life, I've mastered the luscious texture that butternut squash soup needs.

Pulled Pork & Posole

So! My dear sister got hominy instead of garbanzo beans by mistake a few weeks ago. I had never eating hominy, let alone know about anything to do with it. But searching yielded posole as an option! I decided to do my thing and make something with what was on hand that roughly followed the variety of recipes I found. But first, I wanted to get some pulled pork. For the posole.

Pulled pork
1 x quantity of pork shoulder. I had this in my freezer, half of a piece I picked up a while ago during a good meat sale.
1/4 onion, cut in half (keep the bottom intact, cut it in half, keeping both sides intact. makes it easier to fish out later)
~2/3 of a jalapeno (i'd cut the bottom of it off for gazpacho! so i just threw the rest in whole)
2 cloves garlic, peeled but whole
Water
Salt, pepper, cumin

Throw everything in to a crockpot. Water level should be about 2/3 of the way up the side of the meat. I threw it in frozen, because I am awesome. Turn it on low, go to work, and totally forget its cooking.
When you get home at 4am, turn off the crockpot, and put the meat in the fridge.

The next day, remove the layer of fat from the top. Discard the vegetables (except the jalapeno!), save the liquid. Shred, being careful to remove all of the fat around the meat. Realize that you have a WHOLE LOT. Split it in half (and save the rest for pulled pork sandwiches! from my half a pork shoulder, i yielded 20oz of shredded pork- 10oz for sammiches, 10oz for posole), throw the meat you're using into a pot, and strain the liquid into the pan with the meat. Add the jalapeno.

Now for the posole!

~10 oz pulled pork
liquid from the pulled pork (and the jalapeno)
1 x 28 oz can hominy, drained and rinsed
1 x 28 oz can whole tomatoes
Cumin to taste
(optional, but it was in the fridge) ~1/4-1/2 cup salsa verde

Combine all in the pan, put it in the fridge. Go to work again, come home. Cook til the hominy's tender.

Some cotija would be amazing on top. Also, a lot of sites recommend things like radishes, cabbage, avocado, as toppings to have on hand. As well as tostada shells.

But I don't have any of that right now, its all good.



Ideas for next time:
In a bigger pan, could probably double the amount of tomatoes for the quantity of hominy and pork. Would have to tinker. Also would like to add some chipotle peppers in adobo. Sounds delish.

Might become a staple, as it's cheap, tasty and balanced.