Pumpkin Soup...for eating and reading

This is an autumn favorite of mine...I'll be so sad when Toucie outgrows this book! Pumpkin Soup is written and illustrated by Helen Cooper. It is the story of a cat, a squirrel, and a duck - three friends who live together, make music together, and cook pumpkin soup together, each contributing their special talents to the work.

Cat always peels and chops the pumpkin, squirrel always stirs in the water, and Duck always adds a pipkin of salt...what happens when their peaceful rhythm gets shaken up?

The magical illustrations plus the recipe at the end of the story make us want to run into the kitchen and stir up some soup!

Mado did the all the chopping.

Toucie found a tiny doll's teacup (it held a scant teaspoon) to use as a "pipkin" for our salt.

We all took turns stirring :)

Here is our own recipe for Pumpkin Soup:

1 medium onion chopped
3 Tbs. butter
1/2 of a jack-o-lantern pumpkin (because that's what we had), peeled and chopped (about 6 cups)
6 cups of water or broth
1 scant tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
milk or cream to taste

-In a stockpot, saute onion in the butter until soft
-Add pumpkin and water or broth and salt
-Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently until pumpkin is soft (about 30 minutes)
-In a blender, puree soup in batches, adding milk or cream to get desired consistancy, and returning soup to the pot when all is smooth
-Stir in black pepper to taste and adjust salt
-Serve immediately (serves 6-8)

(PS) we baked the other half of the pumpkin and refrigerated it to use next week for Pumpkin Muffins...it is much easier to scoop baked pumpkin out of the shell than it is to peel and chop a raw pumpkin!)