Pumpkin Papaya Soup

This is a soup that was inspired by having a ripening papaya at home along with pumpkins we picked at the patch. A simple hearty and tasty soup perfect for the cooler days of Autumn and halloween parties :)
It is very South Indian influenced in the spices and herbs that went into it, with a slight touch of Italian, in that I used some rosemary and sage
This is my recipe for Day 2 of Srivalli's Blogging Marathon

Ingredients

1 Small pie pumpkin ( peeled & cubed)
1/2 big sized ripe papaya (decided, peeled & cubed)
2tbsp coconut powder
2tbsp coriander
2 dry red chilies (I used 2 too many)
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp rosemary crushed
2 leaves sage crushed
1/4 cup almond slivers
1/2 tsp turmeric

Preparation
1.Crush rosemary and safe and keep aside
2. In a frying pan, heat 1 tsp of oil
3. Add the coriander, coconut powder, chilies and garlic and fry until the coconut powder assumes a nice brown crispy color - Dry grind and keep
4. Remove from flame
5. In a separate deep (4-5 quart) pot, add the cubed pumpkin and papaya and allow them to cook adding 1 tsp of salt, turmeric, sage and rosemary
6. When they are soft and mushy, remove from flame allow to cool down
7. Grind into a fine paste in a blender
8. Return the ground up pumpkin- papaya to the pot and add the dry-ground mix into the paste and stir in nicely
9. Set flame at low flame and allow it to simmer for about 4-5 minutes stirring if your pot is not a non-stick
10. Serve HOT

Check out the other Bloggers in this Marathon
This is off to Vardhini of  Zesty Palette's Halloween Fiesta

Finger-licking good

My husband suggested the title - much more friendly than the one I came up with - not too much of a guess! Here's another smart title for this one - A hitchhiker's nightmare -
This is a cookie recipe that i got from another blog I follow and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to try it - But I made a few modifications to the recipe to make it - er... more healthy?? But it's Halloween and we could do a lot worse with the candies....I had so much fun doing this with my daughter. Thank you Mriganayani for the cool, yet, macabre idea :-)

We made some fingers and a few toes...

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of cane sugar - tunbinado
1 cup of softened unsalted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon each of almond and vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
about 25 almonds halved

Preparation

Whip the softened butter, egg, baking soda and extracts together
Slowly add the flour to it and make into almost pizza dough consistency
Set in the fridge for half an hour
Remove and roll out thin like bread sticks
With a fork press in 2 places
Press almond half, pointy half as fingernail tip into the tip of each rolled stick

Preparing the almonds
In a bowl boil some water and raw almonds for about 3 -4 minutes and peal off skin when cooled.

Baking instructions
Set oven at 325 degrees and bake for 15 minutes

Secret tip: Be sure to roll them out thinner than a normal finger because they thicken as they bake, which accounts for the stubbies in our batch .... but they are fingers after all and come in all sizes and shapes!
For more fun: Add some jam at the tips of your fingers to give it the congealed blood look (heeeeehaaaawwww)


Happy Halloween! Not too late to try it!